A chef who names his restaurant Alkimia (alchemy) clearly has a scientific bent and a fascination with transforming ingredients. Jordi Vilá, the young chef at the helm of Alkimia, has earned a Michelin star for his Barcelona kitchen thanks to an adventure-packed menu that one critic aptly called “neither strident nor forced.” Meet Jordi in this Flash video (6:14)

Vilá, who hails from Barcelona and trained under some of the city’s Michelin-starred chefs, never forgets his Catalan roots. But he does like to shake the cobwebs off of the classics. He might use tuna belly in place of ham or sausage in faves a la Catalana (Catalan-style broad beans) or serve a wild mushroom and potato salad over a "meringue" made from lentils and pork cracklings. His dishes, while innovative, draw on familiar Catalan passions—for seafood, potatoes, sausages, eggs—and on local ingredients like monkfish.

Watch him demonstrate Mar Adentro (The Sea Inside), an attempt to provide customers with a novel experience of the sea. (Flash video, 10:52)

Read more about Jordi Vilá »