Super Chef Ferran Adrià to Speak at Miami Dade College, Tickets Still Available

On Monday, September 21, Ferran Adrià, of elBulli fame, is coming to town to speak at the Gastronomy Congress, taking place at the Miami Dade College Chapman Conference Center. Along with Lluís Garcia, director of the elBulli foundation and former elBulli restaurant director, Adrià will give a presentation on the future of "the restaurant" as a concept. 

Adrià began his career at the three-Michelin-starred elBulli as a line cook in 1984 and moved up to executive chef less than two years later, transforming the small restaurant in Roses, Spain, into a household name and a culinary phenomenon. Though the restaurant officially closed July 30, 2011, elBulli is still present via its foundation and a host of other, grander projects in the works, including a museum, a huge culinary database, and a series of books.

The Gastronomy Congress is sponsored by Estrella Damm, a Barcelona-based beer that boasts Adrià as its gastronomic ambassador. Last year, the brand organized a similar event featuring the award-winning toque that was held at the SLS Hotel South Beach. However, this year's congress is much larger and is open to the media and those outside the restaurant industry. 

"This year, we wanted to invite our customers, the press, and foodies to come and understand what the mind of these great chefs is all about. We wanted real foodies to learn and to see how great it is what these guys can do with food and how they think about and conceptualize everything that has to do with food," said Floris van Neerrijnen, the brand manager for Estrella Damm. 

Tickets, which can be purchased for $75 via gilt.com, include tapas prepared by the Miami Culinary Institute, Estrella Damm beer, and a copy of Albert Adrià’s latest recipe book, Tapas: Tickets Cuisine. The three-hour event will begin at 6 p.m. with food and beverages and will be followed by Adrià and Garcia's lecture.

Afterward, a live cooking demonstration — hosted by Diego Muñoz, Fran Agudo, and David Gil — will introduce guests to the latest culinary trends and techniques. In case you're not yet familiar with the aforementioned names, rest assured they are major players in the culinary realm. For his part, Muñoz is head chef at Michelin-rated Astrid y Gastón in Lima, Peru; it recently earned 14th place on the World's 50 Best Restaurants list. Agudo is head chef at the acclaimed Tickets Bar in Barcelona, which holds the 42nd spot on the best-restaurants list. And Gil is the creative pastry chef for Albert Adrià’s restaurants in Barcelona. Albert is Ferran's younger brother. He is responsible for devising many of elBulli's iconic dishes, and today he's behind a handful of successful restaurants in Barcelona, including the tapas spot Tickets Bar.

Last year's Estrella Damm-sponsored presentation starring the elder Adrià was titled "Creativity in the Art of Food." It was attended by a who's who of Miami chefs, including Todd Erickson (Haven), Aaron Brooks (Edge Steak & Bar), Timon Balloo (Sugarcane Raw Bar Grill), Dena Marino (MC Kitchen), Bradley Kilgore (Alter), Sean Brasel (Meat Market), and Michael Pirolo (Macchialina).

We can only imagine what this year's star-studded Gastronomy Congress holds in store for foodies and chefs alike. 

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