Sunday, February 14, 2010

El Bulli's Not Quite Dead...


I've never quite understood the fuss on Twitter about El Bulli closing - from foodies with no chance of ever eating there.

When chef genius Ferran Adria announced he was closing the world's top restaurant for two years, there was near Princess Di hysteria.

The streets were strewn with pine-nut marshmallow tributes and a massive sea grape statue was hurriedly built in Hyde Park.

Then it got worse, much worse, with a report in the New York Times on Friday that El Bulli was actually closing its doors for good - in December 2011.

Epicureans the world over lamented even more. Some threw themselves from restaurants with panoramic views.

The paper claimed Adria, 47, had decided to close El Bulli permanently because, despite having 3,000 punters on its waiting list for a table, it was losing too much money.

It said AdriĆ  and his partner, Juli Soler, had been losing half a million euro a year on the restaurant - and enough was enough.

News of the permanent closure was quickly followed up by the international media, with no apparent checks, and the scribes penned headlines like "El Bulli To Serve Its Last Brioche".

But now it appears the New York Times' story was all fecking rubbish - and a furious Adria has been hastily ringing round the Spanish papers, putting the story straight.

He said: "Nothing has changed from what I announced in January at Madrid Fusion, so El Bulli will close its doors in 2012 and 2013 and will open them in 2014."

Blimey. Breaking news!

What a storm in a (spherical lemon) tea cup.

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