Appetite for Innovation: Creativity and Change at elBulli

by M Pilar Opazo

The name elBulli is synonymous with creativity and innovation. Located in Catalonia, Spain, the three-star Michelin restaurant led the world to "molecular" or "techno-emotional" cooking and made fantastic creations, such as pine-nut marshmallows, rose-scented mozzarella, liquid olives, and melon caviar, into a sensational reality. People traveled from all over the world--if they could secure a coveted reservation during its six months of operation--to experience the wonder that chef Ferran Adri? and his team concocted in their test kitchen, never offering the same dish twice. Yet elBulli's business model proved unsustainable. The restaurant converted to a foundation in 2011, and is working hard on its next revolution. Will elBulli continue to innovate? What must an organization do to create something truly new?

"Appetite for Innovation" is an organizational analysis of elBulli and the nature of innovation. M. Pilar Opazo was with elBulli's inner circle as the restaurant transitioned from a for-profit business to its new organizational model. She compares this moment to the culture of change that first made elBulli famous, and she describes the novel forms of communication, idea mobilization, and embeddedness that continue to encourage the staff to focus and invent as a whole. She concludes that the successful strategies employed by elBulli are similar to those required for innovative achievements in art, music, business, and technology, proving the model's value across organizations and industries.

Genres: Food

336 pages, Hardcover

Published July 5, 2016

Reviews

[Marjolein (UrlPhantomhive) · Rating 3 out of 5]

Read all my reviews on http://urlphantomhive.booklikes.com

This definitely was an interesting read into the world of Elbulli, critically acclaimed to be the best/most original restaurant in the world. While I still have to eat these kind of experimental dishes myself, I really liked reading about it.

I'm sure the book was well researched, but sometimes I had the feeling the book was a bit too dry for my taste. And as with food, nobody likes it too dry.

Thanks to the publisher and Netgalley for providing me with a free copy of this book in exchange for an honest review!

[Darren · Rating 5 out of 5]

This is a wonderful book that mixes together creativity, innovation and even exclusivity and showcases it through the eyes of elBulli, a three-star Michelin restaurant that really took forward cooking and gastronomy to the next level. These self-same benefits and advantages could equally be transplanted into other business areas, although for an executive checking out the next development to a rubber seal might not be as tasty as investigating a new ice cream flavour!

The author has had unprecedented close access to elBulli and its key personnel, chronicling what they were doing and why. Despite its successes and worldwide acclaim, the restaurant closed on its own terms and it is presently working on plans for its next evolution. The closure was not due to any particular failure; in many ways it broke the rules with limited opening times, restricted menu options and demand far outstripping supply… yet it worked! Perhaps the concept is not suited to mass restaurant operation and attempts to shoehorn it into this mould would kill its creativity and real value, thus the skill is knowing your limits and boundaries.

Reading the book, you can get a taste, if you pardon the pun, of the restaurant and what made it tick. Potential exists to takeaway positive points from the restaurant’s operation and transplant them into another organisation, yet the book is far from offering a “take x, y and z and add them”-style approach. The reader has to do the hard work, which is probably not a bad thing. You need to read the book in its entirety and get the concept and being before you can possible articulate changes relevant to your own company’s operations.

If you are a foodie you will love this book. If you are interested in corporate structures and innovation you will find a lot of great things here too. If you fall into both camps, wow do you have something great to read! You get a backstage, kitchen-stool look into a fairly exclusive operation and your potential benefit from this book might only be restricted by your own imagination and wish to see change.

If one is being overly critical, at times it felt as if the author could get to the point a bit quicker and focus harder on a key point, but overall this did not diminish the reading experience and you soon learned to love the book, perceived warts and all. A unique, fascinating and privileged look behind the scenes of a very noteworthy establishment, even if it did make this reviewer hungry at times (for food, not knowledge!).

Autamme.com

[Mollie]

I started this book with a preconceived notion that a book about the most creative restaurant in the world would itself feel creative. Instead, it felt very scholarly and erudite. As a research tome, it most probably is excellent. As art mirroring the art of the restaurant, it lacked flavor. I wanted each page to be the last. Unlike a meal in the restaurant...which I would wish never to end.

I received this book from NetGalley in exchange for an honest review.

[Library Maven · Rating 3 out of 5]

This sociological study on innovation uses Ferran Adria and elBulli as it's focus. Although this was fascinating reading on Adria's focus on creativity, it was a little heavy and repetitive when analyzing the management and organizational process. Read in e-galley form, so some of the formatting was lost in the process.

[Theodore Kinni · Rating 5 out of 5]

Yummy elBulli's
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