A Date With Alícia

I should be so lucky. No, I'm not going out with the gorgeous multi-million selling soul diva from Harlem. I do have a date scheduled, but the Alícia I'm off to see is a steel and glass research campus in the Catalan village of Sant Fruitós del Bages, near the town of Manresa. Now why would I possibly be leaving Barcelona to visit a bunch of laboratories and lecture rooms up the mountains in a place called Alícia?

If you've been paying attention to the blogosphere recently, you'll know all about Menu for Hope 4. If you've paid even closer attention, you'll know something about Alícia, because Menu for Hope organiser Pim of Chez Pim has arranged a visit to Alícia as one of the amazing culinary experiences she has cajoled friends and contacts into donating as prizes this year (prize EU31). Having seen this, I must confess to feeling a bit guilty. If you're a regular reader, you'll know that I've been really busy settling myself into my new and very demanding life here in Barcelona during the past three months. What you won't know is that my dad decided to arrange a surprise trip for me for a birthday present - a visit to Alícia. In the end, the visit was postponed until January, due to events I'll tell you about in a minute.

As a consequence my parents told me about the new arrangements - but it never occurred to me that this would make a great prize for Menu for Hope. So well done to Pim for being so on the ball. I also should have asked Head Chef if we could put up a meal at Ç24 as a prize, but unfortunately by the time I thought of the idea it was too late. Next year I'll make sure I organise something. Meanwhile, the least I can do this year is to tell you all something more about prize EU31 and encourage everyone to buy tickets and take part in this year's fundraising for The UN World Food Programme. I'll be making sure my family buys quite a few tickets and will personally pledge $25 to the fund for any food blogger who books a table at Comerç 24 between now and Christmas and emails me to let me know.

So... back to Alícia. As an acronym, I've seen better. The individual letters are plucked from "El Fundació ALImentació i CiènCIA" (Catalan for "The Food & Science Foundation") - based at the brand new International Centre for Food Culture & Gastronomic Research here in Barcelona. Alícia is where Ferran Adrià has been focusing his efforts recently, since his restaurant El Bulli became world #1 and the reservations book filled up over a year in advance. A public/private partnership between the Catalan Government and Caja Manresa Bank, Alícia is directed by an Advisory Council with Ferran as President and leading cardiologist Valentí Fuster as senior co-Director.

So just what does this place do? Imagine a combination of the S. Pellegrino World's Best Restaurants editorial team, the Food Standards Agency, Jamie Oliver's School Dinners campaign and Great Ormond Street Children's Hospital and you're coming somewhere close to Alícia. The Gastronomic & Scientific Research Department will draw on the support of top chefs and food scientists, from Catalunya and more widely across Spain and other countries, to boost the level and promotion of modern gastronomy.

The other half of Alícia - The Department of Health and Eating Habits - emphasises the Foundation's social mission to be a leading agent for the improvement of eating habits in the community. With this in mind, a large part of the centre is open to the public and especially encourages visits by parties of schoolchildren. The Institute is also deeply involved in oncological research, looking at connections between cancer and food. The reason I was unable to make my birthday visit was that the place was frantically engaged in last-minute preparations for the international scientific launch at the end of November.

Many of the world's leading food scientists descended on Alícia for a one-day series of presentations and workshops around the Foundation's mission and to discuss practical project ideas for the future. Amongst the invitees were food science author Harold McGee, gastro-physicist Davide Cassi and Professors Claudi Mans and Abel Mariné from the University of Barcelona, along with leading chefs and restaurateurs Albert Adriá, Oriol Castro and Heston Blumenthal. Oh yes... and one other person whose presence at the event made me green with envy.

This was my good cyber friend Paulina Mata - a Portuguese food scientist who I got to know through her contributions to the Portuguese on-line gastronomy forum novacritica-vinho.com. When Paulina emailed to say: "...although we couldn't choose, I was very lucky to be in the same group as Heston Blumenthal, Harold McGee, Peter Barham, Bernard Lahousse, Jorge Ruiz and some others", I almost choked on my breakfast cereals. Paulina attended the launch as a representative of Portuguese food scientists who plan to collaborate with Alícia next year, working together with a group of Portuguese chefs.

Oh well, I may not have got to sit with my Portuguese friend and talk food with Albert Adrià, Harold McGee and Heston Blumenthal - but at least I won the runner-up prize. Paulina visited Comerç 24 in the evening with a colleague and I got to cook their dinner (or at least part of it). For those who speak Portuguese, check out her very complimentary write-up of the meal, with some great photos of the dishes. So good that I'll totally forgive her for misspelling my name. Paulina also kindly provided me with the photographs of Alícia I've used in this post. To learn more about Alícia, take a look at their promotion video. The one below is the English language version that I've hosted on my YouTube account. I'm really looking forward to my day on the campus after Christmas and I encourage everyone who can possibly visit Barcelona to buy some extra Menu for Hope raffle tickets and choose this prize. To the winner of this great culinary experience - don't forget to follow in Paulina's footsteps and pay a visit to Ç24 for another great culinary experience afterwards!