El Bulli — Cooking in Progress

Michelin-starred Spanish restaurant El Bulli has turned cooking into an art form. The chefs are world renowned, the food exceptional. The restaurant is only open to the public for six months of the year. The rest of the time sees a team of experts hard at work creating a new avantgarde 30-course menu.

Director Wetzel takes us in to watch experiments with structure, sound, colour and flavour. Cooking with liquid nitrogen, something the restaurant is particularly famous for, is but one of the many unconventional preparation methods used here. Owner Ferran Adrià is always on hand, tasting everything created and comes across like a softened-down version of Gordon Ramsey.

We discover experimental dishes such as Parmesan Crystal and Vanishing Ravioli came about largely by chance. When one of the chefs fished out an ice cube from his glass of Coke and accidentally dropped it in the gravy on his plate, he thought, why not make a dish from ice cubes? And why not mix oil with water, for a cocktail that leaves a deliciously soft coating on the lips?

At El Bulli, it’s all about feeling something, experiencing something. In the words of top chef Adrià, "The more bewilderment, the better."