Under the immense aluminum dome with mutant projections that surrounds the main dining room of the Danish restaurant Alchemist, the phenomenon that since 2019 has dazzled foodies from all over the world, journalists, critics, influential lovers of haute cuisine, as well as other diners who occupied the restaurant, met. the winding bar from which everyone could enjoy the show. See, eat, drink. And, of course, get magnificent photos of the dishes, thanks to a system of light points studied to the millimeter so that everything looks and has an impact on Instagram.
It was Friday, February 2, and the first of three dinners were being held on consecutive days announced under the title, “Synergy. Celebrating the legacy of El Bulli.” And with a promise from the organizer, the Danish chef Rasmus Munk: to participate in a historic event in which tribute would be paid to the most influential restaurant of recent decades.
Ahead, seven hours of show that would include a showy performance in the first of the spaces through which the diner passes (who before leaving will even pass through a ball pool) and a series of projections on the ceiling of the dining room, always adapted to the honoree and his Danish host. And, above all, a unique menu based on almost 50 preparations accompanied by great wines for 52 diners in each of the only three functions.
Some of them were El Bulli classics that marked outstanding conceptual contributions and that proved to hold up well over the years; from Enigma, Albert Adrià's restaurant in Barcelona, and from Alchemist. A dinner to highlight this synergy between the three restaurants, to which would be added a dish from Albert Raurich and another from Rafa Zafra, Bullinian chefs who happily joined the brigade for the occasion.
As a prelude, the day before a symposium on the legacy of El Bulli had been held in the Concert Hall on the grounds of the emblematic Tivoli, currently closed for renovations, where more than 300 culinary students who were part of the 700 attendees enjoyed the speech by Ferran Adrià as children on the roller coasters of one of the oldest amusement parks in the world.
The event included interventions, among others, by Harold McGee (the renowned popularizer of science and cooking), who introduced himself as “the old man of the place” and told his vision of the Adrià legacy and recalled the differences between the Nouvelle revolution Cuisine and the one whose epicenter was Montjoi Cove.
Albert Adrià, whom all the speakers pointed out as a crucial part of El Bulli, contributed the practical spirit that characterizes him and took away the importance of his current work at Enigma. “I pull resources. But I have many resources.” The youngest of the Adrià recognized his admiration for Munk, with whom he said he shared the good management of finger food or the search for the essence using few ingredients - "What you can't count on with three ingredients you won't be able to do with ten" - and contributed some touches on the El Bulli dishes that after a long time would be cooked again the next day.
Although he did not tell it, it is evident that both he and his brother also share with the Dane the passion for a magical and circus world that would lead the Adriàs to fall in love with Cirque du Soleil, to the point of putting together with its creator the missing Heart de Eivissa, a display of fantasy, spectacle and gastronomy that left its mark.
If on the grounds of the amusement park it seemed that El Bulli was magically rearing his head again, among those old fairground attractions, the next day everything was ready at Alchemist to welcome him. As an example, the projection at the entrance of the poster of his farewell, in 2011: “We closed El Bulli to open El Bulli.”
We could talk about the miraculous resurrection in that enormous warehouse on the outskirts of Copenhagen of a Bulli who, after that last dinner that was titled “The Last Waltz” (where all the greats who once worked under the orders of Adrià and Juli Soler cooked ), he came out agilely again on the dance floor. This time, honored by a young 33-year-old Danish chef.
A Bulli that, like a mirage, after three days and three nights of performance (there was also a raffle to win a place to enjoy a dinner that cost 2,000 euros) would disappear again. Or not at all, if we take into account that that night in July 2011 it was reborn at the same moment it said goodbye as a restaurant to begin its mutation into El Bulli Foundation. And there it continues, dedicated to the work of analysis and reorganization of knowledge.
