El Bulli? oh no!

High on my list of culinary destinations is El Bulli. When I say high, that’s akin to me admitting I’d like a bit of air now and then to breathe. El Bulli is THE place. I need to eat in El Bulli.

I don’t want to eat there one day. I need to eat there one day. But news broke yesterday that El Bulli will be closing its doors in 2012 and 2013. Yes, for two whole years. What happens when 2013 ends is anyone’s guess, but from the quotes below, I’m now confirmed that 2011 will have to be my year in El Bulli, even if it’ll mean even more people taking part in the ‘reservations lottery’.

Ferran Adria said: ”El Bulli is not closing down. These are not two years on sabbatical. I need time to decide how 2014 is going to be… I know that when I return it will not be the same.”

For anyone who hasn’t ever tried to get a reservation at the world’s gastronomic home, you’d have an easier time asking Iris Robinson to get you some funding to open your own cafe this week.

Based in Catalonia, Spain, the world’s best restaurant only opens for around six months (this year, for example, first service is on June 15 and last is December 20). Reservations for 2010 are already long gone with this message on their website: “We have received an extraordinary demand and are obligated to forewarn you that it will be impossible to fulfill most of the requests even those received at the first moment. We will give you an answer as soon as possible but the revision of reservation requests is a very complicated and slow moving process”. So 2010 isn’t going to happen. 2011 it is then. I need to eat in the world’s best restaurant before it closes its doors and potentially opens them again in a completely different guise.

Damn this is not good news. Cost doesn’t even matter to me (though I hope Mrs F ain’t reading), and there’s little information on their website about how much a meal would even set you back (though some reviews from a few years ago said the tasting menu was in the ?175 per person ballpark - and includes some 35ish dishes). Anyone want to tag along if we can get in?