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Much of the discussion tromped over ground familiar to anyone with more than a passing acquaintance with the Alinea Story: Achatz’s childhood washing dishes in his folks’ Michigan restaurant; his formative years at the French Laundry, which taught him everything there was to know and then some about classical technique; the epiphany sparked by a five-day stage at Ferran Adria’s El Bulli — and the apparently amiable, but painful, rift it caused between him and French Laundry chef Thomas Keller. Eating at El Bulli, he explained, provoked an emotional reaction stronger than anything he’d ever experienced. Sitting with Keller through a 37-course meal (“Thirty-seven courses! You guys think I’m bad.”) he struggled to control his excitement, not wanting to disrespect his mentor. When he got back to Yountville, he said, “I was running around making hot gelatin and trying to melt sugar all over everything, and Thomas was like, ‘Whoa — this is the French Laundry,’ and I realized I couldn’t cook there anymore.”
If there was a theme to the conversation, it was this idea of structuring a meal to generate a particular reaction. Achatz sees himself as a conductor, leading diners up and down an emotional scale from anticipation to excitement to bafflement, accomplishment, and pleasure. He, like many of his peers, hates the term “molecular gastronomy.” “It’s not about science,” he said of his cooking, “it’s about emotion.”
