El Bulli closed its doors a number of years ago, and it will remain shut for some time to come. During this long hiatus, its chef will take a rest, the restaurant will redevelop its menu and workers will renovate the place. Twenty days before El Bulli closed, however, I got a chance to go and experience their spectacular menu. Without exaggeration, I can say it is the most delicious meal I ever had – not just because of the taste but also because of its general quality, the dishes, the service and the drinks. There’s no El Bulli to go to right now, but even if there were, they would be taking reservations a year in advance.
Given such an enjoyable culinary experience, El Bulli deserves almost a full article all by itself. When it was open, El Bulli was typically open from April to October. Diners could never avail themselves of an à la carte menu; instead the meal consisted of a fixed menu of 25 to 45 small plates (the menu would only change once a year) spread over five hours (after all, how would you get through so many dishes any quicker?). The chef, the 50-year-old Ferran Adria, has been cooking since he was a child, and when El Bulli was open, his kitchen was as big as the adjoining 50-person restaurant. Employed in the kitchen were 50 cooks, putting the cook-guest ratio at 1:1.
EL BULLI IN THE ART EXHIBITION
Too many cooks in the kitchen didn’t spoil the broth, but instead made El Bulli’s food into an art form – so much so that the curators of the DOCUMENTA Art Exhibition asked Ferran to lend his culinary creations to their event, which was held in 2007 in Kassel, Germany. Ferran agreed, but he also noted that he wouldn’t be able to show off his creations in Germany because his food required local ingredients if it was going to be good. Accordingly, Ferran suggested to the curators that they bring the exhibition to his restaurant so that visitors could come and see the installation there. In fact, he even gave two lucky visitors a chance to dine in his restaurant every day. Ultimately, the DOCUMENTA event allowed 200 people to dine at El Bulli over the 100 days of the biennial.
Over the years, I’ve read several books about Ferran in an effort to learn what makes him tick. Like him, the restaurant also has an original story. In 1961, a German doctor, Hans Schilling, and his wife, Marketta, came to the small town of Roses, which is northeast of Barcelona near the French border. Long before the area became popular, they bought land at a low price on the shore of a small and shimmering cove before proceeding to build a summer house. Later, they decided to enlarge the house to turn it into a fast-food restaurant to serve the many beachgoers who came to the area.
In time, the restaurant grew, even if the Schillings’ love did not; they divorced, although their restaurant partnership continued, as Hans brought materials and equipment to develop their business. Soon, they hired a French chef to take their restaurant to the next level before renaming the establishment “El Bulli,” the Spanish words for bulldog, in honor of their own dog of the same breed.
The restaurant won its first star as a French restaurant in 1976, eight years before Ferran arrived on the scene as an assistant chef. In time, the boss left to start his own business, leaving Ferran in charge. El Bulli obtained its second star in 1990 and a third in 1997.
Meanwhile, the restaurant was managed by Julie Soler, who was looking after the marketing, supervision of staff and reservations, while Ferran’s brother, Albert, had begun working as the pastry chef. As the years progressed, the original owners sold the restaurant to Julie and Ferran, who chose to keep the restaurant closed over the winter to turn their attention to new recipes. The closure – as well as the quest for new recipes – soon became a tradition.
YEARS AT THE PINNACLE
Every year, the world’s best chefs vote for the planet’s best restaurant, and for four years (from 2006 to 2009), El Bulli was selected the best restaurant in the world (it also finished second in 2010). Needless to say, El Bulli has an excellent reputation among chefs.
During El Bulli’s run, nearly 8,000 people dined there every year. At the start of a new year, customers would seek to make reservations, but there was no guarantee that you would find a spot during the calendar year. If you had happened to dine there before, however, then you might be in luck, since half of the 8,000-person capacity was reserved for regular customers. For those who hadn’t dined there before, they had to ride their luck and hope to be one of the 4,000 out of the 2 million – yes, 2 million – to win a reservation at the restaurant. After winning a place, lucky customers would pay for the meal in advance by credit card. (But pity those who won a reservation for a date they could not attend; instead of getting a second pick of date, El Bulli would cancel their reservation and select another person from the hundreds of thousands of prospective diners.) In this way, the restaurant met its expenses for its yearly April opening by the beginning of January.
