Wednesday, August 10, 2011

By the Numbers: ElBulli

On July 30, 2011, ElBulli, the famed restaurant of Ferran Adria, closed its doors.

ElBulli is located in a national park on Spain's Costa Brava
In the days and weeks leading up to and following the restaurant's closing, bloggers and food writers around the world covered it at nauseam. TIME called its closing festivities "The Night ElBulli Danced," while Slate celebrated the death of the "I Ate at ElBulli" piece penned by so many food writers. Even financial outlets like the Wall Street Journal and Bloomberg got in on the act.

This is not a post about molecular gastronomy, haute cuisine or the impact of ElBulli's closing and legacy. I've never eaten at ElBulli and certainly never will.

What I did find amazing as I was reading the coverage was considering ElBulli by the numbers:

  • Number of chefs: 42 
  • Ratio of reservation applications to places: 250:1 (Note: Nearly two million applications are received each year for 8,000 places) 
  • Number of courses: 35
  • Average length of dinner: 6 hours 
  • Cost: $320 
  • Number of times ElBulli has received Restaurant Magazine's "Best Restaurant in the World" honors: 5 (2002, 2006, 2007, 2008 and 2009; it was #2 in 2010) 

Curious to find out what all the fuss is about?

Anthony Bourdain recently dedicated an entire episode of No Reservation to ElBulli. It was beautiful, poignant and clearly very personal. Read his blog post about the show, A Beginning. An End, for a candid perspective on what ElBulli means to him.

Or you can just watch him make his way through the 30-plus courses here:




Posted by Courtney at 9:35 PM
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4 comments:

  1. AnonymousAugust 12, 2011 at 11:26 AM

    I'm so sad I'll never eat there, but I'm excited to see what Adria comes up with next. Might just prompt my first trip to Spain!

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  2. CourtneyAugust 12, 2011 at 9:57 PM

    Apparently his next project is the El Bulli Foundation (a "centre for culinary creativity") which will be opening in 2014. Sounds very interesting - lots of creative minds dedicated to pushing the bounds of gastronomy. Worthy of a trip to Spain for sure!

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  3. Edward M. BuryOctober 13, 2011 at 4:55 PM

    Well done. I wonder what restaurant will rise to this level of exclusivity. (I wonder: Do they make a profit? They are in the food business, after all.) This story reminds me of a legendary Chicago hot dog stand: Al's on Chicago Avenue at Elizabeth Street. When Al's closed, I'm sure hot dog lovers waxed poetic, although none from Slate, I would think. Growing up here, there were lots of "Al's," one in every neighborhood. They've been replaced by hot dog places (never call them "stands") like Hot Dougs, where you wait -- not years -- but an hour or so for a dog. Progress. There's a condo on the site where Al's once stood.

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  4. CourtneyOctober 18, 2011 at 6:59 PM

    Very interesting! Perhaps there's some inspiration here for a future post: the ghosts of Chicago's eating past. Could be cool to a "then and now" look at certain neighborhoods. Also, have you ever eaten at Hot Doug's? It's on my list but I haven't been yet.

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