Is food art? El Bulli chef creates a stir

Better known for his almost Surrealist creations in the kitchen rather than on canvas, Spain's best known chef, Ferran Adria, has created a stir after being invited to one of Europe's most influential art jamborees.

The five-yearly Documenta art show in Kassel, Germany, is one of the biggest events in the contemporary art calendar. And Adria, whose artistic output so far has extended to dishes such as codfish foam and spherical potato gnocchi with consommé of roasted potatoes, is one of only two Spaniards invited to show off his talents this year.

The chef, whose restaurant near Barcelona, El Bulli, was recently voted the best in the world for the second time, will rub shoulders with the likes of Britain's Tracey Emin.

The invitation, however, has stuck in the throat of the Spanish art establishment, which condemned it as the "banalisation of art". One critic, Jose de la Sota, writing in the daily El Pais, said: "Adria is not Picasso. Picasso did not know how to cook but he was better than Adria [at art]. What is art now? Is it something or nothing?"

The chef was unapologetic: "True, I am no Picasso, but what is art in times like these? Many people act as if I should apologise for participating. I am not going to.

"I understand there might be people who are annoyed. It's tough to see a cook get invited to this. But what is art? If they want to call what I do art, fine. If not, that's fine too," the chef said.

Roger Buergel, director of Documenta, shrugged off the controversy: "Why not? I almost always select things which seem strange to me," he said.