Quotes from Ferran Adria

I can't live without activity; I can't be sedentary.

We never have business meals at El Bulli. If it's about business, you're probably not paying much attention to the food.

If I were a customer, and I was given a dish with peppers, I would hate it. I also don't like blood sausage.

Friends are really important, especially when you've had the successes that I've had. I've gone really far in my career, so they're the ones that keep you humble, keep your feet on the ground.

I was 18 when I first started working at a restaurant. I was a dishwasher. I only got the job because I wanted to go to Ibiza for vacation, and washing dishes was the only job I could find.

When you talk about avant-garde cuisine, the surprise factor is really important. For example, I love looking at blogs and the photos, but I'm not that keen on other people taking photos of my dishes.

I had a very normal childhood, and my mother cooked very normal food.

Remember that a very good sardine is always preferable to a not that good lobster.

I use the kitchen as a pathway to achieve this happiness.

Ferran Adria making hamburgers... some thought it was crazy. But getting them perfect was a challenge. Plus I'm fascinated by all aspects of food.

Innovation, being avant garde, is always polemic.

If a child plays sport early in childhood, and doesn't give it up, he will play sport for the rest of his life. And if children have a connection with, and are involved in the preparation of, the food they eat, then it will be normal for them to cook these kind of meals, and they will go on cooking them for the rest of their lives.

You need an entire life just to know about tomatoes.

You can't please everyone, especially if you're doing very radical things at the vanguard of cooking. That's life; it's a polemic I've lived with since I started cooking.

When I was a teenager, my idol was the Dutch footballer Johan Cruyff. He's the only person I've ever asked for an autograph.

If you're not happy, you can't transfer any happiness to anyone else.

Why not mix this and that? If soy goes well with fish, how come no one does beef carpaccio with soy? Why do we have such a taste and not another? It's all about culture. There is something, however, that I really don't like: bell peppers.

I never even dreamed of being a chef, and that's fundamental.

When people arrive at El Bulli, everybody goes through the kitchen. It's a way of making them feel at home. When they leave, the only thing I ask is whether they've been happy. Everything in between, I don't particularly care.

Just to eat is a gift.

I cook more theoretically than I do practically. My job is creative, and in the kitchen, the biggest part of my creativity is theoretical.

There are many cultural prejudices. For instance, even though fresh fish is a regional staple, Catalans don't like sashimi.

I don't read books regularly, because I'm always writing them. I've written 30 books, thousands of pages.

For me to go to a restaurant and eat something that is not only good, but totally new, is a double thrill. Double the enjoyment.