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Control of the tasting menu
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Different tests were carried out throughout the elBulli creative process, systematising their practice and making them an essential part of the work.
This projection, dating from 2008, shows Ferran Adrià during one of the tasting menu checks that was held every week at the preparation station. It was the final step in the creative process that had begun months earlier at elBullitaller.
Whereas Ferran sampled the intermediate elaborations at elBullitaller and gave guidance for the tests, at elBullirestaurante the process would be well established and resulted in optimal preparations. Ferran simply performed quality control checks.
This final step was both necessary and vital, because it allowed the design and composition of each tasting menu to be finalised as a whole. It was also a way to audit the quality of the final elaborations in order to optimise and refine them, and to generate new ideas.
As the tasting menu was consolidated, the elaborations were also added to a provisional catalogue for the year, which was updated weekly. In fact, elBulli’s final elaborations were not considered complete until they were definitively catalogued at the end of each season. Until that time, they were subject to modifications that could affect the whole process.
Elaborations that did not successfully complete the process in its entirety were also recorded and published in the final catalogue, under the heading ‘Back to the drawing board’.
Once all the year’s creations were catalogued, all the necessary information was made available for an evolutionary analysis, which allowed for the creative production to be audited. In this way, a comparison made with the creative production from previous years served as both a stimulus to generate new ideas for the future and a way to avoid replication.
This projection, dating from 2008, shows Ferran Adrià during one of the tasting menu checks that was held every week at the preparation station. It was the final step in the creative process that had begun months earlier at elBullitaller.
Whereas Ferran sampled the intermediate elaborations at elBullitaller and gave guidance for the tests, at elBullirestaurante the process would be well established and resulted in optimal preparations. Ferran simply performed quality control checks.
This final step was both necessary and vital, because it allowed the design and composition of each tasting menu to be finalised as a whole. It was also a way to audit the quality of the final elaborations in order to optimise and refine them, and to generate new ideas.
As the tasting menu was consolidated, the elaborations were also added to a provisional catalogue for the year, which was updated weekly. In fact, elBulli’s final elaborations were not considered complete until they were definitively catalogued at the end of each season. Until that time, they were subject to modifications that could affect the whole process.
Elaborations that did not successfully complete the process in its entirety were also recorded and published in the final catalogue, under the heading ‘Back to the drawing board’.
Once all the year’s creations were catalogued, all the necessary information was made available for an evolutionary analysis, which allowed for the creative production to be audited. In this way, a comparison made with the creative production from previous years served as both a stimulus to generate new ideas for the future and a way to avoid replication.
