"CAVIAR" made from apple juice, "spaghetti" made of Parmesan cheese, an "artichoke" made of rose petals, even edible smoke or "culinary foam" are conjured up in the kitchen-laboratory of Catalan chef Ferran Adrià.

The wizard of elBulli, the planet's altar of imaginative haute cuisine (until it closed in July), is one of the world's most influential chefs, some call him the best, the god of molecular gastronomy (he hates that term).

Some criticize his admittedly audacious cooking as pretentious and some call all those chemical additives - colorants, stabilizers, gelling agents, flavor enhancers and other compounds - unhealthy at the very least.

Adrià denies that any ingredients are health hazards and says if he's pretentious, well, so be it - his goal is to surprise and enchant.

And that is exactly what he does with wild juxtapositions of flavors, shapes, textures and his "deconstructions" and "re-contextualizations" of traditional cuisine that often appear like surrealist artwork. Hence, Adrià has been called the "Salvador Dali of the Kitchen," after the legendary surrealist Catalan artist (1904-89). Adrià's work has appeared in art exhibitions.

The chef was recently in Shanghai to promote Spanish gourmet products and deliver a lecture "elBulli, the Present and Future of Food." He spoke to journalists.

Adrià, 49, won his third Michelin star for elBulli when he was only 34.

At the end of July, Adrià shocked the world of gastronomy by announcing the closure of elBulli on the Spanish coast, a pilgrimmage site that had only been open for six months a year and only served dinner. He turned it from a traditional French restaurant to an elaborate scifi kitchen where it was easy to imagine a "Star Trek" crew member pressing the buttons for a vodka martini conjured from molecules and beamed up.

He told Shanghai Daily it would be reopened in two years as the elBulli Foundation, a think tank and place to nurture new talents and ideas - not a public restaurant.

Each year, two million people swamped elBulli's website during the two-week booking window, fighting for approximately 8,000 seats for a 34-50-course dining experience (not to be confused with eating) in the small town of Rosas northeast of Barcelona. The Guardian described Adrià as "the most imaginative generator of haute cuisine on the planet."

He uses elaborate equipment such as a US$25,000 capsulating machine. Others create spheres, atomize materials and create foam in his kitchen laboratory where he uses physics and chemistry to deconstruct ingredients. The results subvert people's original understanding of food.

Adrià is frequently called the pioneer of molecular gastronomy though he himself hates that term. "I don't know what the term means," he said in Shanghai, instead calling his food "avant-garde style."

Spirit of elBulli

Although he is a chef, he himself has also been deconstructed and called a poet, artist, chemistry professor, stage director, even a rock star of the kitchen.

The son of a plasterer in Barcelona, Adrià dreamed of becoming a football player and naturally, as he told Shanghai Daily, he is a big fan of FC Barcelona.

It was by chance that he found a job in a French restaurant as a dishwasher, started to learn and began his culinary career.

He first worked as a chef at elBulli but in 1987, 25-year-old Adrià became the head chef with a mandate to change it. That same year, inspired by French chef Jacques Maximin who said "creating means not copying," he closed the restaurant for six months to conduct experiments.

From then on, every year, more than 100 new recipes have been created in his "workshop."

"Steadily creating new recipes is a huge challenge. But I really enjoy pushing myself to the limit," said the chef.

Although he can claim three Michelin stars - the highest accolade in the world of astronomy - Adrià said the star power isn't that important.

"Admittedly, a Michelin star is a recognition of my job. But, I never work for it."

How does he subverts people's traditional concepts of food? The chef answered by showing a 3-minute video: In the kitchen of elBulli, still water is placed in a glass container with a hole in its bottom and then frozen until it becomes a thin plate of ice. Then he simply sprinkles some mint and sugar flakes and the dish is complete.

"Most people consider water a liquid with no color, flavor and smell. But we interpret it differently. It can be made into a crystal-like texture and given more flavors," the chef explained.

Seeing bespectacled Adrià staring at food on his counter, trying to break it down and analyze its texture and flavor, one has the impression he is a professor.

"See? Things are not always what they seem!" he said with a philosophical smile. This ice dish is only one of hundreds, but quite representative, demonstrating how Adrià challenges common assumptions of how food should look, feel and taste.

The chef acknowledged he uses food to send messages. "There's a dish called SEEDS in which various seeds from fruits and vegetables are infused with intense flavors. It's supposed to remind people of the origins of life.

"A equals products, B equals techniques, C equals concepts, D equals technology. These are the four main characters in my own food language system, which I use for self-expression." he said.

Adrià's "food language" provokes and inspires. Some critics believe his food, if it can be called that, is a kind of high-level art.

"It is a conscious attempt to break up all the conventions that you have assimilated, which makes him (Adrià) close to what an artist does: It's the same method," said Bice Curgier, the editor-in-chief of Parkett, an international magazine of contemporary art, also the curator of Venice Biennale 2011.

She even defined Adrià's food as "surrealistic tactic" since his use of food attacks people's reflexes.

Adrià is one of the few chefs cooperating with top art organizations. In 2002, Adrià was invited to participate in an exhibition in the Palau Robert, Barcelona. Photographs and displays showed his methods and creations.

In 2005, elBulli exhibited its so-called "food transporters" - various receptacles, dishes and utensils used by the kitchen at the Pompidou Centre in Paris.

In 2007, Roger Buergel, the director of the art exhibition "documenta 12" cooperated with the chef. Hence, elBulli became an exhibition pavilion showcasing transformations of food. It triggered a debate whether an art exhibition could be held outside a museum or gallery.

Controversy

Though elBulli has become an icon in the world of dining, it's also a target of criticism and skepticism.

The late Santi Santamaria, a fellow Catalan and three-star Michelin chef, criticized Adrià's cooking, though elBulli fans said he was simply envious.

Asked whether he was pretentious, Adrià said, "My intent is bringing surprise to diners through my food. If coming guests can get inspiration and happiness from my dish, I don't mind being called 'pretentious'."

His use of liquid nitrogen and many chemical additives has also been criticized as unhealthy.

"It's a malicious attack!' he said, adding that flavor-enhancer MSG is considered unhealthy by many people but is a staple of Asian cooking.

The closure of elBulli (of which Adrià is co-owner) is also controversial.

Some attribute it to annual losses of half a million euros (US$721,336). Some say Adrià published the famous "A Day at elBulli" to make up for losses.

The chef denied that in an interview with The Sunday Times last year, saying, "I am not a materialistic person. I'm not interested in owning expensive watches or sports cars."

Adrià said in Shanghai, "elBulli has reached its peak, with little space of improvement. We need time to stop and reflect."

He said that in 2014, elBulli will be reopened, transformed from a restaurant to the elBulli Foundation, a gastronomy think-tank and place to nurture new ideas and talents.

He said he is interested in communicating with Chinese chefs who place great emphasis on texture.

"If possible, the elBulli Foundation hopes to cooperate with the Chinese government, providing a chance for Eastern and Western chefs to exchange their ideas."

Adrià didn't excluded the possibility of opening a restaurant in Shanghai, saying, "If I open a restaurant here, it will not be an extension of elBulli but a place providing authentic Spanish snacks, the most representative food in my hometown Barcelona."