Sep 30, 2013 8 Questions With: Natalia Arrias Camps
I didn’t fully appreciate the intricate artistic and technical components of molecular gastronomy until our company took an afternoon excursion in ‘11 to see “El Bulli – Cooking in Progress,” a documentary about the famous Spanish restaurant and its visionary chef, Ferran Adrià. This deconstructivist modern style of cooking involves embracing sensory and food science, borrowing tools from the science lab and ingredients from the food industry and concocting surprise after surprise for their diners. Molecular gastronomy experiments have resulted in new innovative dishes like hot gelatins, airs, faux caviar, spherical ravioli, crab ice cream and olive oil spiral. I had the pleasure of meeting Natalia Arrias Camps, one of the co-founders of MolecularRecipes.com at UCLA Anderson’s Entrepreneur Conference a few months ago. The MolecularRecipes.com team is creating a community of professional chefs, amateur cooks, and scientists to participate in revolutionizing traditional cooking and transforming eating into a whole new emotional and sensory experience.
How did MolecularRecipes.com evolve as a concept?
MolecularRecipes.com started as a blog. Sebastian (co-founder) created this blog in order to store and organize his recipes and have a record of the creative process. Suddenly people started trying the recipes, asking questions, showing appreciation for the content and asking for more content. At that time, we decided to turn the blog into a company and I joined full time to build the structure around it. The vision was to build a community where chefs, scientists, students and home cooks can find inspiration, recipes and ingredients to explore modernist cuisine. We managed to build a large community very quickly. Our Facebook community recently surpassed the 100k fans.
What do you hope to achieve with this brand, community, and business?
We hope MolecularRecipes.com becomes the place where people can get everything they need related to molecular gastronomy and molecular mixology. Our goal is to provide our followers with the best content and the best products. We want to be the place where people can get inspiration, find products and share their work, whether it is a recipe or a food science paper.
What are you currently working on?
We just came back from Spain and Denmark. During the trip we had the chance to meet many chefs who where kind enough to open their restaurants and share with our community some of their latest dishes and innovation. It was an incredible experience and we are currently editing and compiling all the material to be published.
What are some of the challenges you have encountered at this growth stage?
We have so much content in the pipeline and so many product ideas to implement that it is challenging for the team to get it all done.
Can you share some of the learnings you’ve experienced as an entrepreneur so far?
Bring to your team only people that you trust and who fully believe in your vision. It is very important to get along with the people that you work with. Startups are a bit of a roller coaster ride. There are some great times but also a lot of stress and uncertainty. A good relationship with your team is vital to survive.
Where do you find inspiration?
Nowadays we travel around the world interviewing successful chefs, scientists, manufacturers and reviewing restaurants. I find inspiration in their stories. There is always a common denominator: They LOVE what they do. It is not just the money, status, recognition or press coverage. It is the love and respect for their work and an incredible dedication. That inspires me.
As a kid, what did you want to be?
Sebastian wanted to be an engineer and he loved to cook. It’s no wonder that he was drawn to the world of molecular gastronomy. I wanted to be many things such as gymnast, ballerina, archeologist and banker. In my confusion, the only clear idea was that I needed to pick an occupation that would allow me to travel the world.
What is your favorite post-work destination?
I like to go for a sunset run on the beach and then have a nice dinner.
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