3 moments that changed the course of gastronomic history

Ferran Adrià is a one-man Spanish Inquisition. He speaks almost exclusively in questions. I met him recently at the El Bulli Foundation in Barcelona - part library, part studio, part think-tank. Practically the first words out of his mouth were 'How do you understand a tomato?'

He was funny and earnest, with an intense, wide-eyed stare. He looked like he could be Robert Downey Jr's long-lost Catalan uncle. Rather endearingly, he wore a photo-ID badge pinned to a saggy black T-shirt, even though he was in his own office and is, with the possible exception of certain football players and bullfighters, the most recognisable man in the city, if not all of Spain.

That evening I attended a dinner hosted by Dom Pérignon's chef de cave, Richard Geoffroy, with whom Adrià is involved in a somewhat mysterious three-year project to 'decode' the Champagne. The menu comprised 29 'snacks' - no cutlery required - that Adrià had created to accompany Dom Pérignon's newly released 2005 vintage. It was the first time he had cooked publicly since he closed El Bulli four years ago. Among the 29 snacks were 'mimetic peanuts', 'goose barnacles' and deep-fried rabbit ears.

Adrià spoke of creativity, innovation and education. He outlined the purpose of the Foundation, the nature of the collaboration with Dom Pérignon and his plans for El Bulli 1846, which is currently being built on the site of the original El Bulli restaurant and which he hopes will become a hotbed of foodie innovation. He has a knack of coining phrases, even if their meaning isn't always clear. He referred to El Bulli as a 'disruptive moment' in the history of gastronomy. I liked the sound of that. What, I asked, were the other most disruptive moments?

'Auguste Escoffier!' he exclaimed, invoking the father of modern French cooking and author of the encyclopedic Guide Culinaire. 'Why did he choose the recipes he did?' Adrià wondered out loud, with a baffled expression, almost as if he were talking to himself. He seemed haunted by Escoffier. References to his great predecessor peppered his conversation. Adrià has often been quoted as saying that he closed El Bulli after he had invented 1,864 dishes; 1864 was also the year of Escoffier's birth.