From a local community to a global influence. How elBulli restaurant created a new epistemic movement in the world of haute cuisine

Abstract

Location plays a major role in the building of artistic, technological or scientific movements that emerge in specific locations before achieving a worldwide reach. However, a deeper understanding is needed about the interplay of local/global knowledge dynamics in the epistemic construction of a movement. Based on an in-depth longitudinal study of a critical case, this article sheds light on these issues by analysing the case of ‘techno-emotional cuisine’, a global gastronomic movement initiated and led by chef Ferran Adrià and his team at the restaurant elBulli in Catalonia (in Northern Spain). The results suggest that the dynamics of formation of a new epistemic movement depend on the form and nature of the interactions between the local buzz and global pipelines, and on the capacity of the originating community to develop and diffuse the new rules and ‘episteme’ on a global scale while consolidating them locally.

Keywords:

• Epistemic communities
• communities of practice
• local buzz
• global pipelines
• gastronomy

JEL Classifications:

• O31
• O33
• R11
• D85
• Z11

Notes

¹ The website of elBulli still acts as a major repository of references: http://www.elbulli.com/bibliografia/ and http://press.elbulli.com/?lang=en.