Yesterday at the Madrid Fusion conference Chef Ferran Adria made the announcement that elBulli would close it's doors to the public. No the restaurant isn't closing down for good, but Chef Adria has decided that he needs to take a step back as it were, look at where elBulli has been and where it's going moving forward. The restaurant itself is working on it's 50th year in operation - Adria has been at the helm for 30 of those years.
According to the presser we could get a elBulli encyclopedia, which would be the first ever complete 'bible' of avant garde cuisine from Adria. He's released several books, but this would be even bigger (bigger than the Fat Duck Cookbook - that Heston Blumenthal put out) which is many levels of kick ass.
My first thought was "Good for him", time to take stock in where he's been and where he wants the restaurant to go. Not many chefs can close down their restaurant for two years and get away with it - Adria can. Guys like Heston Blumenthal and Grant Achatz both did stages under Adria.
