El Somni Is Truly a Culinary Opera Dream Come True

For over a year now the famed Roca Brothers of Spain have been crafting a unique culinary presentation, El Somni, a culinary opera.

Their truly amazing creation is a stunning collaboration of cuisine, form, music and wonder – worthy of the esteemed name, ‘Opera’.

The universality of this 'great work' (for that is what the word ‘opera’ actually means), is reflected in the diversity of the first 12 individuals invited to experience the work.

The premiere guest list included an HIV researcher, a fellow chef, an anthropologist, an actress, a theoretical physicist, a poet, an artist, a film director, a research biologist, a conductor, a food writer and a robotics researcher.

The composition of the work is divided into 12 concepts or courses that wrap the viewing diner in The Dream that is the experience’s title translated.

The courses pay homage to the great French chef François Vatel, who killed himself in 1671 when his concept for a vital banquet that was to be served to the French King Louis XIV was destroyed by the late delivery of fresh fish from the coast.

Such was the temperament of a dedicated artist when art was an expected part of the 'noble' life.

EL SOMNI MENU

• Prelude: Water Nymph (Vegetable soup at low temperature, sprouts, flowers and light)
• The Dream Begins (Moon)
• Space (Foams frost Indian figue) 
• Ophiucus (Electric eel)
• Under the Sea (Shrimps, plankton, and anemones, sea urchins, cockles, seawater, crustaceans)
• Garden of the Hesperides (Anarkia)
• The Courtship (Ying yang Palo Cortado oysters with garlic and white all black)
• The Carnality (Pueblano pigeon breast with mole, grilled strawberries and roses)
• Apple/Brittle (Golden apple)
• War (Royal hare roial with blood orange and beet)
• Mercy/Death (Parmentier potatoes with purple bone marrow,caviar, purple flowers and incense smoke)
• Glory (Dessert mass mother, mother dough ice cream)
• Awakening (Sweet spring)

Yet the wonder of the evening does not rest solely on the event's innovation cuisine. Expanding on the talents developed in the three brothers’ world famous restaurant,El Celler de Can Roca, these three creative chefs also collaborated with a diverse group of visual artists, includingFranc Aleu, Daniel Molina, Pere Grife,andPeret, to create an experience that defies the limits of culinary classification.

After its initial premiere in Barcelona, this unique work will be hosted at 12 different locations around the world, followed by a documentary book, exhibit and finallya filmby Mediapro.

If possible, do all you can to attend.  Like listening to great opera performed well for the first time, afterwards you will never view the world in quite that same way as before. And that is, truly, the definition of great art. 

Your Culinary World copyright Ana Kinkaid/Peter Schlagel 2013

Remembering Kennedy Warmly

Fifty years ago America, like so many other countries, lost a promising young leader to hate and senseless violence. Kennedy was a leader who hoped for peace because he had seen the terrible face of war.

He was also a man who found some small part of that peace at sea. When time allowed, which was far too seldom, he left the White House and sought time sailing. There he was away from the stress of decisions that affected millions and from the pain that dogged his days.

Who shot him and why is still debated. Was it Cuban terrorists, was it the Mafia, was it a lone gunman? We may never know. But the singular truth remains that such violence, in the end, solves nothing and only leaves behind tears and fears and a thousand unanswered questions.

As America pauses and remembers that horrid day that shocked and shattered the nation, it is so easy to forget the man, a man sailing with the wind in his face, seeking answers he was never allowed to find.

Let's not forget he was not a monument or a demi-god - just a person daring to seek sane solutions in a world that seems to offer few.

Often after he finished sailing, he enjoyed a warming bowl of chowder made in the New England style. Later, when his duties as president keep him sitting painfully hour after hour behind his large oak desk in the Oval Office, he would often send down to the White House kitchen for his favorite chowder and continue working long into the night, still guiding the ship of state. 

Here is the White House recipe for that very chowder - enjoy and then pause and consider the challenge he left behind for each of us to steer a good and noble course in life:

Kennedy's Favorite New England Chowder

INGREDIENTS 

• 2 pounds Haddock
• 2 ounces salt pork (diced)
• 2 onions (sliced)
• 4 potatoes (diced)
• 1 cup celery (chopped)
• 1 Bay leaf (crumbled)
• 1 quart milk
• 2 tablespoons butter
• 1 teaspoon salt
• Freshly ground black pepper

DIRECTIONS

1. Simmer haddock in 2 cups of water for 15 minutes, drain and reserve broth.
2. Remove bones from fish.
3. Sauté diced pork until crisp, remove and set aside.
4. Sauté onions in pork fat until golden brown.
5. Add fish, potatoes, celery, bay leaf, salt and pepper.
6. Pour in fish broth plus enough boiling water to make 3 cups of liquid.
7. Simmer for 30 minutes.
8. Add milk and butter and simmer for 5 minutes.
9. Serve chowder sprinkled over pork dice.

 Your Culinary World copyright Ana Kinkaid/Peter Schlagel 2013