History
The restaurant's location was selected in 1961 by Hans Schilling, a German, and his Czech wife Marketa, who wanted a piece of land for a planned holiday resort. By the year 1963, the resulting holiday resort included a small makeshift bar known in Spanish as a "chiringuito", which was variously called "El Bulli-bar" and "Hacienda El Bulli"; this little bar was the nucleus of the future restaurant El Bulli. The name "El Bulli" came from a colloquial term used to describe the French bulldogs the Schillings owned.[10] The first restaurant was opened in 1964.
The restaurant won its first Michelin star in 1976 while under French chef Jean-Louis Neichel. Ferran Adrià joined the staff in 1984, and was put in sole charge of the kitchen in 1987. In 1990 the restaurant gained its second Michelin star, and in 1997 its third.[11]
El Bulli has published books on its development, menu and philosophy since 1993,[12] in both large format, some including CD-ROMs, and small format for supermarket sales.[5] Ferran Adrià, Juli Soler, and Albert Adrià published A Day at El Bulli in 2008. The book describes 24 hours in the life of El Bulli in pictures, commentary and recipes. Among the recipes included in the book are melon with ham, pine-nut marshmallows, steamed brioche with rose-scented mozzarella, rock mussels with seaweed and fresh herbs, and passion fruit trees.
Chef and writer Anthony Bourdain described Albert Adrià's contributions thus: "His book is a shockingly beautiful catalog of his latest accomplishments here ... Pastry chefs everywhere—when they see this—will gape in fear, and awe, and wonder. I feel for them; like Eric Clapton seeing Jimi Hendrix for the first time, one imagines they will ask themselves 'What do I do now?'."[13]
