Gastronomy with a different look

The paths of life, many times, lead us to unthinkable places. Sometimes we know we want something else, but we don’t really know what happened to them? And all of a sudden, almost like by magic, ties come together, directions are drawn, and we end up where we never imagined. And that’s exactly what we need. Something like this happened to Diego Rey, a plastic artistfrom Trelew (Chubut), who went to Barcelona looking for a change and ended up working with Ferrán Adriá, one of the most renowned chefs in the world . But no, Diego did not change his vocation for gastronomy.

Let’s start with the first thing: who he is this chef. Ferrán Adriá is a Catalan who spent decades at the in front of the restaurant El Bulli (located in Cala Montjoi, in Girona). It was opened between 1962 and 2011, and was internationally recognized for its gastronomic work. Part of its success was the introduction of new techniques, as deconstruction, which consists in isolating the ingredients of a dish typical to reconstruct it in an unusual way. His work is interested in the Physics and chemistry of food: the so-called molecular cuisine, does it ring a bell?

The Bulli closed as a restaurant in July 2011, to become theBulli Foundation , a foundation dedicated to research into the creation and innovation of gastronomic science. That’s where Diego Rey comes into the scene. He worked on two great novelties: the archive-museum, which is Labulligraphy, and an exhibition laboratory on innovation, ElBulli1846, where the restaurant of Cala Montjoi operated.

The story of Diego

So how did the Argentinian end up there? Ten years ago, Diego Rey needed a change. He had received a bachelor’s degree in Fine Arts from the University of La Plata, taught and worked in the Ministry of Culture of the Nation. He applied for a Maec Aecid scholarship from the Spanish Ministry of Foreign Affairs and International Cooperation, and won it! After those two years, he returned to Argentina, but decided that his fate was not here . He returned to Barcelona to do another master’s degree in Philosophy of Art.

His teachers were already working with Ferrán, addressing gastronomyfrom that discipline. In 2012 was summoned to Diego to be part of the project, first ad honorem and then as a fixed member of the team. There he does not work on gastronomy: works on innovation. It is a creative process of searching, of research, which applies to many things.

Diego Rey would never have thought he’d end up working with a chef, and there he is. Because things often don’t go as planned, and that’s great.

Gabriela Saavedra

Argentina, licenciada en Comunicación Social y correctora. Me apasiona la escritura, la propia y la ajena. Mi amor por las palabras, por las frases mágicas y perfectas, me llevó a dirigir mi carrera profesional hacia la redacción, a lo que luego sumé la corrección para mejorar mis textos y, también, los de otros autores. Porque una imagen no siempre vale más que mil palabras. Gracias por leerme.