Owner, Chef Ferran Adria

Born 14 May 1962 in L'Hospitalet de Llobregat (a suburb of Barcelona), Spain. At the age of 14 he enrolled at the Instituto Verge de la Merci¨ to study business administration. In 1980, at the age of 18, he left school out of boredom. Career : Ferran Adrià's revolutionary cooking has made El Bulli located on the coast of Catalonia on the outskirts of Barcelona, the most famous restaurant in the world, with 400 requests for every table. The cuisine is basically French but with Mediterranean influences. He began his famed culinary career washing dishes at a French restaurant in the town of Castelldefels, Spain. He then became assistant chef at Finisterre, a popular Barcelona restaurant. Following that, he served in the Spanish military at the Naval Base of Cartagena, where he was suitably stationed in the kitchen. In 1984, at the age of 22, Adrià joined the kitchen staff of El Bulli, and only 18 months later, he became head chef. He likes to play with liquid nitrogen and calcium chloride. He fashions paella out of Rice Krispies, entraps quail eggs in a cage of gold-tinted caramel and turns foie gras into frozen dust. Ferran Adria has been called the world's greatest chef. Gourmet magazine referred to Adria as "the Salvador Dali­ of the kitchen". The El Bulli 35-course taster's menu is a grand experience of tastes, textures, and wonder. An architect of molecular gastronomy, Adrià's creations are designed to surprise and enchant his guests If you go, plan on making restaurants months in advance. El Bulli serves only dinner, has less than 50 seats, and only makes one sitting. They are also closed from October to March. Of the approximately 2,000 bookings every year, they receive over 400,000 applications.