El Bulli in Rosas Spain
Cbrava Blogger    Friday, July 15th, 2011

What kind of restaurant would be voted for 5 consecutive years as the best restaurant in the world? That is exactly what El Bulli restaurant, a three star restaurant located near the town of Rosas in Spain has managed to do. When it comes to restaurants, there is El Bulli and then there is everyone else. It is managed by the now world famous chef Ferran Adria and overlooks the Cala Montjoi bay of Costa Brava.

The restaurant is reservation only and has a limited open season each year. It attracts a whopping 1 million reservation requests each year even though it can only take in a total of 8000 guests each year. This is despite a standard meal at the restaurant costing in excess of 200 Euros. The overwhelming demand has also not resulted in a net profit for the restaurant - it has been running at a loss since the year 2000 and is primarily funded by the sales of its books.

The name El Bulli was derived from the bulldogs of the couple that sold the site of the present day restaurant to its first owners. The restaurant itself opened in 1964 and won its first Michelin star in 1976 under the leadership of Chef Jean Loius Neichel. Chef Ferran Adria joined El Bulli in 1984 and was made head chef in 1987. The restaurant received its second and third Michelin star in 1990 and 1997 respectively.

From 1993, the El Bulli restaurant started publishing books on the different menus available. Books are sold in hard copy or in CD ROM format at major supermarkets and book stores in Spain and around the world. One of the most popular publications by the restaurant is one done in 2008 and that covered a typical 24 hour day at the restaurant. Done by Ferran Adria, Albert Adria and Juli Soler, it featured details of various recipes interspersed with commentaries and pictures.

Reservations can be made online or by fax. Guests must patiently wait until they receive confirmation on their successful reservation with details of the date and time. With over a million applicants, the odds of a successful reservation are just over 100 to 1. The menu is dynamic and guests usually have no way of knowing what will be served on the day they have been slotted in. The chefs go to great lengths to deliver food that the guests are unlikely to have eaten before.

To get to El Bullis, the most popular approach is taking a flight to Barcelona then covering the journey to Rosas via taxi. There are a number of hotels nearby that one can stay in when visiting El Bulli.

jukebox leje


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