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A Day at elBulli

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Authors: Ferran Adria, Juli Soler, Albert Adria
Publisher: Phaidon Press Inc.
Category: Book

List Price: ~~$49.95~~
Buy New: $32.97
You Save: $16.98 (34%)

New (41) Used (7) from $29.99

Rating: 4.5 out of 5 stars

14 reviews
Sales Rank: 400

Media: Hardcover
Edition: Ill
Pages: 600
Number Of Items: 1
Shipping Weight (lbs): 7
Dimensions (in): 11.7 x 8.8 x 2.4

ISBN: 0714848832
Dewey Decimal Number: 641
EAN: 9780714848839
ASIN: 0714848832

Publication Date: October 1, 2008
Shipping: Eligible for Super Saver Shipping
Availability: Usually ships in 24 hours

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Editorial Reviews:

Amazon.com Review
Book Description
A Day at elBulli: An Insight into the Ideas, Methods and Creativity of Ferran Adria reveals for the first time the creative process, innovative philosophy and extraordinary techniques of the multi-award-winning restaurant, elBulli, and its legendary head chef, Ferran Adria. Situated on a remote beach on the northeast coast of Spain, elBulli is famous for being the ultimate pilgrimage site for foodies, and a reservation that is nearly impossible to obtain. Each year elBulli is open for just six months, and receives more than 2 million requests for only 8,000 seats. Renowned for his spectacular ever-changing 30-course tasting menu, Adria's pioneering culinary techniques have been applauded - and imitated - by top chefs around the globe for the past decade, and he was named one of Time magazine's 100 most influential people of our time.

If you weren't one of the lucky few to get in this year (2008 reservations were booked a year in advance), you can now experience the restaurant like never before. This generously-illustrated 600-page ''day in the life'' features over 800 photographs, menus, recipes and diagrams, and presents a guided tour through a full working day at elBulli. The book documents the activities of each hour of the day, from dawn at 6.15 am to switching off the lights at 2.00 am.

The book highlights 30 dishes which represent a full elBulli menu, and Adria shows you how he creates the restaurant's innovative cuisines. Sample recipes include Samphire Tempura with Saffron and Oyster Cream, Steamed Brioche with Rose-Scented Mozzarella, and Coulant/Souffle of Granadilla with Cardamom Toffee.

In April 2008, elBulli won the #1 Best Restaurant in the World, for the third year in a row at the S. Pellegrino World's 50 Best Restaurant Awards.

A Look Inside A Day at elBulli
(Click on Images to Enlarge)

08:30 elBulli Restaurant Terrace	14:35 The rest of the kitchen team arrives.
16:45 Making an olive oil cylinder from a special caramel made with olive oil and Isomalt	20:00 Chefs make cocktails: a tray of Margarita frapp� with a salt air served in a cube of ice
Cigala con quinoa (Langoustine with quinoa)	23:15 The pace slows down as act three approaches

Amazon Exclusive: A Recipe Excerpt from A Day at elBulli

Marshmallow de pi�ones (Pine nut marshmallows)

Customer Reviews: Read 9 more reviews...

5 out of 5 stars

Pure genius at elBulli October 8, 2008
T. Myers
12 out of 13 found this review helpful

Amazing insight into the world of Ferran Adria at elBulli. This new book covers a single day in chronological order and spanning 600 pages. Readers should not expect an extensive narrative or cookbook format from this volume; however, for those interested in gleaning a window into an exotic world, this new work is hard to beat, especially at this price. Beautiful photographs fill nearly every page and feature the esoteric (sand on the Spanish sea shore), operational details (menu and plating preparation worksheets), and of course, the amazing food. A Day at elBulli clearly illustrates the genius and passion of Mr. Adria and offers a small glimpse at this world renowned restaurant for those of us not fortunate enough to dine there in person. Simply amazing!

3 out of 5 stars

Interesting, but not a cookbook October 20, 2008
P. Newman
6 out of 9 found this review helpful

As others have stated, this book is huge. It's about the size of a family bible. As a record of a culinary and restaurant phenomenon, it's interesting. It's an exhaustive album of photos that tries to show what it's like to be, work and eat at the restaurant.

