The Catalan restaurant El Bulli near Barcelona (Girona) announced it is closing its doors to the public from 2012 until the beginning of 2014. El Bulli, which is known as the best restaurant in the world, will not be closed because of the retirement of its world famous chef Ferrán Adriá.  Instead, Adriá has explained that this time ‘off’ will be used to analyze the restaurant’s accumulated know-how and to take their concepts in yet another mould-breaking direction in the coming years.  The Bulli is a 3 Michelin star restaurant and is widely regarded for it’s cutting-edge techniques and tireless attention to innovation.

The concepts that they will work so hard on developing during this two year period will be finally announced to the public in 2014.  The best chef in Barcelona, and probably at this moment the best chef in the world, sees this change as the next logical step in taking his high-tech and overly creative cuisine to the next level.

Over the years Adriá’s team has always made enough time for the study and constant enhancement of their food.  Only being open 6 months of the year and offering only one dinner cycle per day, they have been able to take enough time to focus on innovation.  With this new announcement though, as frustrated as his fans might be, his team will have enough time to really take their efforts to a special place. The chef Ferrán Adriá of El Bulli has explained that they need this time and change of concept to further analyze the know-how accumulated over the years and all this will be reflected in a brand new Encyclopedia-like book for his fans.

During 2010, El Bulli will be open to the public from the 15th of June until the 20th of December, while the dates for 2011 will not be released until September this year.

Biography

Ferrán Adriá was born on May 14th, 1962 in Hospitalet de Llobregat a suburb of Barcelona. After entering a business administration program at the tender age of 14, he later left school out of boredom at the age of 18. The best chef in the world started as a lowly dishwasher in 1980 at a French restaurant in Castelldefels, a small village next to Barcelona, in the Hotel Playafels. After having worked in several restaurants in Barcelona he got a job as assistant chef at the Finisterre, which he had to leave because of the compulsory military service. He joined the navy and was a member of the captains general kitchen staff and was in charge of the kitchen for the first time in his life. This was until August 1983 when he got the chance to do a try-out at El Bulli in Roses (Girona)Spain. Apparently the chef liked his work and offered him the job of chef de Partie (a line cook). He was 22 years old at the time, 18 months later he would become head chef.

The restaurant was a traditional French restaurant and the manager Juli Soler recommended Adriá to travel for new fresh Ideas to use at El Bulli, and so he did.   He returned with a collection of techniques from many of the culinary masters of France’s top restaurants. He began experiments which would forever change El Bulli by applying science to culinary practices, such as molecular gastronomy.

He is best known for creating “culinary foam”, which is now used by chefs around the world. The mixture is placed in a whipped cream canister where the foam is then forced out with the help of nitrous oxide. Just last April, El Bulli was declared the best restaurant in the world in 2009.  This is the fourth year in a row they have won this honour.  The accolades are decided on by a panel of 806 of the most influential chefs, critics, and industry experts around and is published as the “S. Pellegrino World’s 50 Best Restaurants” and is compiled by Restaurant Magazine, out of the UK.