On February 14, 2010, Spanish restaurateur Ferran Adria shocked the world of fine dining by announcing that his eponymous eatery, elBulli, would close for two years. It seemed an odd decision, considering the waiting list of 3,000 people begging for a table.
But no, Adria, the revolutionary chef who made famous the art of de-constructing dishes was really deconstructing his own restaurant. Everyone wondered why the chef would close what many considered the best restaurant in the world.
The news even made the cover of the Financial Times.
By announcing the closure 18 months ahead, he was factoring in time to gather his thoughts, or so he said. Diners hoped that the restaurant would re-open but within a month, he announced the creation of elBullifoundation, a decision that would guarantee the future of elBulli in a different guise. All this I know from the fat Sotheby’s catalogue of the sale of the elBulli cellar, the extraordinarily vast wine collection being auctioned by Sotheby’s in Hong Kong today, April 3. The second part of the sale takes place in New York on April 26 and features not just one of the world’s greatest wine collections, but a lot more besides. Also going under the hammer is a range of elBulli serving dishes and plates, menus, knives, utensils and cookery books.
It’s all being sold to fund the elBullifoundation. Selling the wine cellar does not sound like he’s planning to re-open the restaurant any time soon. Through the foundation, Adria wants to preserve and celebrate the restaurant’s accomplishments, while keeping elBuilli as a centre for gastronomic innovation, says the erudite essay about him in the catalogue. He apparently found the daily grind of cooking lunch and dinner cramped his creative style. This break apparently gives him and his team the freedom to continue to nurture the creative drive that had defined elBullil, but without all those nasty restrictions of timetables and the demands of a restaurant.
Well yes, running a restaurant is, indeed, demanding.
Apparently Adria realised that none of the past great restaurants such as Maxim’s had been preserved and he wanted a different fate for elBulli. He was approaching burnout as it was and thought he could only sustain the pace and format for another couple of years, according to the Sotheby’s catalogue.