How could our culinary exploration be complete without taking it to the extreme - to visit the hottest culinary spot on the planet and to experience the most eccentric meal by the most influential chef of our period!  Open only 6 months each year with a seating capacity of 8,000 per season, El Bulli receives over a million reservation requests every season, getting a reservation is just like winning a lottery.

About the Chef
Described as a legendary gastronomic genius, Ferran Adrià, started his first job in El Bulli as a dishwasher for just one month on leave from his military service in 1983. He was invited to return the following season as chef de partie. In 1987, Adrià was inspired by the phrase “Creativity means not copying” in a demonstration by Jacques Maximin in Cannes. He then closed down the restaurant for 5 months for the first time and started to change his conception of cooking - a modernisation of the tradition. This led to a new cuisine where techniques and concepts are the driving force for creativity, resulting in an innovative menu with his unique personal styles and characteristics.

Being considered as one of the molecular gastronomy leaders, Adrià opened elBullitaller in Barcelona in 1997, a laboratory where he famously spends half his year, to cultivate new ideas, concepts, techniques, recipes, everything to do with creativity. His cutting edge creations from the kitchen can be summarised into two categories: “the familiar presented in an unfamiliar way, and the unfamiliar presented to look like something familiar”. In each case, Adrià constantly plays with the “three T’s”: Temperature, Texture and Taste, resulting in extremely unusual and stimulating combinations. You may find some combinations exquisite; yet some unacceptable but at least interesting.

About the Restaurant
Reachable by driving up a winding cliff road, El Bulli is a gourmet’s dream destination, with a terrace overlooking the bay and a spacious dining room.

The restaurant opens in January, with the menu concluding the previous season. Every day one old dish is removed and one new dish is added to the 30-dish menu. The menu continues to evolve until the restaurant closes for the year. The restaurant opens for 160 days a year, so 160 recipes are created each year.  Each dish is conceived with talent and creativity; virtually no conventional dish can be found.  El Bulli publishes catalogues which documents every dish coming out from its kitchen.

Diners are first invited to visit the kitchen before walking pass shelves of El Bulli’s kitchen products and into their dining room.  The patio overlooking the beach is an ideal place for diners to take a break during the 30-course marathon.