The reappearance at the beginning of the cold Danish February responded to the call of the chef at Alchemist, the restaurant that Adrià himself describes as “the hottest at the moment.” Munk says he is fascinated by the character who led an entire revolution from that corner of Montjoi Cove (Roses) that he would never get to know and whose existence he learned about in 2010, when the media around the world echoed the announcement of his close the following year.
For his part, Adrià says that he discovered the proposal of the Dane, whom he describes as humble and of great honesty, in the year of the opening of the current Alchemist in 2019 during a dinner in which he was impressed by a space and an implementation. scene that seemed unique and groundbreaking. So much so that since then he maintains that “the holistic experience in Alchemist” is the only avant-garde that is being done at the moment in its field. We have heard little from him about the kitchen, apart from highlighting, like his brother, an excellent finger food in the snacks part, certainly very Bullinian.
Like the Catalan chef, Rasmus Munk always speaks of the holistic concept when referring to his unique project. It has a huge space (more than 2,000 m² in an old warehouse that previously occupied the workshops of the Royal Danish Theatre), where an interaction takes place that goes beyond a meal that seeks to awaken emotions and confront diners with their own taboos. while making them reflect on societal problems, such as child exploitation, waste or ocean pollution.
The restaurant cost 10 million euros and was possible thanks to the support of businessman Lars Seier Christensen, one of the great Danish fortunes and the same one who is a partner in Geranium, who saw enormous potential in the young Munk and wanted to bet on him. The chef was able to launch, at his discretion, high-level architecture, engineering, lighting or design work, to which he adds his artistic vision and that controversial discourse, sometimes indigestible for those who go to a haute cuisine place, which For many, it compensates with intense social work on behalf of the most disadvantaged. A restaurant with cuisine influenced by Bullin and other great chefs.
Is what Musk does cutting edge? Adrià assures that for him yes, but he does not talk about what is on the plate but rather about the experience offered to the diner. Of space and holistic experience. His observation reminds us that years ago his most renowned colleagues on the planet pointed to the framework in which the gastronomic experience would be developed - from the space itself to light, music or projections and all kinds of effects - as the great attraction of the restaurant. from the future. They did so by placing themselves in a context in which culinary creativity had taken giant steps in a few years when El Bulli had blown diners' heads with so many contributions and it was time to start looking for incentives on the continent.
After a display of interesting snacks (the false tortilla was very tasty) that were interspersed with some classics from El Bulli and Enigma, Musk resorts to dishes presented in provocative containers that capture attention in the rest of the menu. An eye - which he observes us - at the bottom of which he hides a bite made of lobster, zucchini, mushrooms and covered with caviar and a gel from the vitreous humor of the cod; half a latex human head that the waiter uncovers so you can taste some lamb brains with cherry glaze and foie gras served inside; a tongue that the diner will have to lick to try another of his creations (smoked lamb tongue, raifort and blueberries), a freeze-dried royal margarita that crowns another small bite; a fine loin of rabbit meat on metal ribs that evoke those of a child, with which the chef continues to provoke, in his own way.
In his tribute to El Bulli, some of the aforementioned dishes coincided (he also reproduced Warhol's banana or Munch's El Grito), with Bullinian classics such as sorbet with almond gelatin and tomato sorbet (the first salty granita, from 1992). , the sea foam (1994), the frozen parmesan cut (1995), the spice clock (1996)… creations that fit well with those of Albert Adrià in an Enigma that is in an extraordinary moment and that left interspersed with Munk's creations.
Perhaps the Dane's cuisine is a consequence of the overwhelming creativity during the years of El Bulli's life and a reflection of the possible tendency to focus on the setting, the container or the message of the dish, even more than on the culinary contributions. Albert Adrià assured that at Enigma he cooks his own to make the diners happy. His older brother said that in El Bulli that was never his goal, but rather, as it should be in a space where it is avant-garde, to open new paths. He made it through the kitchen that he invited to eat to think. A kitchen that he managed to dazzle and that continues to inspire.
