There are things in life that one does as an act of faith rather than of reason: one of which was the petición to "El Bulli". An email to apply for the reservation of a table, to be sent once a year, in a very narrow time interval. Invariably, a few months later, one receives the answer: "Even this year demand has far exceeded our availability and we regret not being able to fulfil your reservation request" (twice previously Sandra and I had applied in vain).
So once again we optimistically ventured a third petición and on a seemingly ordinary day of March 2010 the usual email materialized on my desktop, but this time we were reserved a table (miracle!) for the 1st of July (horror!!). In that moment a mixture of elation and despair, joy and anguish passed on my face. The date chosen by El Bulli coincided with my expedition to K2, an undertaking that I just couldn't/wouldn't give up. What to be done? As I knew that it would be the last year before the final closure of the best restaurant in the world, and that the applications exceeded 2 million for the available 6500 places, I did not take into consideration - even for a moment - the chance of moving the date. The only thing to do was to inform them of my unavailability in the most polite way. Under the penmanship of Sandra we drew up a small masterpiece of Spanish diplomacy, and two months later, as proof of my shameless fortune in this sort of things, I got a new email with an alternative date: December 8, 2010.
I will not dwell on what it means to dine at El Bulli: it surely needs no promotional hype! Prior to our arrival at El Bulli in Roses, Spain, we visited Arles in Van Gogh's footprints, Nîmes by Caesar Augustus' trail, and Figueres on Dali's wings, which provided a delightful backdrop for the sensory experience that Ferran Adrià, the proprietor of El Bulli, had in store for us. Like so many others, not to take unnecessary risks, we arrived at Roses the day before enjoying a wonderful dinner at Rafa’s Restaurant recommended by Ferran Adrià (“fish that tastes like the sea”) to the noted English chef Anthony Bourdain. This dinner itself justified our one thousand plus kilometre journey! The next afternoon (in mild autumnal sun) to avoid the risk of getting lost on our way to El Bulli, we did a dry-run of the eight kilometres of narrow winding road that carves through the Mediterranean scrub of the wild Cap de Creus until it finally descends to the Cala Montjoi inlet where, isolated from the rest of the world, the famous restaurant is situated.
Caviar cream with hazelnut caviar and
hazelnut cream with caviar
Wearing our good clothes and with great excitement, at 19:25 we arrive in front of the restaurant, in almost complete darkness. The gate is closed and a small American group stays in front of it, puzzled. At 19:30, the grating silently slides and the lucky guests in single file, like insiders, finally enter Adrià's realm. The first stop is a short visit to the kitchen, shining and quiet, populated by a troop of young chefs, led by Ferran Adrià. Invited to follow the example of the other guests, we take a picture with the famous chef, not without feeling a bit ashamed by the rite. Then they take us to the table and our real journey starts. At the end of this report you will find the tasting menu we were offered and a large photo gallery. Nevertheless, I must point out that you cannot even describe a course in full without tasting, and touching and seeing, and smelling it. In the right sequence, in accord with the previous and next one, in a sort of hologram that involves all five senses and that the other great surrealist of Figueres, Salvador Dali, would have loved.
The three welcome cocktails illustrate the chasm that separates El Bulli from the rest of the culinary world: a frozen strawberry filled with Campari, followed by a frozen mojito (green) sandwich and finally a half shell of egg filled with frozen rum microspheres accompanied by nori and sesame ravioli, stuffed with chopped yuzu.
Of the trio, we believe that the most innovative and revolutionary in terms of haute cuisine norms was the mojito sandwich. The discrepancy between the two words, sandwich and mojito, already represents his concept of cuisine: namely to dissociate form, taste and texture and then reassemble them in new forms. The “sandwich” consists of two waffles of white apple sponge, the texture of an airy meringue, padded with a green emerald Mojito of the density and temperature of icy sorbet. The sponge has two functions, a mechanical one (it allows you to grab the Mojito with your hands) and a gustatory one (prepares the palate with a delicate apple flavour). The first fragrance is then dominated by the taste of the Mojito that melts. The feeling, disorienting, is that of “eating” a mojito.
Another example of the creativity of the great Catalan chef is his globe of frozen Gorgonzola. It's a thin white ball, as big as an ostrich egg, hollow inside, with a Gorgonzola solid shell, solid because of the subzero temperature, which must first be sprinkled with nutmeg, then broken and eaten with your hands before it melts.
The dish which enchanted us most was the combination of hazelnut and caviar. The interplay of microspheres filled with essence of hazelnut on a gray caviar sauce and of gray caviar on a brownish hazelnut sauce, makes it difficult to distinguish the true from the reconstructed and makes us question our sensory abilities. Yin and yang, but without a clear role division ... destabilizing!
Finally, in our opinion, the best example of creativity that can send a Japanese person into a swoon. The appearance is that of a tiramisu, accompanied by a cup of tea. In reality it is an airy soy and pine nut white sponge, sprinkled with miso. The infusion that accompanies it is dried tuna and seaweed, prepared at our table. After 34 courses of this level the question is: and now? Now that we have seen what is Art in the Kitchen, oh what pleasures are they of the creative artist, now that we understand the quantum difference between El Bulli and everyone else, there will always be the regret of something unique, lost forever, at least until the future will give us another creative chef such as Ferran Adrià.
December 8, 2010
Rafa's – Peix i marisc fresc de Roses – Calle Sant Sebastià, 56 – Roses – Giorona (Spain): 40-100€
Since after a dinner at this level alcohol doesn't permit a drive, is wise to stop at least for one night in Girona. This site constitutes a valuable aid to find accommodation in town.
