Minimalism in haute cuisine is a relatively recent conceptualization, but the term has a long intellectual lineage in art, design, and music. The term itself was first widely applied in the 1960s (art: Donald Judd, Frank Stella; music: Steve Reich, Philip Glass), but its aesthetic and philosophical roots can be traced much further back (shibui and yugen in Zen aesthetics, classical Greek notions of simplicity, the Bauhaus movement).

Ferran Adrià’s elBulliFoundation has been exploring how to define a distinct style within haute cuisine, using minimalism—a concept to which Adrià himself is particularly drawn—as a case study. Their effort culminated in a 3.5-hour debate at Madrid Fusión 2025 alongside key Spanish figures whose practice could be considered minimalist: Pedro Sánchez from Bagá, Josean Alija from Nerua, Artur Martínez from Aürt and Rubén Zubiri from Enigma.

While the findings have not been formally published, they were submitted as a final-year thesis by Alba Torres at the Basque Culinary Center in September 2024. Her paper, titled Minimalism in haute cuisine: minimalism as a style within creative haute cuisine in the savoury world, focusing on the tasting menu in Western restaurants, has been privately shared with us.

The research first provides a historical overview of minimalism, before laying out a set of principles to define the style. These principles were developed through interviews with key figures, including Julián Otero (Mugaritz) and Niko Romito (Reale), as well as the chefs who participated in the Madrid Fusión debate. In order to test the strengths and the limitations of her definition of minimalism, Torres compares minimalism with other culinary movements and styles—essentialism, conceptual cuisine, naturalist cuisine, maximalism, and simple/basic cuisine. This delineation is crucial: while “simplicity” is often conflated with minimalism, her research clarifies that minimalism is a conscious stylistic choice, rather than mere reduction.

Following the tradition of Nouvelle Cuisine, her study introduces a Decalogue of minimalist cuisine, outlining eleven guiding principles for this approach. It also proposes a typology of different forms of minimalism found in haute cuisine, including:

• Conceptual minimalism (focused on an intellectual or narrative-driven reduction)
• Minimalism in presentation (aesthetic restraint)
• Minimalism in ingredients (a radical reduction of components)
• Minimalism in preparations (intermediate elaborations, in Bullinian terminology)
• Minimalism in technique (a focus on essential or limited interventions)
• Minimalism in service (a pared-down dining experience, free from excessive theatrics)

The difficulty of theorising about gastronomy

One of the most thought-provoking dilemmas raised at the Madrid Fusión debate was the inherent difficulty of theorizing about gastronomy—a field that, despite its creative and intellectual depth, lacks the rigorous terminological and historical classifications found in art, literature, or music.

Why does gastronomy struggle with definition?

Unlike art history, which has relied on institutions, critics, and academic discourse to establish movements, styles and classifications, haute cuisine remains a field where authority is often dictated by chefs, critics, and media personalities. The absence of an academic framework means that terms are often loosely defined, inconsistently applied, and subject to rapid change.

For instance, Nouvelle Cuisine and Escoffier’s cuisine stand as two of the few widely acknowledged movements in haute cuisine, largely because they were articulated through manifestos, codified principles, and historical retrospection. Yet, contemporary gastronomic movements rarely undergo such structured documentation.

Borrowing from Art and Literary Theory

If haute cuisine is to develop a more structured discourse, it must embrace methodologies from disciplines that have successfully classified artistic movements. These include:

By adopting these frameworks, gastronomic movements could gain the clarity and legitimacy necessary to be recognized as part of a broader cultural history.

I shall not attempt a full-scale study in this article, but I do hope to contribute by expanding on the formal, comparative and historical analysis in Alba Torres’ dissertation.

Minimalism in the Nouvelle Cuisine and a clarity of message for conceptual cuisine

From a historical perspective, Nouvelle Cuisine undeniably left behind at least three fundamental pillars:

1. Plated presentation done in the kitchen
2. The use of high-quality ingredients
3. Precision in cooking techniques

While Nouvelle Cuisine was not explicitly minimalist, without these foundations, the idea of a minimalist dish would be unthinkable. The question then arises: did minimalist dishes already exist within Nouvelle Cuisine?

In savoury cuisine, the deeply ingrained classical trinity of protein, sauce, and garnish in plating makes it harder to identify the minimalist conceptualisation in certain dishes. However, one could argue that certain pioneering desserts, in particular, prefigured the minimalist ethos. Two iconic cases include Philippe Conticini’s liquid chocolate croquette, created in 1986, and Michel Trama’s apple sorbet with apple cristallines, developed slightly earlier in 1984.

Both desserts exhibit a radical focus on one primary ingredient, with minimal intervention and an emphasis on purity of expression. However, the crucial question remains: Did these chefs conceive of their work as minimalist, or were they simply engaging in a natural reduction of unnecessary elements? Unlike some of today’s minimalist chefs, Conticini and Trama did not explicitly frame their work within a theoretical discourse—which makes retrospective classification difficult.

Minimalism as a vehicle for clarity and intentionality

One fascinating aspect that was largely overlooked in the debate is its power to convey a clear and deliberate message. The only person who touched on this—albeit indirectly—was Niko Romito, in his interview with Alba Torres.

Maximalism, by its nature, conveys its message effortlessly: abundance, luxury, variety, opulence. Minimalism, on the other hand, grants the chef complete control over the message they want to communicate. This is precisely why conceptual cuisine finds a natural ally in minimalism. By removing distractions, minimalism amplifies the chef’s intention, making the idea behind the dish the true protagonist.

In a world where culinary movements remain ill-defined and fluid, minimalism may offer one of the clearest, most deliberate, and most intellectually rigorous stylistic choices available to chefs today.