Gereon Wetzel
Documentary, Germany
Catalan, French, and English with English subtitles
Alive Mind Cinema
Runtime 108 min.
Named the Best Restaurant in the World by Restaurant Magazine, El Bulli, located in the Spanish city of Roses on the Mediterranean Sea, is known for its avant-garde tasting menus and exclusivity – the restaurant accommodates only 8,000 diners each season out of over 2 million requests. Director Gereon Wetzel (How to Make a Book with Steidl) offers viewers a window into the laboratory, restaurant and mind of the world-renowned Spanish chef Ferran Adrià. He artfully captures Adrià’s creative process, giving unprecedented access to a year in the life of El Bulli.
The year begins with Adrià and his team in his Barcelona laboratory, where they work six months of each year in order to set the elaborate menu for El Bulli’s fall season. Humble ingredients are elevated to imaginative new gastronomic heights as the chefs seek to innovate through scientifically precise techniques. A sweet potato is transformed as it is juiced, vacuumized and fried in search of the ultimate flavour, each variation meticulously documented. Kitchen dynamics are on display as tastes are nervously presented to Adrià, whose definitive judgments humble even his most senior colleagues.
In the closing sequence viewers are treated to the culmination of nearly a year’s work as El Bulli’s 30-plus-course tasting menu is beautifully photographed, offering a satisfying conclusion to a mouth-watering film.
El Bulli closed its doors for the last time earlier this year.
El Bulli: Cooking in Progress official site
Screening on Saturday, November 12 at 6pm in the Al Whittle Theatre – Studio Z