In celebration of Curaté tapas bar’s first anniversary (has it been that long already?) the restaurant will host a showing of the movie El Bulli: Cooking in Progress at the Fine Arts Theatre on Monday, March 5. A question-and-answer period with Curaté‘s Katie Button and Felix Meana will follow the movie presentation. Button will be fresh from Denmark, where she interned under chef René Redzepi at Copenhagen’s Noma.
El Bulli: Cooking in Progress documents one year in the life of chef Ferran Adrià, the mastermind behind the progressive cuisine of the now-shuttered elBulli in Spain. Both Button and Meana, recent newlyweds, worked at elBulli. Button’s tenure there has gotten much attention, notably in Lisa Abend’s book, The Sorcerer’s Apprentices, which Xpress wrote about here.
Button, a former PhD student of neuroscience, decided to drop the lab coat for the chef variety at a young age, working with chefs Johnnie Iuzzini, José Andrés and Michael Voltaggio in her mid-20s. While working for Andrés, Button met Meana, the respected chef’s consultant and also the chef de rang of elBulli. Felix introduced Button to Spain and the kitchen of elBulli, where Button found herself in a laboratory of a different sort in Adrià‘s temple to molecular gastronomy.
The trailer for the elBulli movie looks intriguing, especial for anyone who finds Adrià‘s style — a mix of culinary artistry, innovative technique and chemistry — fascinating. In one scene, Adrià explains to his rapt disciples, gathered before him in the kitchen, what a service period at elBulli is like. “After four hours, when you’re almost at the end of the menu, the more the bewilderment, the better,” he says, flashing a slightly impish smile. Button also makes an appearance in the movie, apparently.
Watch the trailer below:
The evening at the Fine Arts Theatre will include an elBulli-inspired snack, served in brown bags during the movie.
Tickets are $10, $8 for seniors and children. Purchase them at the Fine Arts Theatre box office, located at 36 Biltmore Ave.
Also on Cúrate’s agenda is “An Adventure in Cooking: The New Nordic Table,” a culinary showcase of skills that Button picked up at Noma this winter, hosted at Warren Wilson College. Tickets will go on sale through Cúrate’s website on Wednesday, Feb. 15. Here’s part of the press release for the event:
The tenets of New Nordic Cuisine comprise the concepts of terroir, sustainability and foraging so integral to the community of Asheville. When this clean, contemporary Nordic cooking style is combined with the unique ingredients of the Asheville region, this cuisine becomes all the more intriguing … This spring, ‘An Adventure in Cooking: The New Nordic Table’ affords an opportunity to experience the hottest trend in the culinary world, one based upon the same sustainable practices of our ancestors.
Katie Button, executive chef and co-owner of Cùrate Bar … and Gunnar Karl Gislason, the executive chef and co-owner of the restaurant Dill in Reykjavik, Iceland who introduced New Nordic cooking to his nation, will host a dinner [at] Warren Wilson College, to explore and celebrate the New Nordic Kitchen and Asheville’s own abundant bounty. Warren Wilson College … has a 300-acre working farm and 700-acres of managed forest, providing the ideal setting for this landmark event.
The event will be held on Saturday, March 24, with a foraging session beginning at 3 p.m. and a tour of the Warren Wilson College campus at 4:30 p.m. Appetizers and dinner immediate follow at 6 p.m.
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