When Ferran Adrià arrived at elBullirestaurante in 1983, the customers at the time tended to choose dishes from the á la carte menu, even though set tasting menus were commonly found in many fine-dining restaurants. The restaurant was offering a standard tasting menu that was barely distinguishable from those of other similar restaurants.

Beginning in the 1990s, changes began to take place that were at first ‘gentle’ (such as the appearance of conceptual tapas and the gradual replacement of the dessert trolley with an à la carte dessert offering) and then more direct. A technical-conceptual revolution took place between 1994 and 1997, which led to the implementation of a clear strategy that ultimately led to the disappearance of the à la carte menu in 2002. The tasting menu became the restaurant’s only offering.

The continuous evolution of the tasting menu was at first in response to the creative principle of exploring the physical and mental limits of the gastronomic experience.

Ferran Adrià designed each tasting menu as a whole, where each elaboration would interact with the others to form a connected experience and build up a narrative that would appeal to diners. He used cuisine as a language to express himself and present his own philosophy, appealing not only to organoleptic dimension, sensory perception and memory but also to reason, emotions and spirituality.