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Welcome to the elBullirestaurante dining room

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Welcome to the legendary dining room at elBullirestaurante. This is where thousands of people from every corner of the world have been treated to amazing gastronomic experiences.

As you can see, we have reproduced the scene of a service. A specific moment has been frozen in time as a record of the variety and complexity that lay behind each individual experience and all of them combined: there is a table where the meal is just starting, another where it is coming to an end, a table where you can see alternative elaborations catering to people with dietary restrictions, and a table where a birthday is being celebrated.

In this life-size snapshot, you can imagine the complexity in which the sommeliers had to coordinate their movements at all times to be synchronised with the incessant arrival of elaborations at the tables (more than 40 per person). And that of the waiters, who must present them and offer recommendations on how they should be tasted, or prepare elaborations in front of the customer, for example, to make a welcome cocktail using liquid nitrogen.

If you have never been here before, you may be surprised by the rustic decor, given that elBulli cuisine was synonymous with avant-garde. The reason for this is simple: there was never any intention to change the layout, furniture or decorative details that have remained in place over the years. This helped to create a friendly atmosphere that allowed everybody to feel relaxed enough to enjoy their dining experience.

In addition, there was a completely different style of service that achieved a unique balance between a professional table service and a naturalness that was a world away from the typical style found in fine-dining restaurants at the time. This new philosophy revolutionised the way in which service was conceived, and it is one that cannot be understood without Juli Soler, a true master who turned the team into guides and guardians of the gastronomic experience.

His extraordinary personality led him down a path that he both needed and wanted to take to fulfil his desire to make all his customers happy while serving them with great professionalism and seducing them to let themselves be carried away. He succeeded in creating a front-of-house team that embraced this way of working, and so, with the evolution in cuisine, there was an evolution in service. It is unlikely that the concepts he used would be considered genuine innovations, but they would define a new way of working never before seen in a fine-dining restaurant. They were, therefore, pioneers in the sector.

GALLERY OF IMAGES