Bid Farewell to El Bulli

El Bulli to Close Permanently

By ANDREW FERREN

Sergio Perez/Reuters Ferran Adrià at the International Gastronomy Summit in Madrid in January.

Ferran Adrià, the Catalan chef who for two decades has been the leading catalyst and inspiration for avant-garde cuisine, has decided to permanently close his restaurant El Bulli, considered by many to be the world’s greatest, and to replace it with an academy for advanced culinary study, Mr. Adrià said in an interview on Friday.

In January, Mr. Adrià had said that the restaurant would go on a hiatus starting in 2012 , but that it would reopen in 2014. For many years El Bulli, in the Mediterranean town of Roses, north of Barcelona, closed for half the year so Mr. Adrià and his chefs could spend the off months developing new techniques, like the foams, airs and other culinary wizardry that he has created.

He told The Wall Street Journal at that time that his research would “be focused on sustaining and growing our brand however possible. A brand with goals like ours requires a big capital investment.’’

On Friday he said he decided to close the restaurant for good because he and his partner, Juli Soler, had been losing a half million Euros a year on the restaurant and his cooking workshop in Barcelona.

“At that level of contribution,’’ he said of the losses, “I think we would rather see the money go to something larger that expands the concept and spirit of what El Bulli represents.’’

He said he would use that money — which he earns mostly from consultancies and other businesses — to establish his new academy and to finance scholarships so the world’s most talented cooks can attend.

“We had planned to use the two years to see how El Bulli could evolve,’’ Mr. Adrià said in a telephone interview. “We’ve been looking at many options, but yesterday we decided that the foundation would be the most satisfying.’’

He said of the demands of the restaurant, “at that bestial pace, it would be impossible to continue.’’

Adrià said the academy would be “a place for free thinking and kicking around ideas’’ about food. The El Bulli academy would likely work with many cooking schools around the world and would seek students — perhaps 25 in the first year — who had the highest levels of professional training.

“Throughout the history of El Bulli we’ve made seemingly drastic decisions in order to maintain our level of creativity,’’ he said.

Mr. Adrià, 47, arrived at El Bulli in 1983, when it was a French restaurant. Soon he took charge of the kitchen and by the 1990s it became known as a laboratory for daring innovation.

“Mr. Adrià’s idea, as he describes it, was simply to ‘do new things with old concepts,’’’ Mark Bittman wrote in 2006. “So, seeing chicken curry as a concept and determining to do something that hadn’t been done before, he developed a dish, now famous, in which the sauce is solid and the chicken liquid.’’

In 1997 he won three Michelin stars. He has since been proclaimed by many to be the greatest chef in the world. He has been widely influential in the spread of “molecular gastronomy’’ — a term he has renounced.

The restaurant will reopen for six months on June 15 after its winter break and will close for good in December 2011.

The 3,000 people on the waiting list for one of about four dozen seats, will just have to hope that someday Mr. Adrià will open another restaurant.

He said that has no plans to, but the academy might be open for breakfast, or an occasional lunch. (And he is the director of gastronomy at El Bulli Hacienda Benazuza hotel near Sevilla.)

“Everything new looks strange,’’ Mr. Adrià.

Migrated to http://www.humblerboy.com

Dear readers, I have successfully migrated my blog from http://humblerboy.blogspot.com to http://www.humblerboy.com as of 5th February 2010.

Also, do check out from time to time for my food review in Adelaide Foodies showcasing the best foods that you mustn't missed out while you are on your holiday trip here in Adelaide, Australia.

Cheers,
William

Top 20 High Performance Schools

Of recent, the Government of Malaysia under the Education Ministry have came up with a list of schools that are of "High Performance School" list. But of the 20 schools that have been announced recently, it causes uproar amongst many quarters of Malaysians who thinks certain schools are left out even-though they were qualified.

There are even a few states that were not even in the Top 20 of the list at all. Why were there clusters in certain states? How was the evaluation being done? Of that 4 are from Kuala Lumpur, 2 are from each states of Selangor, Johor, Negeri Sembilan, Perak, Kedah respectively and, 1 from each state in Cyberjaya, Perak, Penang, Malacca, Putrajaya, Perlis respectively.

Where is Pahang, Terengganu, Sabah, Sarawak, and Wilayah Persekutuan Labuan? Are they lacking of something? I don't think so. How do they actually evaluate these Top 20 schools? That is what I want to know. How do you judge a school is a High Performance School? That is so subjective to measure how a school is performing well. There may be schools who are performing extremely well, but they are not in the list.

Instead of a High Performance School, why not list the opposite with Top 20 instead? I am sure we are also interested to see such schools in the country.

Such Top 20 High Performance School list would have motivated the Top 20 schools in the country but it doesn't motivate schools who are equally competitive with those on the list. Imagine this would leave other students and even teachers disparity than good. As I have left my high school for approximately 6 years now and is always in the loop with my former alma mater and my batch mates.

I am sure all my 400-odd high school batch mates would disagree with such ratings. It has done more harm than good in my own opinion.

Why spend $20 million by giving to these Top 20 so-called "High Performance Schools?" Spend it on training these teachers who complained "Saya tak fasih Bahasa Inggeris lah. Tak boleh ajar Sains & Matematik dalam bahasa Inggeris". Go spend on them on training.