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elBulli opened for 2009


Jontysc

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Amateur Gourmet has a nice post about his recent trip to El Bulli:

http://www.amateurgourmet.com/2009/08/dinner_at_el_bu.html

The courses are almost completely different from what I had in June (only overlap is hot gin fizz, sesame sponge, oyster leaf, abalone, suckling pig and coconut ball so 24 out of 30 were different).

Interesting that he says the coconut ball tastes like coconut ice cream - doesn't match my experience.

AG does a great job of capturing the magic of elBulli. It is an entertaining and informative report.

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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We had a really fantastic lunch there yesterday, 34 courses with some differences from posted menus. I will write up a fuller post when we get to our next hotel. Interestingly different tables in our section had different menus.

From yesterdays meal it is clear Adria has headed East for inspiration.

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From yesterdays meal it is clear Adria has headed East for inspiration.

I agree with the leaning east. We had dinner last week - our meal was entirely different than many of the tables near us. Lots of Asian inspired dishes. I'd say about 90% of them were the same as AG posted above.

I'll get pics and a review up this weekend I hope. I found the setting to be amazing as others have commented - right on the beach, much of our meal outside. Service was good, though it was interesting to watch - a chaotic circus with people running around and around serving the food. I didn't find the food itself to be amazing, actually I got rather antsy and bored with it about 3/4 the way through the meal - maybe my expectations were too high. Everything tasted good - nothing offensive or bad, some excellent but it got old for me rather quickly. A good experience overall, but nothing i'm in a hurry to rush back to on my own dime.

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From yesterdays meal it is clear Adria has headed East for inspiration.

I agree with the leaning east. We had dinner last week - our meal was entirely different than many of the tables near us. Lots of Asian inspired dishes. I'd say about 90% of them were the same as AG posted above.

I'll get pics and a review up this weekend I hope. I found the setting to be amazing as others have commented - right on the beach, much of our meal outside. Service was good, though it was interesting to watch - a chaotic circus with people running around and around serving the food. I didn't find the food itself to be amazing, actually I got rather antsy and bored with it about 3/4 the way through the meal - maybe my expectations were too high. Everything tasted good - nothing offensive or bad, some excellent but it got old for me rather quickly. A good experience overall, but nothing i'm in a hurry to rush back to on my own dime.

I agree about the dip 3/4 of the way through. Whilst each dish was perfect the pace/style needed adjusting. My previous "El Bulli" meal in Seville had slightly more substantial "main" course as a finale before the desserts which was a good high to end on.

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This was a fantastic meal. I was worried it wouldn’t live up to the hype and our anticipation but it was superb. We have eaten at The el Bulli Hotel in Seville so had already enjoyed “the greatest hits”, and whilst we loved that meal I was concerned this wouldn’t live up to the memory. It did.

The menu shows a lot of strong Asian influences with the use of sesame, kimchee, miso, soy, abalone and various mushrooms. The blend of tastes is very subtle and the menu interconnects various themes and flavours across dishes. For example, sesame as a linking flavour crops up a number of times, as does the Japanese dried fruit Umeboshi. Most of the dishes have many elements and layers of flavour that would take a forensic palette to identify. We have tried to recall all the flavours we could but without notes it is impossible over 34 courses (taking photos is challenging enough).

For us this was a meal that is in a different class to nearly every restaurant we have eaten in, it wasn’t simply the innovation in the dishes but the technical execution is superb. Some of the dishes are very serious, other whimsical and fun. Some worked for one of us but not the other, but no dish disappointed, obviously we had our favourites, but even between two people who enjoy the same food we could agree on our top dishes, and to me that shows the sophistication of the menu.

We arrived early, which is a mistake as the restaurant (gates) don’t open until 1:00 pm, we managed to “sneak” through the gates with a Dutch journalist and photographer, and we then waited under the trees for the doors to open.

The “meet & greet” is a bit of a production line with successive arrivals ushered through to the kitchen to meet Ferran and inspect the kitchen, but it is a nice touch and it still makes you feel special. We are then ushered through to the table and the performance starts. Arrivals are carefully paced with each room gradually filling up, usually you start with the “tastes” part of the menu on the terrace but at 37 degrees it was too hot to sit outside, so we started at our table in the Salon.

The wine list is encyclopaedic, but we chickened out and copied the advice the sommelier gave to the Dutch journalist who was sat across from us (there was also a Spanish journalist in our section who wore a white Panama hat throughout the meal). He recommended sherry (Fino Piedra Luenga) to start and then two local wines, a white Grenache (La Garriga ’07) and red blend (Les Terrasses ’07). All three were great and reasonably priced with the sherry at €5 a glass and the wine €40 a bottle.

