Ferran Adrià & Telefónica: Partners for Transformation

Speakers:

• Susan Segal, President and CEO, Americas Society and Council of the Americas
• Luis Abril, General Manager and Chairman Chief of Staff, Telefónica
• Ferran Adrià, Chef and Innovator, El Bulli

Summary

Americas Society and Council of the Americas partnered with Telefónica to host “Ferran Adrià & Telefónica: Partners for Transformation” on Tuesday, March 22 in New York, launching the new partnership between the superstar chef and the telecommunications giant. The event, the launch of a tour that will take Adrià to capitals across the Americas, Europe, and Asia, featured remarks by AS/COA’s Susan Segal and Telefónica’s Luis Abril, as well as an inspiring multimedia presentation by Adrià on innovation, his award-winning restaurant El Bulli, and his newly announced partnership with Telefónica.

The presentation was followed by a cocktail reception where guests were treated to a degustation of tasting plates by chef David Bouley, inspired by Ferran Adrià’s creations.

Transformation and Innovation

Susan Segal, AS/COA’s president and CEO, opened the evening by discussing the transformative role innovation plays in today’s world. Both Adrià and Telefónica operate at the forefront of innovation in their respective fields, she added, and their newly minted relationship was a logical partnership of minds. Adrià has transformed the art of cooking with his haute cuisine while Telefónica has successfully evolved into a leader in global telecommunications. The Spanish telecom company has long been at the forefront of transformation, investing heavily in Latin America during the region’s debt crisis, and expanding its presence in China.

Through Fundación Telefónica, the company’s philanthropic foundation, Telefónica empowers people worldwide and inspires innovation through its support of education, youth, debate, knowledge, art, and technology. Similarly, Adrià’s Alicia Foundation is committed to social development through transformations in people’s health and eating habits.

Segal closed her remarks by thanking Telefónica and Adrià for their support of entrepreneurs and young people in their quest for innovation, saying: “We are living in a unique time where innovation and technology are at the forefront of our lives, not just because they have provided Facebook, Google, and Twitter, but because, through innovation, we have democratized information. This has empowered entire populations around the globe.”

A World Richer For It

Telefónica’s Luis Abril began by asking the audience to consider a world without mobile-phone technology, without ubiquitous high-speed internet access, where the means to easily communicate and access information were not available. Abril said he believed we would all be: “Literally poorer, in all senses of the word: less wealth, less democracy, less culture, less knowledge, less mobility.” To underline his point, Telefónica’s general manager described exactly how connected the world has become, spelling out some of the numbers involved: the 5 billion cell phone users world wide, including 1 billion in China and Brazil alone; the rise of the tablets, with forecasts of 42 million being sold this year; and the 700 billion minutes spent on Facebook a month.

These tools increase our ability to create more value for ourselves and for society. “What we are really doing with them is teaching, healing, communicating, managing businesses, voting, creating wealth, and even, occasionally, getting rid of dictators,” said Abril.

Telefónica, Abril continued, is itself in the midst of transformation and innovation. It has grown from a Spanish telecommunications supplier to a global leader in the field, recently being recognized by Fortune magazine as the world’s most admired telecommunications company. The company values innovation and constantly strives for it, which is why its partnership with Ferran Adrià is a logical step forward.

Abril outlined two very concrete initiatives stemming from the collaboration: the first is to work together to create a new El Bulli Foundation that would be one of the most advanced innovation centers in the world; the second is a technologically cutting-edge online platform for people living with eating restrictions to be able to access healthy solutions.

Grand Plans For the Future

Ferran Adrià began his presentation by asking the audience what they thought a chef was doing working with one of the most important telecommunication companies in the world. His response involved a multimedia presentation describing many of the innovations developed at his restaurant, as well as his forthcoming collaboration with Telefónica.

Adrià’s presentation included a series of videos showing the process behind some of his most famous creations, including: the ring of oil, the mimicry technique, the “nitro-coconut,” “flower paper,” his plate of seeds, the two-meter long cheese spaghetti, and “spherification.” He described his creative process as analogous to having created a new alphabet for the kitchen, a new form of communication directly related to his haute cuisine. Using this alphabet, Adrià went on, he is able to create new words and new culinary creations.

The presentation followed with Adrià explaining how his restaurant, El Bulli, will close and reopen in 2014 in partnership with Telefónica as elBullifoundation, a creative center for innovation—a gastronomical think tank. Ideas developed at the center will be available, free to access, online. This, Adrià explained, is the crux of the concept: New ideas should be freely available to everyone, thus precipitating further innovation. Although the foundation appears to be a major departure from the restaurant, Adrià demonstrated in his presentation that it is the latest evolution in El Bulli’s life. Prior shifts included the restaurant’s closure six months a year starting in 1987; design of a new, large kitchen in 1993; and replacing the standard menu with a tasting menu only in 2003.

The space itself will be built around the current site of El Bulli and will also be recreated virtually online. Everything that happens in the center, which will host “scholars” through a competitive selection process, will be broadcast live, connecting El Bulli to the world. All new recipes will be uploaded to the website, freely available for any restaurant or cooking aficionado around the world to download.
 

Guests enjoy drinks and David Bouley's gastronomical creations after the presentation.