Critic

If You’re Not a Fan of Breakfast, History Agrees With You

Ferran Adria’s latest doorstopper traces how “the most important meal of the day” got that way.

A spread from Italian Breakfast (Phaidon, $125). — A spread from *Italian Breakfast* (Phaidon, $125).
Courtesy Phaidon

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By Howard Chua-Eoan

February 17, 2022 at 6:30 AM UTC

This article is part of the February 21, 2022 issue of businessweek.

I was never a fan of breakfast. To me it’s always been a sign of weakness, that your body can’t stand to wait until lunch or later for nourishment. Instead, I follow the fashion for intermittent fasting—I go 16 hours without ingesting calories, and make up for it with huge dinners at restaurants I love.

It was, therefore, with equal parts disdain and fear that I looked through Italian Breakfast from Ferran Adrià’s Bullipedia project. Disdain for the reason above; fear because it would be foolish to spar with his laser-sharp culinary intelligence. Would he change my mind?