elBulli to become non-profit foundation from 2014

MADRID — elBulli, the Spanish restaurant repeatedly crowned the world’s best, is to become a non-profit foundation from 2014, its avant-garde chef Ferran Adria (pictured) announced yesterday. elBulli will become a “foundation for all avant-garde gastronomy lovers.., a breeding ground for new ideas and for new talents,” he told a news conference at a culinary fair in the northwestern city of Santiago de Compostela.

He said the new “private and non-profit” foundation will grant between 20 and 25 scholarships annually for chefs and other industry professionals. “We want it to be a think-tank of gastronomic creativity,” said the controversial creator of “molecular gastronomy”. elBulli, on Spain’s northeastern Catalan coast, last year came top of the World’s 50 Best Restaurants list for the fourth year in a row following a poll of more than 800 chefs, restaurant critics and industry insiders for Britain’s Restaurant Magazine.

Gourmets the world over reserve months in advance for a table in the establishment, where about 30 avant-garde dishes are available on a menu for a price of about 200 euros. But Adria announced last month that his restaurant would close for two years from 2012, citing fatigue and a need to plan for the future. He said yesterday that one of the long-term aims of the new foundation would be the completion of an “exhaustive and detailed” encyclopaedia of contemporary cuisine.

The foundation’s gastronomic creations will be available for tasting every year from 2014 “by a certain number of customers.” “The creation of this foundation is another step forward, certainly very significant, in our aim for constant evolution and permanent commitment to creativity,” he said. Adria, 47, who joined the kitchen staff of elBulli in 1984, and Heston Blumenthal in England have since the late 1990s rocked the world of gastronomy by using science to “deconstruct” and rebuild food, both astonishing diners and delighting reviewers.

Taste-bud treats on the elBulli menu have included oyster meringue, hot ice cream, frothy truffle cappuccino and liquid ravioli, while vegetables are turned into lollipops or whipped foams. But Adria has had to respond to critics who say the chemicals used in his “molecular gastronomy” make it unhealthy. — AFP