Remarkably, the Swedish foursome we’re talking to know that El Bulli is a top restaurant but have no idea how difficult it is to get a booking. An email request secured a table for four on their first attempt and they thought no more of it. They are shocked, surprised and increasingly delighted to know the odds of getting a table are about 1000-1. We can’t help but feel though that they have missed out on something along the way for we’ve been excited for about a year now around this visit and the journey is surely part of the fun. If this is not a food pilgrimage, what is it?
The day before we left we were chatting to a black cab driver and said we were going to Spain. The cab driver enquired the purpose of our trip; I said we were going for dinner. The expression goes that it’s better to travel in hope than to arrive and at the end of the experience, you can have a valid view on the El Bulli experience and whether it’s worth the hype, but before you go there, you’ll probably know a couple of things about your destination (unless you’re Swedish).
First, El Bulli has dominated the Pellegrino Best Restaurants in the World list (winner in 2002, regaining top spot in 2006 and staying top in 2007, 2008 and 2009). Second, Ferran Adrià is a cook’s cook with for example Joel Robuchon declaring Adrià the best chef in the world, so this is not just marketing hype. Adrià also won Restaurant Magazine’s Chef of the Decade award. Third, especially with the restaurant closing, this is a once in a lifetime experience, you will never do this again and there’s no second chance. If as a foodie you are not in a perpetual buzz of excitement before you even sit down at the table, because perhaps you like to think of yourself as a contrarian, or perhaps because you read a blog that said it wasn’t it’s all cracked up to be, well, that’s sad, and I have to think wrong. On the night before we are due to eat, we feel like children on Christmas Eve counting down the hours and giving voice to the excitement in saying things like ‘this time tomorrow we’ll at El Bulli’ followed by giggles.
The journey from Gerona to Roses is remarkably easy taking around an hour though if you fly to Barcelona proper, by all accounts, it’s longer and more complicated. Roses itself we had been told was run down and we thought there would be little to occupy us. Rather, we found Roses to be quite a charming little seaside town catering well for tourists of all nationalities and so we settled in to enjoy the still fine weather despite it now being out of season.
From Roses, the journey time to El Bulli is around 20 mins and as the taxi slows and we see the restaurant name plate, the excitement is taken to a new level. We have a ‘pinch me, I can’t believe it’s real’ moment.
The gates to El Bulli swing open at 7:25 and we walk down the driveway, ocean to our left and what looks like a sizeable charming villa nestling behind palm trees in front of us that is our ultimate destination. Through the front door, staff line the hallway and greet us as we enter. We’re asked ‘would you like to see the kitchen?’ Well, since we’re here... The first thing you notice in the kitchen is Ferran Adrià waiting to greet you standing in front of a giant bull’s head (not a real one, and El Bulli is actually a bull dog, not a bull). I fumble for the camera, lens cap off, I remember that I turned the flash off when I was outside (doh!), it’s all running away from me; I’m feeling the pressure of meeting genius. Having snapped my picture of Ferran, we then line up alongside Ferran for our picture with him. Normally, our food groupie pictures see us with a silly grin, often worse the wear for drink and are something of an embarrassment. We benefit here from not being drunk though I think we’ll still keep this picture for the family album only.
Moving into the restaurant dining area, we take our seats and the first course is immediately upon us, really, it’s that quick, bam. It’s a cocktail of sorts, but in the El Bulli way – a frozen strawberry Campari. ‘Eat it now’ they urge us, ‘one bite’, we do as we’re told. They don’t have seat belts on the chairs but perhaps they should for you really do need to strap yourselves in, the pace will be unrelenting, faster than anything that you will have ever experienced in a restaurant. This is his house and his rules, you’re along for the ride with Ferran driving. The evening has begun.
click for chapter 2, courses 1-20