Ferran Adria will return to China to learn more about its cuisines as part of the preparations before he re-opens El Bulli in 2014 to nurture a new generation of creative chefs, all ages. Zou Hong / China Daily

He is probably the most influential chef on the international culinary stage, and he wants to be more. Ye Jun finds out what his latest ambitions are as Ferran Adria starts a tour of China as his country's emissary for tourism.

Think of Spain, and the mind traditionally conjures up passionate flamenco dancers, heroic matadors or exotic islands with all-night partying under the full moon. But in the last two decades or so, think of Spain and the eyes light up and the senses salivate as we of think of Ferran Adria, his iconic El Bulli restaurant and how he changed the way we look at and taste food. At the height of his popularity, the chef announced he was closing shop and moving on. El Bulli will go into hiatus, he says, and when it reopens, it will be an incubator for the next generation of memorable chefs.

Now, Adria is in China on a tour of three cities - Shanghai, Beijing and Hong Kong - so he can get to know China better and the Chinese can get to know Spain better. Of course, every journalist he meets wants to know what he thinks of Chinese ingredients and Chinese cuisine.

"Chinese cuisine is marvelous and convincing, but I cannot completely understand it in merely seven days," he says.

He has already grasped the nuances and says cooking here is "fun in every sense of the word" because one gets to try so many things.

"Western food is always served in the order of first course, main course and dessert," he says. "But China has thousands of dishes."

He loves the crab restaurant he visited in Shanghai and has already noted the variety of ways Chinese chefs serve vegetables.

"This is like an exploration. I would like to stay for two months to know China better. What I'm interested in is not just how they cook, but why they cook it this way. You can only find out during a longer stay.

"I want to stay a lot longer in China."

Adria is already starting the process with his creative approach to Chinese dishes. Think of dainty xiaolongbao, Shanghai steamed dumplings, without its usual dough wrapper. Instead, spun sugar is used like paper, paved with flowers.

Or, imagine more candy floss shaped into a fish wrapped around deep-fried fish bone.

On Tuesday, the chef showed off his prowess and wowed the press in Beijing,

In a sense, Adria is coming home where his ingredients are concerned.

One of his favorites in the kitchen, agar, has been used for hundreds of years in China, although it is a relatively strange ingredient in the Western pantry. It is a seaweed jelling agent.

Talking of strange, Adria tells China Daily there is "no such thing as strange food. Only strange people. Food is just food. It's we ourselves that choose to see food differently."

We had asked him what the most important thing he had learned from his kitchen experiments.

You changed the way people look at food. How would you like to be remembered?

"I don't believe I'm the best chef in the world. It's not about modesty. You cannot be too full of yourself. The most important thing is not to be the best, but to have the most influence. It is very difficult to influence other people."

The glory days of El Bulli, have they arrived? Or are they coming?

"We never looked for glory, but if you talk about the influence, it may be greater in the future. We think the Foundation will be more important than the past."

Adria, of course, was referring to the new El Bulli Foundation to be launched in 2014. It will be an incubator, a training and experimenting station for chefs that he would nurture to greatness. Here, it would be possible to shape the culinary trends and dictate how the world would eat in future.

The new El Bulli will be a showcase for young chefs. How do you identify the talents for your kitchen, and what are the things you look for when picking these "disciples"?

"We don't have any specific plans yet but we'll select not just young chefs, but people with creativity. Age does not matter.

"We want 20 people from around the world to stay for one year with the foundation. They need to be willing to work with other people creatively.

"The only criteria is creativity," he stresses, adding that he is considering signing an agreement with three or four countries to select chefs. One of them may be this country.

"We'd love China to be part of the agreement."

According to the chef, El Bulli Foundation will not be opened to the public, although there will be scheduled visits so people can understand the way it works.

With the foundation, Adria believes the spirit of El Bulli will be passed on.

"The most important thing for us is not to make other people cook the way we do, but make them think and evolve to a better stage," the chef says.

At the root of it all, the driving force behind the chef is how he sees food.

"Have you seen the movie Ratatouille? The young rat Remy says: 'Dad, eating well feeds your soul.' I'd like to add that it also feeds your body, and as a consequence, if someone eats well, they are happy.

"A restaurant is a place to appeal to customers. But at El Bulli, what we did was to search for the limits of food and share. It is a place to experiment.

"El Bulli is a place for reflection where people can spend four and a half hours being happy.

"When I was a child people told me 'you should not play with your food'. But I said I wanted to play with food. Because it is a reflection of life, and I want to play."

El Bulli Foundation is touted as "a non-profit making foundation focused on promoting cutting-edge cuisine and supplying society with professionals capable of working at the forefront".

And in their preparations, Adria and his team are motivated by life's experiences, and by their travels.

"We are thinking of coming to China as a team in 2013 to get inspiration from its cuisine, just before opening of the foundation."

How can that fail to impress, when you marry two great forces of culinary perfection?

You can contact the writer at yejun@chinadaily.com.cn.