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El Bulli 2007 reports


smoz

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neu. I wish we had met ,we were there the first night. I was taken aback by the tastelessness of so many dishes on the menu, pine cone, etc.I would have really like to have enjoyed this experience. Your pictures are great and i am glad you enjoyed .

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Here are three alternative vegetarian courses that my girlfriend got. Of course there were more but others have been mentioned before as part of the regular menu this season (like the flower paper and two other highlights: the icy truffles of meringue and peas with artichokes purees).

sesame airbag

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This came as a replacement of the pork skin. It was as light as the beetroot meringue and had a strong sesame flavour.

cous cous

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Despite the title this was no cous cous but Adria’s version of a classic combination. There were stripes of tomato powder, olive oil and basil sorbet and a glass of parmegian water (not on the picture). Eaten together this just tasted like the mediteraen classic. The different textures and temperatures added to the sensation.

empanadilla

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This was the hottest dish of the evening. Very spicy green pepper raviolis with liquorice. One of the most interesting combinations of the evening.

ackees

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A Jamaican fruit – related to lychees - with sea cucumber. Very soft.

I’ve never been to a michelin starred restaurant before were so much care was given to a vegetarian’s needs (and they would have even served a complete vegan menu, too).

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Neu,

Thanks so much for the Documenta report. Adria was one of the first announced artists because the clever curators chose to announce one artist whose name began with 'A' and one with 'Z', playing a game of suspense with the art world. When Adria was not mentioned in any reviews or personal reports I got, I was wondering what his participation was. Since the reports were uniformly less than stellar, this is probably an ok thing.

I'm much happier having finally made it to El Bulli this year than following the art trail. (Though doing both, as you did, would have been great.)

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I did not want to create a whole new thread just to ask my question, so I figured I would post it here.

We will be visiting El Bulli in August and staying at the Port Salins Hotel for the obligatory 3 nights. My questions is: are there any other must go places in that general area? We will have a car, so a short drive is not out of the question.

Thanks in advance for the help.

Regards,

Len

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I can strongly recommend both Rafa's in Roses and Can Roca in Girona. Both restaurants have their own threads in this forum.

I concur with these recommendations. Clearly there are a number of other worthwhile restaurants as well. Further discussion of this legitimate question should be directed to another topic though as it is OT for this one.

John Sconzo, M.D. aka "docsconz"

"Remember that a very good sardine is always preferable to a not that good lobster."

- Ferran Adria on eGullet 12/16/2004.

Docsconz - Musings on Food and Life

Slow Food Saratoga Region - Co-Founder

Twitter - @docsconz

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I can strongly recommend both Rafa's in Roses and Can Roca in Girona. Both restaurants have their own threads in this forum.

I concur with these recommendations. Clearly there are a number of other worthwhile restaurants as well. Further discussion of this legitimate question should be directed to another topic though as it is OT for this one.

I have created a thread to discuss the matter here: http://forums.egullet.org/index.php?showtopic=104565&st=

Thank you.

Len

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gallery_9106_419_199894.jpg

Len,

A bit off topic in that food is not involved, but with 3 days you might consider a drive to Cadaques. The scenery between the 2 towns is breathtaking (if vertiginous) - see photo - and you can visit Salvador Dali's house in Cadaques. It's a lot of fun - slightly tacky, but not ridiculous like some of the other sites on the Dali trail. Reservations are limited, so book the tour in advance.

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  • 2 weeks later...

Hi All,

We just returned from a wonderful trip to El Bulli (where we ate there on July 09). I have yet to write down detailed thoughts for each of the dishes, but in the meantime have posted our photos up on Flickr:

http://flickr.com/photos/loremipsum/sets/72157600876003992/

After returning and looking through this thread again, it's interesting to see the changes in presentation and shifts in ingredients. Standouts from our visit (for me) were the giant haricot bean, the gorgonzola dome, the razor clams, and the hare juise.

Thanks to this board for providing so much insight for both before and after our visit!

Andrew

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  • 2 weeks later...

Well it's been a while since the last post on this topic. So I thought I'd throw in some random inside information.

This will be the last season for Chef de Cuisine Albert Raurich. He's been head of the kitchen for 6 years now I think. And after they close the season in October he is going to move on an open his own place in Barcelona which will be a Japanese/Asian inspired tapas place. Should be interesting.

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Well it's been a while since the last post on this topic. So I thought I'd throw in some random inside information.

This will be the last season for Chef de Cuisine Albert Raurich. He's been head of the kitchen for 6 years now I think. And after they close the season in October he is going to move on an open his own place in Barcelona which will be a Japanese/Asian inspired tapas place. Should be interesting.

Should be interesting indeed! Though undoubtedly a blow for elBulli, I have no doubt that he will be highly successful. Yet another reason to return to Barcelona - as if I needed one! :biggrin::cool:

John Sconzo, M.D. aka "docsconz"

"Remember that a very good sardine is always preferable to a not that good lobster."