The meal starts with the first 10 (out of 34) courses arriving in quick succession, before the pace slows with each course then arriving individually. Our serving team was really good, not only were they professional and informative but they also had a great sense of humour. You are told not to eat some components of dishes like the leaves the truffle dish is served on, and this became a running joke with us, with a “don’t eat the...” after most dishes were presented.

It seems that not all the tables get the same dishes. I am allergic to walnuts which could explain this, but we definitely didn’t have a dish which was mixed at the table with a brush and green powder, but neither did the two adjacent tables, similarly the large table of eight in the middle of the room started with different cocktails (a Caipirinha and Mojito) as well as our first course of:

Margarita cactus - the flavour of a margarita captured in a reproduction of a cactus leaf, my partner loved it, I am less wowed but then I don’t drink cocktails. Interestingly other tables had other cocktail reproductions including mojitos and caiapirinas.

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Crystal of parmegiano - very thin, glass like crisps, with a really intense taste, more parmesan than the real cheese.

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Coniferous - you are presented with a sprig of pine leaves which you suck the flavour from and eat the needles before finishing with a pine and gin cocktail.

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Spherical olives - the tried and tested famed spherical olive, as intense and olive as usual. However, we have had these at the El Bulli hotel and the memory of the dish was greater than our experience this time. Maybe this is because the next dish is amazing.

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Mimetics peanuts - a facsimile of a peanut in its shell, filled with intense liquid peanut. Again more intense than the real thing. It made both of us grin from ear to ear.

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Sesame cracker - intense sesame, it reminded me of tahini paste, and to be frank I wouldn’t eat spoonfuls of that neat. It gets the flavour but not really to my taste. Cherry umeboshi - very intense, very very cherry. The treatment of the cherry enhances the flavour wonderfully.

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Vanilla chips - my partner enjoyed these, although I found them to be quite neutral in flavour possibly because of the competition for the other dishes like the olives and peanuts.

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Coconut sponge - a cold coconut sponge, a cross between the texture of a Cadbury's flake and feather light coconut ice-cream. A great flavour texture combination.

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Flower nectar - you are presented with a flower and told to suck out the nectar. It is sweet and honey like. It is what you expect nectar to taste like. Pleasant but just OK.

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Black sesame sponge cake with miso - the miso is on one end which you eat first, then the rest of the sponge. It is a flavour combination that works really well, and it is very intriguing to experience it in a classic “western” sponge cake. A very enjoyable dish. In quite a short space of time we have had three Asian tastes with sesame crackers the umeboshi and now sesame and miso, Ferran has headed East for new flavours and this starts to come out as the meal progresses.

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Oyster leaf with dew of vinegar - this is a real star, the leaf has a few drops of vinegar like dew , with a few finely diced cubes of shallot at the end. Eating it is exactly like eating an oyster with the classic dressing. It is a weird, but really good sensation, and another taste that makes you really smile.

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Ham and ginger canapé - very tricky to eat as it is soft and gelatinous but very good intense flavours, quite a Spanish dish and nice to have something a little more traditional.

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Truffle surprise - two different truffle dishes with white summer truffles, the surprise is the liquid centre (you don't eat the leaf). It was OK but neither of us thought it outstanding and my partner is a truffle nut.

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Montjoi lentils - this dish is really interesting, the “lentils” are very fine sesame balls like fish roe in a thin liquid, at the edge of the dish are eight very small dabs of four different flavours. Each of the flavours bought a different dimension to the dish with fish, citrus, more umeboshi and miso (we think). The dish has some really distinct Asian flavour combinations clearly showing a swing towards the East.

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Prawn two firings - this dish comes in two parts, first a little spoon with an intense paste, and then a prawn, the tail is a large prawn tail (what else) but the head and legs seem to be reconstructed and are really crunchy and deep fried. I have had many well cooked prawn heads at teppanyaki tables and these seemed to capture the essence of those flavours. The Asian influence is again very strong, the spoon of prawn paste is close the flavour of the shrimp paste used in Thai cooking, very intense very salty. The “whole” prawn is then eaten which balance this strong taste, with the legs and head eaten last to bring that teppanyaki taste. A really great dish.

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Mimetic almonds - this is a good looking dish, one one side an intense tomato sorbet, on the other a peach coated in what we thought as umeboshi again but we couldn’t be certain, it gave the peach a cherry quality. In the middle are a selection of almonds. Some are really almonds, others are little delicate jellies, others are ice-creams. Lots of different flavours in the dish and I thought one was foie gras.

