TDG: Eight at El Bulli

[Jonathan Day]

Robert Brown and I recorded our thoughts on a recent meal at El Bulli in TDG: click here.

Please join us in Symposium for a discussion of avant garde cuisine and of the essay: click here.

[CyN]

GREAT post, guys. Like reading a novel. Thanks for all that effort and all the writing skill that went into it.

[Fat Guy]

I just want to go on record and say that, when Jonathan and Robert requested a photograph of a bulldog to accompany the piece, my dog, Momo, said "No problem!"

[Bill Klapp]

The El Bulli piece is nothing short of brilliant! Kudos to you both, and count me in on the next trip!

[Jason Perlow]

I just want to go on record and say that, when Jonathan and Robert requested a photograph of a bulldog to accompany the piece, my dog, Momo, said "No problem!"

I was wondering why Momo was in there.

[pixelchef]

Hehehe, I love Momo!

I also love that piece of writing. I was completely immersed in it. Thanks so much for such a thorough and genuine report. Great work, both of you (and Momo).

[Bux]

El Bulli was 110 or 115 euros last year, so prices areslowly creeping upwards, but there's little doubt in my mind that Spaniards are not willing to pay what Parisians, or the French are willing to pay for dinner. Gastronomic travel in provincial Spain doesn't off the comforts of great restaurants attached to great inns either and this may be reflected in the prices. It has less appeal to those willing to pay for those comforts. The best meal I've had south of a Barcelona-Bilbao axis was in a town without even one hotel listed by Michelin. A fabulous lunch with a bit too much wine and we hit the road in need of a roadside siesta. We stopped for the night in the next town with a choice of accommodations. It wasn't an unpleasant town, but when we had earlier inquired about the town as a potential for an overnight, we were told by travel collegues that there were two things to do in town -- "shit and leave." There is a rustic quality about things in Spain and often a refreshing directness of expression.

[Joe H]

An absolutely outstanding post. Thank you for taking the time to write it. My wife and I cancelled a reservation at El Bulli for their second Saturday of operation in April(!). We will go but probably next year.

If I can ask a question: I realize that El Bulli is an extraordinary experience representing tastes and sensations that are adventurous as they are also spectacular and imaginative. I also realize that so many hours at the table are unlike a similar number of hours anywhere else. But is this good food? Is some of this food that you sit and look at appreciately then bend over and inhale, almost moaning in anticipation of what it must taste like, finally slowly tasting it for the first time? Not just for that which is unusual but rather for the taste?

I had a roasted diver scallop with its roe on Friday night at Washington's Laboratorio that was incredible: depth and complexity of flavor, the texture-I even bent over and inhaled the open shell for five or six seconds before my first taste. But the taste may have been the best shellfish that I have ever had in my life. Were there any courses like this? How many? Roberto Donna who owns and cooks at Laboratorio has been to El Bulli twice. He described his experiences as extraordinary. Delicious? He hesitated and said that he preferred extraordinary.

Thanks again.

[robert brown]

Joe, the obvious main reason my wife and I enjoyed our El Bulli meal more was that we had dishes that, had they been served in full portions, would have made for a memorable conventional meal, although many of the dishes, unlike the small portions of a la carte dishes you get in a tasting menu, lose their conceptual significance if served in larger portions. I suspect that Adria has let some increased sobriety come into his cooking. I am sorry you couldn't keep your reservation, but there is always next year.

[docsconz]

What an experience and so wel presented! Thank you. I almost felt as if I were there. If it wasn't before(and it was), El Bulli is certainly number one on my list of food destinations. When is the e-mail day for next year? does anyone know how they handle openings fromcanceled reservations a la Joe H?

[Joe H]

Is a "memorable conventional" meal a meal that had delicious tastes as I described or rather one that was spectacularly unique which is my impression? I also have the impression that he is a bit more "conservative" (for lack of a better word) this year than previous.

