Those who know Ferran Adrià assure that his obsession with learning and questioning absolutely everything knows no limits, nor does his capacity for work. You can always go a little further, believe this character who looks more like an early bird woodpecker than a genius. And for this reason, because he does not set limits, the menu at El Bulli also lacked them. And as the more than 40 elaborations to taste that made it up were arriving at the table, it was not strange that the diner felt that his head was going to explode before that overflowing creativity with a perfect choreography, always from the authenticity of a treatment close, enveloping everything.
Now that restaurant that closed in July 2011 to reinvent itself and through which most of the current top representatives of haute cuisine have passed (from René Redzepi to José Andrés, Alex Atala, Andoni Aduriz, Massimo Bottura, Grant Achatz and an endless list ) is ready to return. He does it with the aim of explaining what happened there both to those who visited it in their day and feel nostalgic (or left without understanding anything, that there were also some), and especially to those who never went near that corner of the Cala Montjoi. And he does it through a route in which, we warn, they do not serve anything to eat or drink beyond water. And even so, it is very possible that the visitor who wants to delve into the amount of information that they offer, also feels that his head will explode.
This is what it takes to look into the orbit of someone who has surely been the most nonconformist and disruptive chef and of those who have followed him for the last 12 years, to expand and compile culinary knowledge through that encyclopedic project that is the Bullipedia ( 30 volumes are missing to reach the 53 expected in that they address multiple areas).
El Bulli 1846 will open as the first restaurant-museum on June 15, although from Monday tickets can be purchased through its website for 27.5 euros. They try to explain what happened in that place that was the epicenter of the last gastronomic revolution, and they analyze processes of their own work that they did in their day without stopping to study them as they have been able to do during the long period since they served their last meal at El Bulli. dish, a version of the Peach Melba that paid homage to the master Auguste Escoffier.
We visited the new El Bulli 1846 together with a small group of journalists on a sunny Wednesday morning, with the privilege of seeing the explanations on the audio guide replaced by those of a flesh and blood Ferran Adrià, with whom we toured the 68 facilities on a route which begins on the outside, where they have won a piece of land bought from some neighbors to allocate it to parking. Although there will be a shuttle and parking in Roses to avoid having to arrive by car, an option that will be more affordable.
The chef admits that he never thought that his titanic project would take so long to see the light, but neither did they expect to have to deal with so many administrative obstacles and opposition from environmental groups who feared the impact of the works in the Cap de Creus Natural Park in the one they meet and with whom they have managed to get along. “We didn't want to go against anyone and we asked how they thought we should do it to move forward together. Now everyone is satisfied." Nor did they expect a pandemic that has delayed everything even more.
"Until they were able to see the museum, not even our family understood what we were doing in Cala Montjoi all these years," jokes Lluis Garcia, happy to show the work done, who was a key player in the room in the past and managed to manage the madness of the reserves of El Bulli, now assumes the challenge of running the new center. With him, other well-known faces of El Bulli, such as Lluis Biosca, the sommelier Ferran Centelles (who has directed the Bullipedia of wine and other beverages) or Marc Cuspinera.
The space, with an investment of 11 million euros between civil works and museumization, has 2,500 m2 outside and 1,300 inside, where it combines research, innovation and debate. All this belongs to the foundation that was created after the closure as a restaurant, El Bulli Foundation, whose objectives are "to safeguard the legacy of El Bulli as a space and as a documentary and knowledge collection that changed the paradigm of gastronomy worldwide, in addition to sharing their management experience and generating quality content for gastronomic restoration that strengthen this academic discipline”. Their bosses are Ferran and Albert Adrià, Isabel Pérez (wife of the former), Marta Sala (wife of Juli Soler, a partner of the Adrià family who died in 2015) and Ernest Laporte, financial director. And, Ferran Adrià insists on remembering, "nothing would have been possible without our 'angels': Telefónica, CaixaBank, Lavazza and Grifols".
The idea is that the museum remains open for three months and the rest of the year functions as elBulliDNA, dedicated to researching, experimenting and disseminating content developed through multidisciplinary group calls. The exhibition part is made up of that outdoor space with a tour that begins by reflecting on cooking and innovation, continues by explaining culinary evolution, the creative system, the phases of the gastronomic experience or paying tribute to "the Bullinians" (all those professionals , many of whom are highly recognized today, who passed through El Bulli).
Continue inside, in the historic building, where you can visit the dining room, completely renovated faithful to how it was, and where the tables are shown as if the diners had left in unison, leaving the plates, glasses and napkins as they are) or the kitchen, where they collect from the reproduction of the most disruptive creations to the objects that were designed, videos and other elements. There is an area dedicated to interdisciplinary relations and a review of the echo that the media made of El Bulli, as well as another that houses the working groups.
With the same attention that Adrià spied out of the corner of his eye on the reaction of the diners who occupied the coveted kitchen table, he now observes those who finish their first visit to the museum. He says that they often ask him if he doesn't miss cooking. And he confesses: "The only thing I missed was seeing people leave here happy."
