GastroTech Days: Language as a platform for innovation, lessons from elBulli

Language as a platform for innovation

Some lessons from elBulli

M. Pilar OpazoDept of Sociology Columbia University NYC

Ramon SangüesaTechnical University of Catalonia

Tuesday, October 18, 2011

A recipe for hybrid research


Work in progress

• A study on the organizational evolution of elBulli and its sustained creativity and innovation

• How and why practices started at elBulli have spread across time and social space, within the gastronomic field and in other fields

• How elBulli’s practices are transmitted to elBulli Foundation, specially given its interest in knowledge-sharing and diffusion.

• To understand the present and the future we need to start by looking at the past.


Dimensions of the study

•Which aspects of the past of elBulli will remain in the present and help us think about the future of elBulli Foundation?

• Organizational narratives

- Self-perception

- Perception of outsiders

• Organizational trajectory

• Diffusion

- From outlier to reference


Dimensions of the study

•Which aspects of the past of elBulli will remain in the present and help us think about the future of elBulli Foundation?

• Organizational narratives

- Self-perception

- Perception of outsiders

• Organizational trajectory

• Diffusion

- From outlier to reference


Work so farIn-depth interviews

Field tripsAnalysis of Secondary sources


Importance of language

“Cuisine… is as well panoply of narratives that sustain

praxis. Cuisine constructs and upholds a community of discourse, a collectivity held together by words,

by language, by interpretations of the world in

which we live”.

( P. Ferguson, "Accounting for Taste", 2004:8)


From Food for Thoughtto Thought for Food

(Ferguson 2004)


Example: objectivation


elBulli’s language

• Products or ingredients

• Technology (equipments and utensils)

• Preparations (concepts and techniques)

• Styles and characteristics

Recipes

Combinatorics and Heuristics

("A day at elBulli" 2010)


Language as a technology

“We create words, with those words we create sentences and with those sentences we create

paragraphs….the more words we have, the more unique our

language will be.”

(Ferran Adria March 2011,NYC)

“Culinary Creativity”


A codified language offers a platform to create, that is

collectively shared

Make sense of the world and coordinate….defines the

playground

Not only use language to create but expand and transform this language

Language as a technology


How can we trace the importance and use of elBulli’s language?

• Measurable innovation results

• Number of recipes

• Number of techniques

• Number of new concepts

• Identify its adoption by the culinary field

• Timeline of adoption

• References

• Spillovers into other fields


Ethnographic approach

How was language adopted and used?

How does it expands?

Examine the use of elBulli’s language in practice: Chefs

CollaboratorsCompetitors

Schools of cuisine Scientific Groups


Media Analysis

• Books

• Articles

• Extraction of words

• Correlation with internal language

• When do tipping points happen


Web Analysis

• Seeding the words

• Crawling

• Relating to communities


Community detection and

analysisStructural folds

Where do the most innovative (not just “connected”) members

of the relevant ommunities around the elBulli Foundation?

Qualitative analysis (ethnographic approach)


Hybrid approach

Qualitative Approach

Quantitative

Approach

Archival Text Mining

Innovator’s identification

Historical ethnography

Discourse Analysis

In-depth interviews

Environment

Organization

Networkexploration


Open research questions

• How can we can find ways of extrapolating elBulli knowledge to other organizations, within the gastronomic field and in other fields?

• How is the new environment of elBulli Foundation articulated? Which kinds of diffusion strategies could be more effective?

• Which aspects of the past of elBulli that will remain in the present and help us to think about the future of elBulli Foundation?

• How to understand better the connection between different types of methods and technologies for this type of research?

Alicia

Restaur

Media

CulinaryExperts

General Public

Universities

?

Internet

?

?


Open research questions

• How can we can find ways of extrapolating elBulli knowledge to other organizations, within the gastronomic field and in other fields?

• How is the new environment of elBulli Foundation articulated? Which kinds of diffusion strategies could be more effective?

• Which aspects of the past of elBulli that will remain in the present and help us to think about the future of elBulli Foundation?

• How to understand better the connection between different types of methods and technologies for this type of research?

Alicia

Restaur

Media

CulinaryExperts

General Public

Universities

?

Internet

?

?


Final remarks

• The measure of an organization’s innovative potential relies on its capacity to define and develop a solid platform to innovate.

• What matters most is the quality of the “words” and “sentences”, created and the opportunities of crossovers that they may open

“ElBulli una historia de un sueño” Audiovisual

Catalogue


References• Abend, Lisa. 2011. "The sorcerer's apprentices: a season in the kitchen of Ferran Adria’s

elBulli." New York: Free Press.

• Bourdieu, Pierre. 1979. “Distinction: A Social Critique of the Judgement of Taste”. Cambridge: Harvard University Press.

• Czarniawska, Barbara. (1997). “The Narrative of Cultural Studies.” In Narrating the Organization: Dramas of Institutional Identity. Chicago: University of Chicago Press.

• Ferguson, Priscilla. 2004. “Accounting for Taste: The Triumph of French Cuisine.” Chicago: Chicago University Press.

• Stark, David. (2009). The sense of dissonance: Accounts of worth in economic life. Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press.

• Svejenova, Silviya; Mazza, Carmelo and Planellas, Marc El. 2007. “Cooking up Change in Haute Cuisine: Ferran Adria As an Institutional Entrepreneur”.

• Vedres, Balazs and Stark, David. 2010. “Structural Folds: Generative Disruption in Overlapping Groups,” American Journal of Sociology 15/4: 1150-90.

• Yon-Yeo, Ahn, Sebastian Ahnert, James P. Bagrow and Barabasi, Albert-Lazslo. 2011. http://meetings.aps.org/Meeting/MAR11/Event/144486

• ElBulli Publications


http://meetings.aps.org/Meeting/MAR11/Event/144486




Thanks!

M. Pilar [email protected]

Ramon Sangü[email protected]