As a cookbook, it is physically too big to be usable if anyone were to attempt these recipes. Since I am not a fan of molecular gastronomy, I have no idea if these recipes are useful and no desire to try them to find out. I can only imagine that for the cook who wants to cook in this way, they are a good feature of the book.

If you are an admirer of Adria or like molecular gastronomy, you would probably enjoy this book. If you are a foodie in general but with no particular liking for this kind of cooking, you might want to add the book to your collection merely as a record a notable chef's contributions to haute cuisine.

5 out of 5 stars

It's a photo album... October 28, 2008
B. J. Barnett (Arizona)
6 out of 7 found this review helpful

My Wife and I were Lucky enough to eat at El Bulli in September of 2007. Actually, I was the lucky one and she was gracious enough to let me drag her to the other side of the planet for a very strange, (but spectacular) dinner.

I just found out that this book existed. Firstly, it does not even pretend to be a "cook book". If that's what was expected then one should have bought the actual cook books, (published chronologically), from El Bulli directly. This book is a pictorial love letter. To me, even though I had absolutely nothing to do with the books production, it feels personal.

My own photo album mimics much of what is seen here. It's simply the real deal. A lot is made of Ferran and his restaurant. I understand why but what gets lost in all of the global hype is the simple fact that you are eating dinner at someone's house. It's small. There is no menu. No Pretense, and Ferran is actually there. Also,everybody else is just plain friendly.

It's food, not Worship. Fun...not analysis. Frankly, I've had better food in my life. However, I've never had a "Greater" dining experience. Once I received the reservation, we had to wait a full year. Here it is more than a year after and I still think about the experience all the time. What other Restaurant can give you that?

Ferran could charge 5 times what he does and still be full every night but he doesn't. That says something to me. He is laser focused on his own personal vision and when you go there you are merely a participant along for the ride...and what a crazy ride it is. Anyway, back to the book.

There is no way that this book is relevant to most casual observers. If I hadn't eaten there, i doubt even I would be interested to own it. Like I said, to me, this is one spectacular memory of the night we spent there. The table we sat at is photographed many times over and I have vivid memories of many other photos as well.

To this day, I'm still not sure if what I ate at El Bulli should be considered "dining". I doubt I ever will figure that out with any precision. That's why I loved it. It's the same with this book. You'll page through it and ponder it's ideas for years but you'll probably never arrive at any real resolution. I haven't. What other "cookbook" can do that? Talk about getting your monies worth...

4 out of 5 stars

Food Porn October 20, 2008
Charles E. Newman (San Jose, California)
5 out of 7 found this review helpful

My feeling is that about 1 in a 1,000 people who buy this book will ever either A. eat at elBulli or B. prepare any of the few recipies in the book. But as food porn it's incredible. Glossy picture after picture of food, preparation of food, impossible incredible food and the amazingly complex life of the restaurant and people who prepare the most complex food in the world. This is a book to drool over and I've given it four stars only because of a Puritan ancestry...we shouldn't give ourselves in to so much lust.

4 out of 5 stars

This is a difficult one October 11, 2008
J. Kalter
4 out of 6 found this review helpful

The book has close to 600 pages at 30 something $ from a world renowned 3 star chef. I will update this review in over the next few weeks why it all settles in.

It is not really a cookbook. Compared to the Alinea book this feels more like a coffee table book, it does have recipes though and it definitely shows how they do things.

For me at first quick view it seems they tried putting a movie into a book. While I can see that some people are turned off by this, for me it works.

The only complaint I have is, it sems when the book hit interesting spots, they changed the paper to a much thinner/cheaper type. Not sure why.

So that all said, I have already the Alinea book which I like, even though I don't think I ever will coook an entire menu. I also have Heston's Fat Duck book right now in transit from the UK which is 3 or 4 times the price of this one.

So once I get that, I will update here. If you are interested in the El Bulli experience, this is a nice book and a good prep for the trip.. If you are looking to learn from Ferran how too cook, this is not it.
.
JK

cooking el bulli fine dining foodie book spain

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