11 April 2006

BARCELONA — El Bulli, the haute cuisine eaterie run by chef Ferran Adriá, has been voted the best restaurant in the world again.

An international jury, selected by the British magazine Restaurant, said El Bulli was the best place to eat on the planet for the second time.

 El Bulli, which only has 50 places and is permanently booked out with up to 400,000 applications for a place from all over the world each year, was opened in 1981 at Roses, near Girona in Catalonia.

Adriá says of El Bulli: "It is not a restaurant, it is place for investigation."

For the Catalan chef, the restaurant is a way of "seeing how far we can take cooking".

The restaurant is only open for six months of the year and an average meal costs from EUR 150.

Adriá said one way to reduce demand would be to raise the price to EUR 1,000 per person.

But this would be against his principles because he does not want haute cuisine to be considered elitist.

Adriá has worked with 20 charities to spread the use of haute cuisine ingredients to the Third World.

He says he only gets angry when he is attacked for charging EUR 200 per meal while people are starving in the world.

Adriá, who, has been awarded three Michelin stars, spends six months of the year dreaming up new recipes at his 'laboratory' in Barcelona.

[Copyright EFE with Expatica]

Subject: Spanish news