| Ferran Adria is considered by many to be the | | | | to his arrival, El Bulli was largely unknown. Located in |
| greatest chef in the world. Certainly he is one of the | | | | the small village of Roses, at the end of a narrow |
| most original and creative. Gourmet magazine called | | | | and winding road on the Costa Brava of Catalonia, it |
| him the Salvador Dali of the kitchen. His El Bulli | | | | has garnered three Michelin stars since Adria took |
| restaurant was named by prestigious Restaurant | | | | over the kitchen and is only open from mid-June |
| magazine as the best restaurant in the world; and in | | | | through late December. The other six months of the |
| 2006 it was named the best restaurant in the world | | | | year Adria is traveling the world looking for new |
| by the Restaurant Top 50, a title it has retained ever | | | | creative ideas. |
| since. Unquestionably Ferran Adria will go down in | | | | In the late eighties Adria began cooking experiments, |
| culinary history. He was born in 1962 near Barcelona, | | | | which have come to be known as Molecular |
| Spain. He studied in Barcelona, and when he was | | | | Gastronomy - the application of chemistry to cooking |
| fourteen years old he enrolled in a school of business | | | | and culinary practice. His creations are always a |
| administration. By age eighteen he was thoroughly | | | | surprise and enchantment to his clients, but superb |
| bored and dropped out to put on uniform jackets | | | | taste is ultimately the final criterion, and Adria himself |
| washing dishes in a French restaurant at the Playafels | | | | refers to his cuisine as "deconstructionist" rather than |
| Hotel in Castelldefels, Spain. It was in this restaurant | | | | molecular. The goal is to delight the diner with |
| that he picked up the classic French culinary | | | | surprise and novelty, by contrasting flavors, textures, |
| techniques, and read El Practico - Spain's equivalent of | | | | and temperatures, served in up to thirty-course |
| Escoffier's classic Le Guide Culinaire. | | | | meals. He says that El Bulli's patrons don't come there |
| After a short stint working at Club Cala Lena in Ibiza | | | | to eat, but to have a unique experience. His best |
| in 1981-2, Adria returned to Barcelona and began | | | | known invention is culinary foam, now employed by |
| working as assistant chef at the world-famous | | | | gourmet chefs throughout the world. Culinary foam is |
| Finisterre. He performed his compulsory service in the | | | | made from natural flavors, either savory or sweet, |
| Spanish Navy at the Naval base in Cartagena, | | | | which is mixed with a natural gel agent and packed in |
| working on the staff of the captain general's own | | | | nitrous oxide-powered whipped cream canisters. The |
| kitchen; and it was here that he was first put in | | | | most popular culinary foams are foamed beet root, |
| charge of running a kitchen himself. After leaving the | | | | foamed mushrooms, and foamed espresso. In |
| Navy in 1983, Adria was given the opportunity to do | | | | addition to working in a white apron in his restaurant |
| a tryout in a chef shirt at El Bulli in Roses, Spain. He | | | | and scientific investigations, Adria has published a |
| was immediately offered the job of line cook and a | | | | number of cookbooks, including A Day at El Bulli, |
| year and a half later he became the head chef. Prior | | | | Cocinar en Casa, and El Bulli 2003-2004. |