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Kimchee raspberries - another beautiful looking dish, purple brussels sprouts with raspberries and a green string like vegetable (squash?). We though the sprouts were dyed blue, but our waiter assured us they were natural. The raspberries are stuffed with kimchee and the contrast between the sprouts, the fruit and kimchee works really well adding an interesting dimension and moving the east/west fusion cooking forward.

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Soya milk with soya -a cooked soya milk, a milk ski surrounding some warm milk with variations of soy around it, including beans, tofu, sprouts, and then some dabs of flavouring pastes including a small dab of chilli (I think). For me soy/tofu works best with a strong flavour to balance its blandness, here I thought the ratios are off, the dish is too subtle for my taste.

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Mushroom-CRI with hazelnut - returns to a more traditional western palette of tastes with solid textures and flavours. We failed to identify the type of mushroom, which looks like branches or twigs with a firm rubbery texture.

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Roses/artichokes - a plate of rose petal carpaccio with artichoke juice was nicely arranged with the soft (poached?) petals covering the place and a strong reduction in the middle, the flavour of the artichoke had almost taken on an anchovy taste. An interesting combination.

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Pinenut shabu shabu - is an interesting take on the Japanese dish. Three clear triangular packages of different pinenut creations are quickly soaked in turn in a broth. The package starts to melt and when you place it in your mouth dissolves to release the flavour. Another interesting dish with a great intensity of flavour. However, if you soak the parcels for a moment too long they dissolve into a slippery slime that can’t be eaten politely.

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Trout roe risotto - the roe are warm and are garnished with a piece of gold foil which makes it a good looking dish. Great texture from the roe, a simple dish that lets the taste of the roe come through.

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Abalone - a myriad of ingredients composed to look like an Abalone including abalone and micro mushrooms. Abalone isn’t common in Europe but obviously a delicacy in Asia, again we detected Asian influences in the way the fish is paired with different mushrooms.

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Scampi tongs - the waiter described these as scampi feet, it was a dish of perfectly dissected claw meat on a bed of sesame seed sauce with a XXXX foam. The prawn and the sesame seeds work well together.

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Squid with foie fat and corn risotto - the corn risotto is very interesting and balances well with the tiny squid and foie foam. We had enjoyed Squid at Rafa the previous evening and whilst the presentation here was more complex the squid was not cooked as well and came off second best to Rafa.

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Rabbit canapé with your giblets - two crispy fingers of rabbit skin/fat with various types of rabbit offal including the bits I could identify which were brains and kidney. Very meaty and intense.

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Kidney of lamb with Jerez consommé, yoghurt and fennel - more offal, very thinly sliced kidneys with a foam sauce (can’t recall the flavour) and a small pool of consommé next to it. It was an OK dish, but we felt we should have finished the main/core part of the menu with something a little more substantial.

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Pond - the first dessert arrives as a bowl with a frozen sheet of ice across it, brown sugar and mint are sprinkled across the top and then you use your spoon to crack the surface and eat it. It is cold, minty and refreshing.

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Yoghurt meringue - meringue fingers arrive on a plate, a little like “langue du chat” you use these to scoop up a foamy lemony sauce to make a lemon meringue finger, a good deconstruction of a classic dish.

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Coco - the big hollow white ball of frozen coconut milk sprinkled with a little curry powder, you crack the ball and break off slices that melt in the mouth as they have such a low melting point. These are served together with the next course.

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Puff pastry of pineapple - two crisp sheets/nets that sandwich small chunks of crispy (freeze dried?) pineapple.

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Roses - a dark berry gel shaped into a rose served with a white foam and mouse like sauce with chunks of black-currant. The flavour is really intense causing your mouth to pucker up.

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Shellfish - a fun dish to end the meal, a classic shellfish “fruit de mer” with a mound of ice with muscles, cockles and lemon wedges. Except they are shells filled with ice-cream and sorbet and the lemons are preserved. Nicely whimsical.

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Morphings - arrive in a red perspex case, which is opened to reveal an amazing selection of chocolates, with two drawers that are pulled out either side to reveal more chocolates. Some mint leaves embedded in chocolate leaves, others containing freeze dried strawberries and apricots, orange chocolate twigs and raspberry chocolate starfish, truffles and ganaches. A great selection of perfect chocolate which I defy any one to finish, although we tried very hard.

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Thanks for posting this.

I noticed you got the Kidney of lamb with Jerez consommé, yoghurt and fennel.

I hope when I'm there over the next few weeks, I'll get the iberian pig tails. Does anyone know if the dishes served are completely random?

