Renowned
Spanish chef says elBulli struggling
By
HAROLD HECKLE (AP)
MADRID
- Acclaimed Spanish chef Ferran Adria says his world-famous
restaurant elBulli is struggling financially and he's looking
for ways to keep it afloat when it reopens after a hiatus.
Adria
told The Associated Press that elBulli, famed for its high-tech
"molecular cuisine," will be part of a larger, nonprofit
foundation when it reopens in 2014. Under Spanish law a foundation
can receive special tax benefits, accept grants and become involved
in education.
Adria
said elBulli will open June 15-Dec. 20 as normal and the 2011
opening days will be announced in September. Adria said it would
close in 2012 and 2013 for planning and preparation.
He
said there were no plans to close the restaurant for good. But
in an interview published in newspaper El Pais on Sunday Adria
acknowledged it was a struggle to keep elBulli going.
"As
a business, elBulli is madness," he told the newspaper.
"We need more financial muscle."
The
restaurant, situated in Cala Montjoi, two hours drive north
of Barcelona, was voted the world's best restaurant last year
by the British magazine Restaurant - the fourth consecutive
year it received the honor.
For
many years the easiest way to approach the secluded beach on
which it was built by its original German owners was from the
sea by boat.
Adria
is known for trailblazing cooking in which ingredients are "deconstructed"
and reassembled in unexpected ways, creating dishes like Parmesan
ice cream sandwiches or Adria's trademark foams - airy reincarnations
of solid food. The chef has made them from such things as tea
or seaweed.
Copyright
(c) 2010 The Associated Press. All rights reserved.