With such demand, El Bulli’s managers could have easily capitalized on the place’s reputation and opened brunches in different cities of the world. They could also have opened the place at noon or kept the restaurant open the whole year, thereby doubling their income. The thing is, they didn’t want to: Ferran Adria is an artistic person, and he preferred to take some rest instead of working hard.
As for me, I spent five years, fruitlessly sending emails in the hopes of becoming one of the 4,000 selected to dine at El Bulli. But thanks to the intervention of a friend, I finally got to join that select club.
A 42-PORTION EXTRAVAGANZA
The menu would consist of 42 servings that would come every seven minutes. El Bulli would also serve very nice wine with the food – which is one of the reasons I was happy that we traveled by taxi, as it allowed me to partake more than if I had taken my own car. As you might expect, however, a meal there was expensive.
Tasting the menu was an interesting experience, as just 12 of the 42 servings were geared to our palette, while the rest of them were surprising in every way! At one point, for instance, they served something that looked just like a big, white, Easter egg; we dug in, expecting it to be chocolate, only to find that it was nothing but cheese! The dish, which tasted like parmesan, melted in the mouth immediately. As we clamored about to try more of it, we suddenly realized that we had finished it all.
After the “Easter egg,” we were served what we thought was caviar – only to have something that tasted like hazelnut. El Bulli would make a lot of surprises like these during your special dinner.
Ultimately a humble man, Ferran showed us around the restaurant, gave us a book as a gift and even engaged in some small take despite not being so proficient in English.
ANOTHER CATALAN STAR: CAN ROCA
The other restaurant with three Michelin stars in Catalonia is the El Celler de Can Roca. The restaurant, which was selected the second best in the world this year, is in Girona, which is about 90 minutes from Barcelona. Three brothers own the place: Joan Roca (executive chef), Joseph Roca (sommelier) and Jordi Roca (pastry chef).
The restaurant, which has a capacity for about 60 or 70 people, is in a very nice and modern building. They have an option for an à la carte menu, but I would suggest trying the 12-portion menu, which is accompanied by very suitable and affordable wine. The place impressed me so much that I will definitely visit there again. It might not be El Bulli, but Can Roca still throws up some nice surprises!
In the end, I would recommend the lunch at Can Roca. Although the menu “only” has 11 or 12 servings (a far cry from El Bulli’s 42), it also takes upwards of five hours to eat.
THE CLOSEST STAR TO BARCELONA: CAN FABES
Can Fabes is a restaurant with three Michelin stars about 45 minutes out of Barcelona (it acquired its last star in 1994). There is also a mini hotel on site, meaning you can dine and spend the night there as well.
All of these restaurants are remarkable, but if I would have to rank them, I would put Can Fabes in third place – which, given how successful a restaurant it is, just goes to show how challenging the Catalan competition is.
Although Can Fabes is more of a standard place, it does have a six- or seven-portion menu, although its wine selection is fairly ordinary. You can have an appetizer, a main course and a dessert.
Can Fabes also has a Spanish chef who is on bad terms with El Bulli. The chef frequently criticizes Ferran Adria’s work, declaring himself someone who cooks real food – unlike Ferran Adria’s “artificial meals.”
THE CHALLENGE OF BEING AN INTERN AT EL BULLI
While it was open, El Bulli used to receive about 2,500 applications per year from chefs who wanted to become unpaid interns at the famous restaurant. These interns, mind you, were no kids right out of high school, but 30-somethings who were already up to great things, like being the owners or executive chefs of a restaurant. Only 20 to 50 of these 2,500 were selected to intern at El Bulli, where they had the opportunity to learn in the presence of Ferran Adria.
Receiving just room and board for 12 months, the interns would work on El Bulli’s next menu for when the restaurant would reopen after winter. Some popular dishes tended to reappear in the new menus, but many of the rest were entirely new!