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Excellent report, Phil. You mention Ferran's infatuation with Asian textures, flavors, ingredients and techniques. That isn't new, though it may be more pronounced. He has had a profound interest in Asian cooking (primarily Japanese) for a number of years now.

The variation from table to table is at least in part due to their keeping track of what a patron has eaten on previous occasions and adjusting a meal accordingly. I believe that there is very little happening at elBulli by chance. Their level of organization is truly astounding.

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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  • 2 weeks later...

I just had dinner at el bulli a few days ago and I have to say that i agree with some of the comments above with some pretty heavy misses. Off the top of my head

Hits: Corn paper, Gin fizz, crispy chicken skin, Black sesame spongecake, tempura/sashimi prawn with prawn essence, rabbit offal, lychee jelly in mussel at the end

Misses: Artichoke heart, Lamb kidney, Chervil tea, Anemone(Inedible), truffle was also very mediocre.

Believe it or not, my best meal in spain among mugaritz, arzak and el bulli was mugaritz. more info soon

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:smile:

I just had dinner at el bulli a few days ago and I have to say that i agree with some of the comments above with some pretty heavy misses. Off the top of my head

Hits: Corn paper, Gin fizz, crispy chicken skin, Black sesame spongecake, tempura/sashimi prawn with prawn essence, rabbit offal, lychee jelly in mussel at the end

Misses: Artichoke heart, Lamb kidney, Chervil tea, Anemone(Inedible), truffle was also very mediocre.

Believe it or not, my best meal in spain among mugaritz, arzak and el bulli was mugaritz. more info soon

I also found a few

misses after dining there a couple of weeks ago, though i was thinking and starting to believe it must just be me, i also dined at can Roca the following day to which imho blew bulli away in lots of aspects including breads to die for, they really are firing on all cylinders now at Roca 3 stars next year surely

:rolleyes:

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  • 3 weeks later...
  • 2 weeks later...
  • 3 weeks later...

...and here is a German writer ( Jörg Zipprick) recycling the claim that the food at El Bulli is bad for you:

http://www.caterersearch.com/blogs/guide-girl/2009/10/ferran-adria-accused-of-poisoning-diners-with-additives.html

I assume it could be if you popped in for dinner once a week....!

And I'm sure Mr Zipprick has, in his diatribe, carefully referenced peer-reviewed studies, preferably systematic reviews, showing the ill-effects of these nasty "chemicals"? No? :rolleyes:

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  • 2 weeks later...

I will keep it short as many before me have reviewed it very well, and my complete review (in french) & hi-res photos of all dishes are available here: Let Eat Be

The pattern of our menu (october 1st) was kind of upside-down, as we began the meal with "desserts" and ended it with "seafood".

To me, the highligths were :

Camarones & bergamot vs. sea anemone & caviar

The prawns developped bergamot flavors as they had been steamed with it.

But so did the sea anemone, which was amazing, because, as told by our waiter, there was no bergamot at all.

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Almonds mimicry

Some were real almonds, other were made of jelly, or ice cream, served with a tomato sorbet and grilled mango with sisho.

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100% soy.

As the title suggests, only soy in this dish : soy milk skin, different types of miso, nato,…

Sceptical at first, I have been blown away by the subtlety and ability of each ingredient to fully reveal itself.

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Frozen water

A pure regression bringing back childhood winter memories. A frozen water disk, covered with mint alcohol, matcha and peanuts, that you have to break with your spoon.

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I had a stunning meal, with lots of hits, some misses ( like Marc at fraiche, I found the truffle not interesting), but found nothing to be inedible. I also have to second Phil on the japanese influence, as in 5 visits, this last one was by (very) far the most japanese oriented (umeboshi-strawberries, raspberry/nori cornet/soy).

But more than a meal, I believe a dinner at El Bulli is a sensory kidnapping, few Chefs are able to operate.

Who said "Stockholm syndrome" ?

Let Eat Be

Food, Wine & other Delights

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  • 1 month later...

...and here is a German writer ( Jörg Zipprick) recycling the claim that the food at El Bulli is bad for you:

http://www.caterersearch.com/blogs/guide-girl/2009/10/ferran-adria-accused-of-poisoning-diners-with-additives.html

I assume it could be if you popped in for dinner once a week....!

I keep imagining someone looking at a food label with "maltodexterin, Ultra-Tex 8 and carrageenan" and being horrified at the "chemicals", then buying a food with "tapioca starches and seaweed extract" thinking they're eating "natural" food.

Just remember that your food is full of the scary "chemical" dihydrogen oxide, and that 100% of cancer deaths showed evidence of dihydrogen oxide in the body! :biggrin:

Edited by tomdarch (log)
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