This is my favourite book this year. From a technique perspective, this book demonstrates the pinnacle of the "weave" of non-fiction narration, first taught to me by Canadian author Daniel Wood. The interspersing of in medias res narration, exposition, history, and theory, back and forth, forms the basic structure of the book. It is a mechanism, and it works. Period. I feel it is very well constructed.

Now that I've gotten over with the "critique" of the book, let me tell you about the favourite dish I've ever made. It is called fidua, a pasta dish from Catalan, a pasta version of paella.

This book returned me to the passion I put into that dish, the tension, nervousness and fear of screwing it up, and the subsequent elation and joy at tasting a food so filled with the essence of life.

ElBulli is closed now, but this book makes me want to fall in love again and ride our bikes up the hill in a small sea side town in Spain called Roses, to the little unassuming kitchen where so much creativity is focused. It is my dream to have someone with me when I return to Roses again, this time for real, in 2014.

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The documentaary "El Bulli - Cooking in Progress" is a perfect companion to this book. It seems to be filmed during the same intern cycle as the book, so the same characters as well as the dishes are featured. El Bulli is a lot brighter than I imagined from the description in the book.