I am not being critical because I chose not to go; rather I am just wondering exactly how delicious his food really is. It's really a matter of adjusting my expectations. I have had extraordinarily imaginative food that was truly delicious at Le Calandre near Padua. Without question the most unusual, even unique that I've ever experienced in Italy. Three or four years ago when the young chef was still exploring and searching he had a lot of misses. Today he's nailed it. Michelin recognized this with three stars this year although Gambero Rosso seems to view him with a different perspective.

I'm wondering if Adria who seems to be even more "radical"-perhaps much more so achieves both: wildly imaginative and incredibly delicious? And what percentage of courses would realize this?

By the way, Maestro near Washington, D. C. is very similar to Le Calandre.

[Monica Bhide]

Excellent excellent excellent post!! Thank you!

[Priscilla]

What a pleasure to read -- and, Jonathan, in your writing the restaurant and the chef come across as exciting and appealing, worthy and sensual. Really good stuff!

[Bux]

Joe H, I'm reminded of a conversation on another food group years ago. I'm reminded because you ask if it's good food and because vserna has been posting here lately. Someone asked, and I believe it was on a NY Times forum if they should go to El Bulli. I was evasive in my answer because I thought it was an essential experience for anyone with a certain kind of interest in food, but perhaps an experience others would not find at all rewarding. I noted that it was cutting edge and vserna said, as I recall, something to the effect that one can bleed at the cutting edge. Although the TDG piece seems to indicate there may be a maturity or mellowness moving into the food, it's an intense and challenging experience. For some that would be rewarding even if the food was less successful. Some people enjoy an exquisite production of a time honored operal. Others would much prefer an intellectual drama that made them think in a different way, or even an avant garde performance piece. I don't mean to scare any serious foodie away from El Bulli. You and your palate should not be shocked by what's served, only teased and challenged in a good natured way and I've seen a large table of diners who didn't regularly eat in three star restaurants not because they couldn't afford it, but because it wasn't their major interest and yet they reacted immediately and positively to the food. Perhaps they had the advantage of not having the preconceptions some foodies might have. One should go with the excitement of the unknown, not the aprehension of it.

[Jonathan Day]

I found almost every dish we were served delicious, some extraordinarily so. A few dishes (perhaps two out of the 30 served) were "just good". In many cases, it was small things, garnishes, that created explosions of wonderful flavour -- for example, the tempura lemon peel served with the spiced apple. In others, the main element in the dish was superb: the salmon belly, for instance.

My sense of Adria's cooking is that he does try to surprise, deconstruct, reframe, and the like -- but never at the cost of flavour or immediate gustatory pleasure. We laughed our way through this meal: it was a joyous experience, not a solemn one.

[Marina Chang]

An excellent description of the one of the first 2003 El Bulli experiences. We lunched there in 2001, on the second to the last day of the season - as early risers we chose lunch to ensure that we remained in a state of consciousness that would allow us to fully appreciate the full sensory experience of the food, wine, and location.

We were lurking in the same area at about the same time as the Jonathan Day and Robert Brown party and might have breathed the same atmosphere, except for the logistics of our schedule which dictatated that for us El Bulli in 2003 was not to be.

We instead opted for El Celler de Can Roca per a recommendation from Bux. Our special chef's choice tasting menu by Chef Joan Roca was the culinary highlight of our trip - his competition being Pedro Subijana of Akelarre and Santi Santamaria of El Raco de Can Fabes. We found Can Roca to be just the right balance of lucious comfort food and culinary experimentation. We ordered the chef's choice tasting menu, which included the most incredibly lucious, tender, succulent, lechal or spring lamb that I have ever tasted, accompanied by an espuma of its own broth, and a fresh, sweet, sheep's milk espuma, along with a spot of prune puree. We also experienced his newest dessert entitled, Anarchy - tiny jewels, cubes or dots, of different flavors and textures (basil, honey, almond, passion fruit, mint, lemon, tarragon, honey, bourbon, cardomom, orange peel, anis, pumpkin seed, ginger, violet, cloves, coconut, vanilla, coffee, etc.) - 49 ingredients in all, accompanied by a parchment scroll listing all the taste sensations. A free spirited work of culinary abstract art, and the closest we will come to tasting Harry Potter's Every Flavor Beans.

