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The Sorcerer's Apprentices
The Sorcerer's Apprentices: A Season at el Bulli | Lisa Abend
3 posts | 3 read | 1 to read
It was, arguably, the most famous restaurant in the world and perhaps one of the most significant and influential ever: the legendary 'el Bulli' in Catalonia, which closed in 2011, attained a near-mythic reputation for culinary wizardry. But what actually went on behind the scenes? What was the daily reality of life in the world's greatest kitchen? The Sorcerer's Apprenticestells first-hand the story of a young chef enrolled in the restaurant's legendary training course. It shows her struggle to adapt, how she and the other apprentices learned to push themselves and the limits of their abilities, how they adjusted to a style of cooking that was creative in the extreme and how they dealt with the pressures of performing at the highest level night after night. In past years stagiares have clashed with the severe demeanour of Oriol Castro, the restaurant's chef de cuisine; others have gone on to work at the restaurant. One was sent home each year, unable to fit into the high-wire act that is the el Bulli kitchen. Complicating things even more, the stagiares lived together in shared apartments, so the events and emotions of their personal lives bled more than usual into the professional. The Sorcerer's Apprenticestells these smaller, more human stories as well. At its heart, The Sorcerer's Apprenticesis a quest: it tells the tale of a handful of aspiring young people who submitted themselves to a grueling challenge in order to be made better by it. It also offers an unprecedented, behind-the-scenes look at the most famous restaurant in the world, through the lens of those who, ultimately, made it work.
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xicanti
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I get so happy when one of the books I left at the local Little Free Library cycles back in.

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xicanti
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Nonfiction was a good idea, y‘all. This is slow going, but it‘s kept me engaged.

It‘s also made me realize I knew only the basics about elBulli going in. I think it‘s one of those topics that‘s been covered so often that few writers or documentarians go into detail anymore—which is fine if you‘ve read a bunch of commentary from the heyday, but rough otherwise. Lisa Abend‘s filling lots of gaps for me.

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xicanti
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Friends, I‘ve fallen into a common trap. I watched THE UNTAMED, at my friend @aartichapati ‘s urging, and now I‘m annoyed that nothing else I pick up is THE UNTAMED.

I should probably just read the book it‘s based on, but I‘m not quite ready for that yet.

Since fiction keeps on letting me down, I‘m gonna read some culinary nonfiction today. Maybe that‘ll get me out of this why-are-you-not-THE-UNTAMED-you-stupid-novel headspace.

Lindy 🍀 5y
aartichapati Yesssssss, I am so thrilled!!! Wasn‘t it SO SO SO GOOD?? Let‘s discuss 5y
xicanti @aartichapati SO SO SO GOOD!!! I can see what you meant about the padding, but I loved the characters and their various relationships so much I didn‘t even mind. I miss them all to bits, and it hasn‘t even been a full day since I finished. And WHOA, I‘m generally sick of subtext, but this show delivered some GRADE A SUBTEXT. 5y
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aartichapati @xicanti hahaha, SO MUCH SUBTEXT. All those longing gazes and clutching at swords and flutes, and walking along single plank bridges ♥️ I also loved the relationships, all of the sibling ones and uncle- 5y
aartichapati Uncle-nephew ones and then of course the found families were so so well written 5y
xicanti @aartichapati all of this. I keep thinking about how it handles adoption compared to the Taiwanese and Korean dramas I‘ve watched, too. And the teenage Star Wars fan in me is mighty taken with the whole concept of doing good things with dark magic. 5y
aartichapati Yes!! Ahh, so glad you loved it, too, I knew you would! 5y
xicanti @aartichapati you were right—it was COMPLETELY my thing. ❤️❤️❤️ 5y
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