Top Chef Spices Hospital Menus

Ferran Adrià is widely acknowledged as one of the best chefs in the world, famous for his innovative dishes. People wait for months to get a table at his legendary restaurant on the Costa Brava, El Bulli.

But now the Catalan chef has turned his attentions to hospital food. Having spent years developing his "deconstructivist" style of cooking, investigating textures and flavors as though his kitchen were a laboratory, Adrià believes he has come up with dishes ideally suited to cancer patients who have difficulty swallowing or digesting standard hospital fare.

At a presentation by a group of chefs who work with the Alícia Foundation, which researches dietary habits and their relation to disease and illness, Adrià said: "The revolution in textures that has changed the world of high gastronomy is ideally suited to the diet of patients."

Among the dishes that Adrià prepared were mango cannelloni, tomato jelly stuffed with fresh cheese, and liquefied asparagus. The foundation has collaborated on a recipe book.

For those patients who have mouth ulcers, Adrìa recommends fairly traditional soups, made of vegetables or fruit - except that they should be served as iced lollies, to aid digestion.