[robert brown]

Marina, sorry we missed you. Welcome to eGullet. I have been waiting for a new report on Can Roca, so many thanks. I hope you will keep on eating and reporting. Nicely written, too.

[Bux]

2001 was the last year they served lunch at El Bulli. We had lunch there in 2000 and dinner in 2002. In November of 2001, Steve Klc introduced us to Albert Adria and he told us that they were discontinuing lunch and serving dinner at an earlier, more international hour. The kitchen and staff were just working too long each day producing and serving two such meals a day and thus in the year of their 20th anniversary and at probably the height of their fame so far with reservations for the entire season filling up on the day the phone lines opened, they cut their income in half. A good bean counter could have told them they could have shortened the menus and just not raised prices and still filled the restaurant twice a day.

I should say that I enjoyed the lunch experience even more than the dinner one. It was a pleasure to sit on the terrace before the meal with aperitifs and after with coffee and mignardises and enjoy the view. Then again we were there in the spring and August might be different.

Marina is the author of Tastes of the Pyrenees, Classic and Modern. For those who haven't noticed, she is doing a Q&A and will be answering pertinent questions for the next two days.

[Bux]

Let me also add for the attention of those venturing south of Madrid, the name of Manolo de la Osa -- Restaurant Las Rejas -- in Las Pedroñeras. The decor is not as chic as Can Roca and it doesn't have El Bulli's view or cachet. He's not creating on the level of El Bulli, but we thought he, like Joan Roca, offered "just the right balance of lucious comfort food and culinary experimentation." It was a knock your socks off meal. Okay, with enthusiasm in check, if Adria knocked out socks off, de la Osa made them roll up and down a few times.

You can read my post on Las Rejas here.

Edited April 26, 2003 by Bux (log)

[vmilor]

Is a "memorable conventional" meal a meal that had delicious tastes as I described or rather one that was spectacularly unique which is my impression?  I also have the impression that he is a bit more "conservative" (for lack of a better word) this year than previous. 

I am not being critical because I chose not to go; rather I am just wondering exactly how delicious his food really is.  It's really a matter of adjusting my expectations.  I have had extraordinarily imaginative food that was truly delicious at Le Calandre near Padua.  Without question the most unusual, even unique that I've ever experienced in Italy.  Three or four years ago when the young chef was still exploring and searching he had a lot of misses.  Today he's  nailed it.  Michelin recognized this with three stars this year although Gambero Rosso seems to view him with a different perspective.

I'm wondering if Adria who seems to be even more "radical"-perhaps much more so achieves both:  wildly imaginative and incredibly delicious? And what percentage of courses would realize this?

By the way, Maestro near Washington, D. C. is very similar to Le Calandre.

Very interesting post(both this and the previous one) and pertinent questions.

I just wanted to make two minor comments as I have eaten both at El Bulli(3 times) and at Le Calandre recently--see the thread on the trip to Northern Italy.

1. It is hard to compare the 2 on the same scale. Their sense of creativity is very different. Massimiliano at Le Calandre is still very sensitive to the integrity of the ingredients and he does not play mental games. His approach to cooking is very pleasure oriented; he wants to make sure that he will give you a seppia which will be better than any other you have tried but you will always remember it as the best seppia. If Adria gives you something which looks like seppia, chances are that you are eating anything but seppia and the texture will be similar but not the taste. He will try to open up your horizons, test the limits and tease with you in a sophisticated way. His approach to cuisine is cerebral and tongue-in-cheek so to speak.

