Ferran Adrià

The Spanish chef closed his legendary El Bulli in 2011 to set up an educational foundation in its place. As he opens an exhibit at Somerset House dedicated to his food, he tells Alicia Miller about his culinary travels

El Bulli is not about me,

it’s about the ideas, and about over 2,000 chefs – including Joan Roca (of El Celler de Can Roca) and Noma’s René Redzepi – that have worked there over the years. Even though it doesn’t exist in its current form anymore, it doesn’t mean that the El Bulli way of cooking or thinking is gone.

London is a very exciting city for eating.

In the last 15 years the food scene has really evolved – now, you can find anything in London. You can move from a Japanese restaurant like Roka (rokarestaurant.com) or Zuma (zumarestaurant.com) to a pub, such as the Harwood Arms (harwoodarms.com), which I really enjoyed – especially its cherry and elderflower ice creams. It’s exactly the kind of place I like – it’s logical, it has personality. Sometimes you can have really nice food but without character.

I try not to eat in the same place twice.

This time in London I’ll try a new Spanish place, Hispania (hispanialondon. com), where my friend Marcos Moran is a chef. There are quite a few good tapas places in London now. But of course, I’ve also tried all the famous places – Pollen Street Social (pollenstreetsocial.com) from Jason Atherton, who worked with me, and Heston Blumenthal’s Dinner (dinnerbyheston.com).

Japan is another planet when it comes to food.

I’ve travelled around – to Kyoto, Tokyo, the small villages on the coast. My favourite restaurant is Mibu in Tokyo. It has only eight covers, and you have to be a member or go with a member. It’s not about being elitist – it’s just the culinary model they have. Their food is somewhere between kaiseki and typical Japanese, but it’s difficult to define. The whole experience is amazing.

Cuisine is in constant evolution

– traditional doesn’t exist. At our roots, we are all African; all cuisine has developed from Mesopotamia. Now, the world is discovering Latin American cuisine, via the next generation of cooks opening restaurants like Astrid y Gastón (astridygaston.com), DOM (domrestaurante.com.br), Pujol (pujol.com.mx). They are creating something new. And they are also doing the very important job of inspiring and motivating young people around them.

Spain has more culinary diversity than anywhere else.

Galicia and Andalusia, for example, are incredibly different. Galicia is in the north, but down in Andalusia you have Arab influences – they introduced sugar and citrus. I like really like Alhucemas in Sanlucar la Mayor (restaurantealhucemas.com) and Aponiente in Cadiz (aponiente.com). I don’t have a favourite dish – tell them to bring you what is good, and they will.

In Catalonia, I eat at my brother [Albert]’s restaurants.

There’s Tickets tapas bar in Barcelona, and he’s opening Bodega 1900 (es.bcn50.org). In Roses, where El Bulli was located, I like Rafa’s (00 34 972 25 40 03) and Cal Campaner (00 34 972 25 69 54). Both serve the freshest fish, simply prepared.

What would I be if I wasn’t a chef?

In life, if you can’t change it, best not to worry about it.