The restaurant

[francesco]

Chef,

I am very happy you chose to spend some time to satisfy our curiosity and would like to thank you in advance for your partecipation.

The way you have organized each year's work seems to be entirely unique to you: you spend several months at El Taller perfecting a menu (plus variations) that will be offered the following season.

Now, I would imagine that for a curious and creative intellect such as yours, this procedure risks making the restaurant a necessary evil rather than a pleasant part of the process because the creative phase at El Taller and the execution when the restaurant is open are kept entirely apart.

Is the restaurant a necessity rather than a pleasure? If not, how do you manage to make working in the restaurant interesting to you? For example, do you make small changes to the dishes each evening to keep yourself interested, do you start to think about what you will do next season or do you find the simple process of executing the dishes rewarding in itself?

Francesco

[Ferran Adrià]

The restaurant is the link with people. It would be very sad to create just for us. It's the restaurant what makes this whole thing human.

The creative thing goes on all the year round. The difference is that in elTaller the dishes are not "finished", whereas at elBulli dishes have to be finished, complete.