El Bulli
was a Michelin 3 Star Restaurant on the Catalonian coast of Spain that was the
height of excess. Its chef and co-owner Ferran Adria turned what was an unpretentious
seaside café into a holy grail for the most serious of foodies. The extremely
creative and self-assured Adria led a team of some 42 chefs that ran the
Restaurant for six months of the year, then shut up shop and moved part of the
operation to a shiny test kitchen cum laboratory in Barcelona for the other six
months to vacuum, freeze, extract and deconstruct all manner of ingredients
into possible menu items for the next season.
This was not about making comfort food, or any dish that we could vaguely
recognize, but the science of molecular gastronomy.
This
fly on the wall documentary by a German crew filmed every step of the way for
the 2008/9 season, and is a fascinating inside look at how this avant-garde
culinary master artist goes about pursuing his passion. Apart from one short scene when he rebukes
his No.2, Adria’s temperament is unexpected mild-mannered which is great for
his staff, but makes for dull viewing in this 108 minute long movie.
Each
dish that his Team eventually created was visually stunning and one can only
imagine that it tasted as sensational as Adria intended that it should. The restaurant served a mere 8000 people in
the six months it was open (they evidently were the lucky ones out of the 2 million
that tried to book) and the film is not
totally clear but I think that each diner may not actually get a choice of
what they get to eat from the ever evolving menu, but dinner was expected to
take at least 3 hours long and consisted of many small courses.
At
the height of its fame El Bulli was judged by Restaurant Magazine to be No. 1
of the Top 50 Restaurants in the World, but even charging approx. 250 euros a
head the restaurant had not made a profit since 2000, so last summer Adria and
his partner closed it down for good. The
plan is to open a Foundation in 2014 to continue his research and development of new
ingredients and dishes. So far the operation
has been kept financially in profit by E Bulli's books and lectures by Adria.
This
movie is a real treat for foodies, chefs, visual artists but dare I say after a while it gets to be a tad
boring for anyone else. Watching guys
in white coats doing so many experiments that they barely explain day after day
does get monotonous after a time. But if
you are not such a cuisine philistine as me, then don't miss the movie. It's on DVD
in the US, and will be released theatrically in the UK in July. If you cannot wait till then, buy one of Mr
Adria’s book. They will set you
back a mere $350 each on Amazon.
★★★★★★★
★★★★★★★
