Ferran Adrià – A fascinating journey

Rumors and hyperbole always swirled around El Bulli, the fabled restaurant…But the end of an era has arrived.

Ferran Adrià has been widely considered the best, most innovative and craziest chef in the world. In his kitchen, that which was once familiar disintegrates. For the past years his restaurant El Bulli closed for half a year – time for Adrià and his team to retire to his Barcelona cooking laboratory to create the new menu for the coming season. Anything goes – except copying oneself. El Bulli represented not just a restaurant but a way of thinking about our most basic need as human beings.

An elegant, detailed study of food as avant-garde art, EL BULLI: COOKING IN PROGRESS is a rare inside look at some of the world’s most innovative and exciting cooking; as Adrià himself puts it, “the more bewilderment, the better!” The documentary takes us on a journey of creativity, devotion and exploration. It demonstrates that food connects us all by consumption but separates us by culture.

El Bulli restaurant is now being converted into El Bulli Foundation. There is a lot of modernity in its concept and like every story, the few who see things differently are pointed as crazy. Although tomorrow everyone will see that it was more the work of a genius. The foundation design will include new materials and digital innovations that would probably make it a showcase of a new architecture that takes into consideration such factors as salinity levels, winds, relative humidity, geothermal and photosynthesis. It also promises to cut carbon emissions. Apart from the “idea center,” Adria announced there will be an elBulli archive, a data center with digitized files of recipes and experiments done during the 15 years of the restaurant. More details will be unveiled in 2012 at the Mistura Gastronomic Fair in Lima, Peru. The eco-neighborhood and park are slated to open in 2014.