adrià

The Catalan chef Ferran Adrià revolutionised modern cuisine, in such a way that some critics have compared him to Picasso’s influence on painting. In fact, most of the current top chefs around the world have spent some time as training cooks at Adrià’s restaurant El Bulli, which was located on a Costa Brava beach, in the Catalan town of Roses. El Bulli was considered to be the best restaurant in the world for a five–time record and it closed in 2011 to re-open as a culinary foundation promoting research and art in 2014. In addition, Adrià was considered by Restaurant Magazine to be “the chef of the decade” in 2010 and he has taught at Harvard and other universities. Ferran Adrià’s creativity developed new techniques and re-interpreted cuisine, fragmenting dishes, cooking for the five senses, creating a new language and bringing cuisine to a whole new dimension.

Catalan cuisine again tops the world’s best restaurant ranking. After Ferran Adrià’s El Bulli, the ‘Restaurant’ magazine has awarded the title of being the best restaurant in the entire world to a Catalan restaurant again: El Celler de Can Roca, located in Girona, near the Costa Brava. The establishment run by the three Roca brothers has already been recognised as the world’s second best restaurant, in 2012 and 2011, just after the Danish Noma, and has been among the best kitchens in the world for years. However, now they have received the profession’s top recognition. Starting out as a family restaurant, the Roca brothers have followed in the steps of Ferran Adrià and his molecular cuisine to develop a whole new approach to cooking, using the five senses and creating true pieces of art.

More than 8,000 bottles from the cellar of elBulli, Ferran Adrià’s renowned restaurant,, in Roses, will be sold in April in two auctions in Hong Kong and New York. The sale, organized by Sotheby’s, has an estimated price of between 1,1 and 1,6 million euros, and comes after Adrià decided to close the restaurant last year to focus on his foundation. The three-Michelin-star elBulli was considered to be the best restaurant in the world for five years in a row and was one of the most iconic places in the Catalan Costa Brava for almost three decades.

The 18th Manga Fair of Barcelona is running from the 1st to the 4th of November, in the Montjuic venue of Fira de Barcelona. The fair has moved location, increasing the space from 11,000 square metres to 17,000. This year’s ‘Saló del Manga’ pays tribute to Dragon Ball, written and illustrated by Akira Toriyama. During the opening of fair, many people were dressed up as Goku, Son Gohan, Piccolo, Master Roshi, Bulma, Pilaf or Red Ribbon Army members. The fair is the annual get-together of the Catalan manga and anime fans. This year, the meeting also focused on Japanese cuisine, with cooking workshops and an exhibition showing its relationship with manga cartoons.

Juli Soler has been diagnosed with a neurodegenerative disease, according to family sources and elBulliFoundation. Soler has been the director of El Bulli since 1981 and was the person who hired a young Ferran Adrià in 1984. Since then, Soler has been Adrià’s partner and co-owner of the restaurant that has transformed the world’s cuisine. El Bulli closed in summer 2011 to be transformed into elBulliFoundation by 2014. The Catalan restaurant was considered for many years to be the best restaurant in the world. It was the culinary temple and lab from where Ferran Adrià in the kitchen and Juli Soler in the dining room and offices launched molecular cuisine.

For the second year in a row, ‘Restaurant Magazine’ has awarded ‘El Celler de Can Roca’ the second position in the world’s top restaurant ranking. The Catalan chef Joan Roca runs this restaurant in Girona together with his brothers Josep and Jordi, who take care of wines and desserts respectively. The Roca brothers with their 3 Michelin star restaurant represent Catalan cuisine, after Ferran Adrià decided to close El Bulli last summer and reopen it again in 2014 but turn it into the ‘El Bulli Foundation’. Copenhagen’s ‘Noma’ continues being at the top of the best world restaurant list. The Basque restaurants ‘Mugaritz’ and ‘Arzak’ hold third and eighth positions respectively.

Three deputy chefs of what was recognised for consecutive years as the best restaurant in the world, El Bulli, run by the Catalan chef Ferran Adrià, are now set to open their own restaurant on the Costa Brava. It will be called ‘Compartir’, the Catalan verb for ‘to share’. They aim to offer “simple cuisine”, with dishes to share. El Bulli closed its doors last summer, however it will transform itself into elBulli Foundation, a centre to experiment with food, design and senses. It is expected to open in 2014. The three sous-chefs will also collaborate with Adrià’s new project.

'Ferran Adrià i elBulli. Risc, llibertat i creativitat' ('Ferran Adrià and elBulli. Risk, freedom and creativity') is on show in Barcelona to coincide with the Catalan chef’s 50th's anniversary and is the basis for a future museum in the Costa Brava town of Roses. The exhibition shows a huge number of texts, graphic documents and objects related to the history of the world’s most famous restaurant.

The 2012 Michelin Red Guide has awarded a second star to the Barcelona restaurant Àbac, and a first star to the family restaurant Casamar on the Costa Brava. However, the total number of Michelin stars in Catalonia has dropped due to the untimely death of the chef Santi Santamaria and the closure of three restaurants, including Ferran Adrià’s El Bulli, considered for many years to be the best restaurant in the world. The Celler de Can Roca and San Pau maintain their 3 stars, as well as the rest of the restaurants with two and one. This confirms that Catalonia continues to be a reference point for Haute Cuisine.

The campaign “We Are What We Eat” has been presented. The project, promoted by the FC Barcelona Foundation, fosters healthy habits and Barça players participate in the ads. It will offer culinary workshops, educational debates and sports circuits in collaboration with the Fundació Alícia and the Fundació SHE.

The film, by German director Gereon Wetzel, shows the process of creating dishes that Ferran Adrià has offered to customers over the years in his award winning restaurant, El Bulli.

Saturday marked the last meal of the legendary El Bulli restaurant, the centre of molecular gastronomy and the home for the last 28 years of head chef and culinary genius Ferran Adrià. CNA speaks to Ferran Adrià about the restaurant and his plans for the future.

The Catalan restaurant has been considered the best restaurant in the world for five consecutive years. Chef Ferran Adrià announced he would close his restaurant definitively this July, and will be transformed into the ‘elBulli Foundation’ in 2014. However, the movie Hollywood is planning on the restaurant has obliged the Catalan chef to change his mind and open again for two months in 2012 or 2013. His idea is to show the movie team how the restaurant works.

The five top students of Harvard University course ‘Cuisine and Science’ are spending three weeks in the Fundació Alícia, a reference and unique centre exploring the link between food, health and innovation. The course is organised by Ferran Adrià and the Fundació Alícia, which is co-directed by the world-known chef. The prestigious American university will offer this course for at least the next five years.

Ferran Adrià has been considered for many years as the best chef in the world and his restaurant El Bulli, the world’s best restaurant. Together with Lisa Abend, ‘Time’ magazine’s Spain correspondent explained a movie project based on Abend’s book ‘The Sorcerer’s Apprentices’. The movie will show the experience of young cooks in El Bulli.