Andoni Luis Aduriz is the chef of Mugaritz in San Sebastián, Spain, a restaurant hailed as a top 10 restaurant in the world for 14 consecutive years by The World’s 50 Best. He appears in a single chapter of the book, and he is there because he gave the chapter’s argument about creativity a longer historical reach than anyone else I interviewed.
Aduriz speaks to where new dishes come from. The chapter on the creative act sets out, through Alex Atala, the claim that creativity flourishes from a solid foundation of knowledge and that a chef who wants to create something new must first understand classic cuisine. Aduriz extends that claim across centuries. Gastronomy, in his account, is knowledge that has been sedimenting over time, and any dish viewed in the context of history will give clues about the depth of its possibilities. The chef working in the present works on top of accumulated technique, ingredient knowledge and cultural meaning. The dish that appears entirely new is, with very few exceptions, a recombination of elements already in the sediment.
“Gastronomy, generally speaking, is knowledge that has been sedimenting over time” Andoni Luis Aduriz, chef, Mugaritz, San Sebastián
What I took from our conversation is a definition of mastery that applies well beyond the kitchen. Mastery is the practice of moving inside the sediment with enough fluency to produce recombinations that feel fresh without being arbitrary. The operator who has not absorbed what came before will produce novelty that is incoherent. The operator who has absorbed it and stopped there will produce the past in new clothing. Aduriz describes the narrow space between the two, where a cook who knows the history of a dish can see possibilities in it that a cook without that history cannot.
“Any dish viewed in the context of history will give us clues about the depth of its possibilities.” Andoni Luis Aduriz, chef, Mugaritz, San Sebastián
In the book, Andoni Luis Aduriz appears in Chapter 6, The Creative Act, where his observation about sediment follows Atala’s foundation of knowledge and gives the chapter its account of creativity as fluent movement within an inheritance rather than a break from it.