Through The Cooking-Glass (And What You'll Find There)

"Take some more tea", the March Hare said to Alice, very earnestly. "I've had none yet", Alice replied in an offended tone, "so I can't take more". "You mean you can't take less", said the Hatter, "it's very easy to take more than nothing". "Nobody asked your opinion", said Alice. "Who's making personal remarks now?" the Hatter asked triumphantly.

Through The Looking-Glass (And What Alice Found There) - Lewis Carroll (1871)

Since I arrived in my Wonderland, I've been a bit light in posts about a certain topic, to the point where personal remarks by the Mad Hatter would not be at all out of line. I've written about Japanese comedians, moth migrations, the British Prime Minister, my birthday, Formula 1 racing, women's secret passions, Princess Diana, flash memory and the woes of journalism. I've also filed some posts about gastronomy, but it's been mostly home cooking, alchemy experiments, food markets and exhibitions. The one subject I've hardly touched on is the food I cook professionally, every day. The very reason I'm here in Barcelona. I couldn't have posted much less about it, so I guess it should be easy to post more.

I intend to make amends with a new series of posts called "Through The Cooking-Glass". The title refers to the open kitchen environment in which I'm working - if you look carefully at the picture on the left you'll make out the thick glass partitions that are all that separates me and my fellow chefs in the kitchen from our customers.

In each post in this series I'll introduce you to one of the dishes on the menu at Comerç 24 and tell you something about the processes that turn the raw ingredients of the dish into the finished product.

I'm not expecting you to be able to source all of the ingredients from your local supermarket or be able to apply some of the more complex cooking processes, although it would be great if you can. But I hope that some of these posts will at the very least give you ideas for your own recipes and food presentation. I plan to start with Sopa De Fideos Vegetales.