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El Bulli, the Spanish restaurant repeatedly crowned the world's best,
will be closed for two years from 2012, its chef Ferran Adria
recently, citing fatigue and a need to perfect new recipes.
"No meals will be served in El Bulli in 2012 and 2013,"
said the controversial guru of avant-garde cuisine and creator of
"molecular gastronomy".
"But El Bulli is not closing down. These are not two years on
sabbatical. I need time to decide how 2014 is going to be. We want
the year 2014 to stand out and I know that when I return it will not
be the same."
However, Chef Alba has now told the New York Times that El Bulli
will, in fact, permanently cease to operate as a restaurant after
December 2011 and be reborn as a cutting-edge academy for the world's
most talented cooks. A report in a Madrid newspaper then stated
"Acclaimed Spanish chef Ferran Adria says his world-famous
restaurant elBulli is struggling financially and he's looking for
ways to keep it afloat" throwing doubt into the mix again.
El Bulli, on Spain's northeastern Catalan coast, last year came top
of the World's 50 Best Restaurants list for the fourth year in a row
following a poll of more than 800 chefs, restaurant critics and
industry insiders for Britain's Restaurant Magazine.
Gourmets the world over reserved sometimes years in advance for a
table in the establishment, where about 30 avant-garde dishes are
available on a menu for a price of about 200 euros.
But Adria, 47, who appeared tired and nervous, said he found working
15 hours a day "difficult".
"It's impossible with the current format of El Bulli to continue
to create," he said at Madrid Fusion, the annual international
culinary conference focusing on the cutting-edge in haute cuisine.
Adria, who joined the kitchen staff of El Bulli in 1984, and Heston
Blumenthal in England have since the late 1990s rocked the world of
gastronomy by using science to "deconstruct" and rebuild
food, both astonishing diners and delighting reviewers.
What is certain is that El Bulli will close at the end of 2011 for at
least two years - after that who knows?
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