Wandering stars

not one for false modesty, but why should he be? elBulli, his now-closed restaurant in Roses, Spain, received a reported 500,000 requests for its 8,000 available seats during the six months it was open each year.

Most of his contemporaries would agree that he is the most innovative chef in the world. Cooks who worked in the elBulli kitchen or the Taller, the workshop in Barcelona where much of the culinary experimentation and innovation took place, either as stagiaires (unpaid workers) or as paid staff, have gone on to open their own Michelin-star establishments. They include Rene Redzepi of Noma in Copenhagen, Denmark; Joan Roca of El Celler de Can Roca in Girona, Spain; and Massimo Bottura of Osteria Francescana in Modena, Italy.

Hong Kong has at least four chefs who worked there: Uwe Opocensky, executive chef at the Mandarin Oriental, Paco Roncero of View 62 by Paco Roncero, Gianluigi Bonelli of GE at the Luxe Manor, and Alain Devahive Tolosa of Catalunya, which opened earlier this week in Wan Chai.

"There are people who have never been to elBulli but they've listened to me at a [culinary] conference and it changed their lives," says Adria, sitting down at Catalunya. The chef was in Hong Kong earlier this month for the Sotheby's auction of the contents of the elBulli cellar and other memorabilia - the first of two auctions, the second taking place on April 26 in New York. The chance to dine with Adria in Barcelona was also auctioned for HK$180,000, not including the 22.5 per cent buyer's premium.

"The phenomenon of elBulli is incredible," says Adria. "It's not only the kitchen. Designers, architects, a lot of creative people, for them elBulli is the reference, but why? Freedom. The most important thing is the freedom, risk and liberty to create. If elBulli can do this, why not us?"

Opocensky can't praise his time at elBulli highly enough. He had been executive chef at the Aberdeen Marina Club, but left his position in 2006 to spend six months as an elBulli stagiaire, going back the following year for another three weeks. "The first few days there were terrifying," he recalls. "It was so unfamiliar. Everything you think you know as a chef you just do not know. There's nothing they do that you would recognise as something anybody else would do. It's like your first day in the kitchen. You throw out everything you know. You break down rules - don't assume, ask, look at it and make it your own."