Discipline of Action #1 - Interning at El Bulli
I read an interesting article in the FT yesterday.
In a new book recounting her experience as an intern at El Bulli, a bleeding-edge 3-Michelin-star restaurant described as “the most imaginative generator of haute cuisine on the planet”, Lisa Abend wrote about the 6 months of repetitive labour which marked her time as an El Bulli intern.
I’m struck enough by the article to quote it at length here:
Some stagiares (interns) will find six months of this strictly regimented labour insufferably tedious. Some may even leave partway through the season.
But for those open to the experience, a surprise awaits. Months, even years, after their time at El Bulli, they will realise there was a reason why tablecloths are rolled in one direction only and cloves of garlic sorted by size.
Referring to the profound freedom to think that is the wellspring of his ideas, [chef Ferran] Adria once told me, “Creativity requires discipline”. And then he pulled out a ruler, and checked the length of a piece of sugar cane.
