I Dream Of El Bulli, The Best Restaurant In The World

Every year, a list of the World’s Best 50 Best Restaurants is published by Restaurant Magazine (http://theworlds 50best.com). The Best Restaurant in the World in 2009 (also 2008, 2007 and 2006) is El Bulli. The list is the result of over 800 food critics including acclaimed chefs, food experts and critics “all around the world (The Nepresso Academy) voting on the best establishments they have eaten in, in the last 18 months.”

If your restaurant is voted as the best of  the best in the  world among your  peers in the food industry, the word “success” is, excuse me, an understatement. Sometimes, I have heard of restaurants here in Cebu awarded “outstanding,” two questions will have to be asked; is it colleagues in the industry that gave the award and did you have to pay anything. Your favorite food columnist has, in the past, been awarded “outstanding veterinarian” many times but I have to pay a hefty fee for the souvenir book and the awarding ceremonies. Thank you, food guru na lang!

Each year, El Bulli (E-mail:[email protected], phone +34 972 15 04 57) operates only for 180 days between June and December (2009 season began in June 16, ends Dec. 20). The rest of the year, the El Bulli team, which includes a chemist and an industrial engineer, work in elBullitaller to invent new dishes, new dining utensils and serving plates for these magnificent creations.

If you come from the Philippines, medyo difficult because you have to fly to Barcelona, Spain and drive for two hours along a winding mountain road to the town of Roses on the Costa Brava.

Usually only dinner is served to about 50 guests and you have to make a reservation because during the season, “the restaurant accommodates only 8,000 diners, but gets more than two million requests for patronage per year.”

The service brigade instructs the guest on how to proceed with the dinner, in what sequence the various items are to be consumed and what items are “edible.” This season, a flower was served and the patron was supposed to sip the nectar but not eat the flower itself.

About thirty to thirty five dishes are served from appetizers to desserts and it takes about 4 hours to finish your meal; the “average cost of a meal is 250 Euros.”

To understand what El Bulli is all about, plenty of research was needed like reading about molecular cooking, viewing the video of Anthony Bourdain’s No Reservations: Decoding Ferran Adrià and Bizarre Foods with Andrew Zimmerman in Spain and social networking with people like (http://ianandoana.com) who have been guests in this prestigious restaurant.

Permission was granted by El Bulli to download and publish food photos and I have selected 32 photos among the 1,214 images

for the viewing pleasure of my beloved readers. The first four photos are drinks/cocktails and 12 photos can be collectively called appetizers (including snacks, dry & fresh). Part Two will feature the dishes (tapas, dishes, pre-desserts) and desserts (desserts, petit fours, follies, morphs).

The restaurant is run by Ferran Adrià, who has been “acclaimed as the best chef in the world.” Experts compare his cooking “to the innovative art of Picasso and insist he will leave a huge legacy in the development of cooking as an art.”