El Bulli is known as the best restaurant in the world. But more importantly, it’s the most famous, for not only its impeccably designed, incredible food, but the awe and mystery shrouding the kitchen from the rest of the world. Located in Catalonia, Spain, the restaurant only accommodates 8,000 diners a season but receives millions of requests, and employs 42 of the best cooks.

Yet despite its international acclaim, the restaurant is a financial failure. For the past eleven years the restaurant has operated as a loss, only bolstered by revenue from El Bulli related products and appearances by Chef Ferran Adrià. He announced last year that because of this, El Bulli will close permanently at the end of this month, and become a culinary creativity center in 2014. According to Adrià, “cuisine is entering a new phase.  There will be cooking at Harvard.” I’m sure, though, the best chefs will be vying desperately to attend his classes.

Although the restaurant is almost no longer, New Yorkers have an unprecedented opportunity to view El Bulli from within, thanks to a new documentary by Gereon Wetzel. “El Bulli: Cooking in Progress” will screen at New York’s Film Forum July 27th – August 9th. A detailed interview with the director about his experience during filming can be found here, but I feel this quote in particular perfectly sums up the experience of both making the film and working in such an extraordinary kitchen:

“It was important to show how hard it is to be creative. Ideas don’t fall from the sky; you have to work very, very hard and there’s a lot of pressure to invent something.”

According to BBC  world news Ferran Adria is closing his ground breaking El Bulli. You may have never had the opportunity to dine at this restaurant, or even heard of it for that matter.  However it is guaranteed that you  have eaten food influenced by Adria’s culinary artistry.

A couple of years ago my husband Dave and I were among the lucky few who took the harrowing drive from Roses to have dinner at El Bulli.  We were with our good friends, Kim and Greg.  Every year there are just eight thousand seatings at this outwardly unassuming restaurant and over two million reservation requests.  To Greg that was a challenge he would rise to.

I had heard of Feran Adria but I was not prepared for what we were about to experience.  Reading about a chef like that is like studying Picasso without ever seeing the work.  You can speak the language but you don’t know what you are talking about until you fill in the gaps with passion.

The dining room is traditional and the kitchen is anything but.  We ordered the tasting menu which was if I remember rightly was made up of twenty three courses.  The word that comes to my mind to describe my meal that evening is purity.  Flavor and texture in its purest form.  Complex techniques  presented to the diner in the most elegant way and every moment a surprise that constantly challenged our senses.

As the years have gone by, I appreciate more and more what a magical night that was.  El Bulli has five times been named the top restaurant in the world. The techniques that created the meal we ate that night continue to revolutionise the industry.

Feran Adria serves as an inspiration and proves ‘it’ hasn’t all been done before.

Photographs:  Gourmet magazine