- Ferran Adria on eGullet 12/16/2004.

Docsconz - Musings on Food and Life

Slow Food Saratoga Region - Co-Founder

Twitter - @docsconz

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I had dinner at elBulli yesterday. Long after dinner chat at the terrace with Ferrán and some exchanges with Luis and Juli before and during dinner: as it's been said in here, they're going to close a few more days during the week --the final decision of which days has not been made yet-- but the number of open days in the season won't change, that is, the season will be longer.

Raurich's place at BCN will be called Dos Palitos and it'll have elBulli's full support. Which is a tremendous advantage, if you ask me.

Edited by pedro (log)

PedroEspinosa (aka pedro)

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I am positive the closing days for 2008 will be Mondays and Tuesdays, as this are the days they used to close the first 3 months of the last few seasons. So I guess it will go wed-sun. I didnt know they would prolong the season like Pedro said, so that's good. I imagine they will probably either start in early march or finish in late october.

Yeah, Raurich's place will definitely have elbulli's support. In fact almost everyday you see him in the kitchen experimenting and developing menu ideas. And then when staff meal comes at 6pm, he serves all the new stuff to Ferran and Albert and all the top guys there, at the center table, to try and get feedback.

Some more news for all of you regarding the next volume of books. It appears as though the next one's will be a trilogy. So that means that 2006, 2007 and 2008 will go together. And Ferran said today that the book will come out until October 2009. So it is still a long time away!

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I'm not so positive since according to Luis aka Lord of the Tables, they're still pondering a couple of options: closing Monday and Tuesday all season or working ten days in a row and then closing 4 days. It seems they did this when Juli and Ferrán went to Documenta and worked well for everybody.

PedroEspinosa (aka pedro)

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Hello, new member here although I have been a long time browser.

Hi! Newer member and also long-time browser here...

thank you for the report and such- most interesting

But I have one small question, and a rather embarrasing one at that...

I've never really "got" the morphings thing...essentially what "makes" a morphing (tho I admit I may be overthinking it). Anyone out there care to provide me with a short "morphings for dummies"?

Sincerely,

Dante

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A "morphing" is basically their way of saying petit fours. Since they have the menu designed with the snacks first, which are usually savory, and they are just little things to be eaten before the tapas/plates. Then come the pre-desserts and desserts, and then they finish with morphings. Well since they were very similar to the snacks, only sweet, then they thought the word morphing fit well since it "morphs" from savory to sweet towards the end of the meal. So it is basically just petit fours after the desserts.

From 1988-1997 they were called "petit fours". Then from 1998-2000 They were called "Follies". In 2001 they had both "Follies" and "Morphings". And from 2003-present they are only called "Morphs" or "Morphings".

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A "morphing" is basically their way of saying petit fours.

ah- so perhaps I had simply overthought it...

Since they have the menu designed with the snacks first, which are usually savory, and they are just little things to be eaten before the tapas/plates. Then come the pre-desserts and desserts, and then they finish with morphings. Well since they were very similar to the snacks, only sweet, then they thought the word morphing fit well since it "morphs" from savory to sweet towards the end of the meal. So it is basically just petit fours after the desserts.

Gotcha- so it's essentially mirroring the beginning, then. Interesting rationale for the name. I like it.

Thanx so much for the elucidation. :smile:

Sincerely,

Dante

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No problem. Glad I can help in any way.

Unfortunately right now I don;t know exactly the recipes or exact way in which they make the morphings since they are all made in the pastry department. I know which they are, but not how they are made exactly. That I can remember now they are serving 5 different morphings.

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A friend of my coworker has put an El Bulli reservation on ebay.co.uk. for August.

He wants to sell it at any price. Otherwise, he'll just cancel the booking.

Just thought some of you might be interested.

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I noticed that at El Bulli this year there was an unusual high number of dishes that

included meringue. There's a beetroot meringue, a fever tree tonic meringue, a pistachios meringue

and I think the fresh pine cone was a kind of meringue, too.

Does anyone have a any ideas of why there are so that many meringue dishes?

My speculation would be that the meringue's at El Bulli are done with the freeze drying techique

(though I'm not sure about this) which I think is a relatively new introduction to Adria's repertoire.

Another reason might be that the meringues add an element of crunch and crispness to the dishes

an aspect that is sometimes missing in Adria's preparations.

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I think that when Ferran and Co. find an interesting new technique or product they like to explore its various permutations and possibilities. This may fit into that. I loved that beetroot meringue, but don't recall having had the others mentioned.

John Sconzo, M.D. aka "docsconz"

"Remember that a very good sardine is always preferable to a not that good lobster."

- Ferran Adria on eGullet 12/16/2004.

Docsconz - Musings on Food and Life

Slow Food Saratoga Region - Co-Founder

Twitter - @docsconz

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