2. Massimiliano is very impressive, his risotto is the best, etc., but he has not nailed desserts yet. Some of his desserts like raw cauliflower covered with chocolate are simply not delicious.

I really liked "delicious" as the ultimate criteria. I think Massimiliano gives importance to that. This is his bottomline and he and his brother want to make sure that everybody has a great time. I still do not know if there is a bottom line for Adria. He really is a complex person. Superficially he has some parallels with Veyrat but I will not even push this analogy too far. Maybe Gagnaire is a closer analogy as both men seem to defy classifications and seem to be subject to frequent mood changes. If you catch them in the right mood they will force you to redefine what delicious is, but otherwise you will end up unfazed.

[grahamtigg]

To go back to Can Roca we went there for lunch as a day trip from the Languedoc recently. We had the menu degustation and agree with Marina that there’s a good balance between the “conventional” and experimentation. The spring lamb was the star savoury dish and quite rightly with such an ingredient things were kept nice and simple, in fact I don’t recall the prune accompaniment. We also had the Anarchy dessert, but quite where it’s going to lead to I’ve no idea. For me the first dessert of a mixture of ripe soft “pink” fruits with exotic fruit sorbets and few subtle other happenings was delicious and satisfying. The three seafood dishes that preceded the lamb have not left much of an impression. Lightly cooked flaked skate with a backdrop of pineapple was too delicate for my tastes, and cold set stock used in two of the other dishes does not do a great deal for me either. Had it been 35 rather than 20 degrees outside it might have come across differently. I will also remember leaving with an appetite. Most of the early portion sizes were somewhat small – something that also added to the difficulty of assessing the earlier more delicate dishes.

The wine list is superb and international. We were seated in the first room that has no windows and fairly minimal decoration, perhaps a bit too much a temple of dining. All of this said, at 170 euros for two (includes wine, glass of cava, coffee) it's extraordinary good value.

[nimzo]

I loved the article, one of the few I have read which accurately capture the feel and the taste. If you are interested I have translated "Secretos " into English though judging by your quotes so have you.

[Jonathan Day]

Nimzo, welcome to eGullet!

I have only translated selected passages from Secretos (which I think has some of the most interesting writing in any food book I've seen in a long time). If you have done a complete translation, I'd love to see it, and I am sure other members might as well. It is a book that deserves a wider audience.

Edited May 23, 2003 by Jonathan Day (log)

[vserna]

Re: "The humor and technique were arresting and unforgettable, even if the flavor was less than perfect."

That's a good summary of the experience at Adrià, which can be so fascinating for some and so infuriating for others. Basically, it's important to have those long, long Adrià menus because the tongue-in-cheek carousel will always be fun, and you're sure to find three-four of the dishes that'll be unforgettable experiences. On the other hand, I've always found three-four others that were true failures, and a few rather indifferent ones. That's the price one pays for this type of whimsical genius. What I cannot accept (and I've seen it on this board) are total disqualifications: "Everything was disappointing." Anyone saying that has, IMHO, more prejudice than taste buds in his/her mouth.

[dallardice]

Just back from a weekend on the Costa Brava, having made the pilgrimage to El Bulli for dinner on Saturday night. The meal did impress and entertain me greatly, and certainly ranks among the most memorable meals I've ever had.

One thing that struck me is that with just one or two exceptions every course differed from that described in The Daily Gullet article. There were certainly common themes - for example, our 'air' was carrot and mandarin, and the rabbit brains turned up with a truffle canneloni with veal marrowbone - but it's clear that Adria continues to evolve his menu over the course of the season.

I'd love to write up the courses, but to be honest, I don't think I have either the time or the skill. I will try and return to this thread later in the week and post some highlights if people are interested.

One thing worth noting - humourously, I asked one of the staff when the bookings would open for next year. She said that they were considering how to handle bookings for next year since January 15th this year had been chaotic. She suggested we check later in the year.