Since 1983, Ferran Adria has been the chef at a tiny restaurant in Roses, about 75 km outside of Barcelona, in Catalunya, Spain. Though deeply steeped in Spanish cuisine, starting in the early ninties he and his brother began to dramatically redefine cuisine. From this out-of-the way restaurant on the medeterranean coast, a new perspective on what is possible for food began, and has had massive percussions throughout the haute cuisine world.
In this clip, star and chef in his own right, Anthony Bourdain begins his absolutely epic 28 course journey into another dimension at El Bulli, the restaurant which has been recognised as the number 1 for many years, and in the top 5 for almost a decade. El Bulli only opens for 6 months of the year, the rest they spend a laboratory in Barcelona preparing the menu for next year. In 3 days, they take all the reservations for the year- rumour has it that they recieve 500,000 calls to fill only 8,000 diners for a year. If you want to go, you call during those days, and pray. If you are lucky enough to actually get a reservation, then you plan your holiday around whatever time you manage to get.
Just to give some perspective, tony and the bunch are actually sitting IN THE KITCHEN! That's right- that's the KITCHEN they're seated in. It is unlike any kitchen I've ever seen, commercial or otherwise.
The food in this clip is from their 2002 menu, and the techniques are still today considered "bleeding edge" in the culinary world. As a rule it takes about 8-10 years for the techniques pioneered at el bulli to filtre through to the haute cuisine mainstream.
This new clip is quite a bit shorter than the one that I had to replace, but the good news is that much more of the el bulli experience is now available on youtube:
Part 1:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vOq9zQfZpNI Part 2:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Hh34fic8FUg Part 3:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6yeuErEVatk Part 4:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jBU-jaCD2YQ Part 5:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UXtfj8jZwR0 Part 6 (you just saw):
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5yKel5esZEU Part 7:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=W8ZBIF-kJQg Part 8:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=J8Uaoa0JC0U Part 9:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yVb9QOhNfNg Part 10:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=exaUNTxN_MQ Part 11:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6qs0Nl4C-Yc Part 12:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hcMoLsUWhCw Part 13:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bPcGTundvUw Part 14:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hYQeH0P4v3E
Load Comments...
Discuss...
Enable JavaScript to submit a comment.