Has anyone had any luck with El Bulli? I just sent in my request today
even though they opened up reservation requests over two weeks ago and
it already says it's booked for the 2006 seating. Just wondering if
anyone sent in their reservations or have gotten a table!

http://www.elbulli.com for those who are curious.

wrote on 26 Oct 2005 11:56:56 -0700:

m Has anyone had any luck with El Bulli? I just sent in my
m request today even though they opened up reservation
m requests over two weeks ago and it already says it's booked
m for the 2006 seating. Just wondering if anyone sent in their
m reservations or have gotten a table!

m http://www.elbulli.com for those who are curious.

Forgive (well perhaps) my ignorance but I've never heard of el
Bulli. What is it (a restaurant of some sort I might guess),
where is it and why should I want to make a reservation?

James Silverton.

James wrote to on Wed, 26 Oct 2005
16:32:10 -0400:

m Has anyone had any luck with El Bulli? I just sent in my
m request today even though they opened up reservation
m requests over two weeks ago and it already says it's booked
m for the 2006 seating. Just wondering if anyone sent in
m their reservations or have gotten a table!

m http://www.elbulli.com for those who are curious.

JS Forgive (well perhaps) my ignorance but I've never heard of
JS el Bulli. What is it (a restaurant of some sort I might
JS guess), where is it and why should I want to make a
JS reservation?

Ah well! I see it is the "world's second best restaurant" coming
after the Fat Duck! I suppose it is sour grapes (a very useful
medicament) but my cardiologist would have a fit with me if I
ate at any of the top 20 :-)

James Silverton.

Please jerk someone else's chain. The web site you gave is for a book!

In article . com,
wrote:

Has anyone had any luck with El Bulli? I just sent in my request today
even though they opened up reservation requests over two weeks ago and
it already says it's booked for the 2006 seating. Just wondering if
anyone sent in their reservations or have gotten a table!

http://www.elbulli.com for those who are curious.

Lawrence Leichtman wrote in news:larry-
:

http://www.elbulli.com

but it is a cook book :-)



--
Joseph Coulter
Cruises and Vacations
http://www.josephcoulter.com/

"jcoulter" skrev i meddelandet
.. .
Lawrence Leichtman wrote in news:larry-
:

http://www.elbulli.com

but it is a cook book :-)


That was the punch line in a science fiction short story, later amde into a
movie, in the 50s IIRC. Aliens visited Earth and invited humans to come
along in their (very large) spaceship; somebody found the aliens´ guide line
book, called, "How to serve man" although they failed to transalte the
content until the last line ...
Digression, no doubt.

Cheers

Nils Gustaf

--
Respond to nils dot lindgren at drchips dot se

Nils Gustaf,
You recall correctly for the most part, but "To Serve Man" was actually
a Twilight Zone episode, not a movie, IIRC.

Actually, it just advertises the book on its front page, but if you
click on it you can enter the restaurants website. I only thought this
might be interesting, because the food the head chef makes for the
restaurant every year is always different. Imagine.. Noodles made out
of parmesean.. Cherries with meat sauce.. I just thought it would be an
interesting dining experience though I doubt I'll get a reservation
since they only have 8,000 spots and 400,000+ requests a year.

The way I read it - with my very limited Spanish - it is a 3 star
restaurant... and guess what, these guys publish books. I would not be too
astonished if they dealt with cooking!!

Yves

"jcoulter" wrote in message
.. .
Lawrence Leichtman wrote in news:larry-
:

http://www.elbulli.com

but it is a cook book :-)



--
Joseph Coulter
Cruises and Vacations
http://www.josephcoulter.com/

Salut/Hi ,

le/on 26 Oct 2005 11:56:56 -0700, tu disais/you said:-

Has anyone had any luck with El Bulli? I just sent in my request today
even though they opened up reservation requests over two weeks ago and
it already says it's booked for the 2006 seating. Just wondering if
anyone sent in their reservations or have gotten a table!

After reading various comments I don't think I want to try El Bulli. The
style of modern cooking that seeks to subordinate quality of and fidelity to
ingredients, to sophistication in cooking techniques, is not going to get my
money. I was lucky enough to get seats (by pulling strings unmercifully) at
The French Laundry, also contender for the "Best Restaurant in the World"
which must in itself be the title of the most meaningless award in the
world. At least there, Thomas Keller showed his deep respect to the
ingredients themselves and I learnt a great deal about most of them.
Poularde, Lobster, Lamb to name but three.

I have been invited by my brother to "The Fat Duck" where Hestor Blumenthal
seems to be leaning towards the El Bulli style in some of his dishes. We are
going in December. After I discovered this, I did try out one of his recipes
recently - slow roasted beef, where after searing with a blow torch the meat
is roasted at 55C for 20 hours. It was the best roast beef I've ever cooked,
and arguably the best I've ever eaten. The beef itself was magnificent, and
needed to be for this cooking method, which could do nothing to disguise or
hide the intrinsic quality of the foodstuff.

All that to say that when you're seeking to book restaurants at this level
of renown, you have to expect it to be hard to get a booking. I don't know
how El Bulli's booking system works, but in both "The Fat Duck" and "The
French Laundry", booking opens 2 months to the day before any desired day.
So in other words, to book for the 27th December, boking would have opened
today. For the French Laundry, where the chef's tasting menu costs $150 for
9 courses (plus gratuity of 18% =$27 $177) booking opens at 10am and by
10.15am all tables are booked. At the Fat Duck (tasting menu £98 = $173), my
brother was able to get a table for the 13th December without much
difficulty by phoning on the 13th October. So I am not too surprised you
had some difficulty.

What I find interesting is the comparison in prices between these
restaurants with their stellar reputations and those of three star places in
France. For example the top menu at Bocuse is at €190 = $230 and Michel Bras
is at €152 = $184.




Wh
--
All the Best
Ian Hoare
http://www.souvigne.com
mailbox full to avoid spam. try me at website

"DaleW" skrev i meddelandet
ups.com...
Nils Gustaf,
You recall correctly for the most part, but "To Serve Man" was actually
a Twilight Zone episode, not a movie, IIRC.


That sounds reasonable, Dale - only saw the last scene, on the
telly-tha-new.
BTW, had a Savigny-le-Beaune 1996 from Lucien Jacob yesterday (to celbrate
my 56th birthday) -v good, definitely mature, undergrowth, leather, still a
good tannic structure - the wine was (for that commune) very tough as a
young boy, but with age and maturity it has mellowed, as we do all.

And it´s me that´s off to France tomorrow.

Cheers!

Nils Gustaf

--
Respond to nils dot lindgren at drchips dot se

Ian Hoare wrote:
After reading various comments I don't think I want to try El Bulli. The
style of modern cooking that seeks to subordinate quality of and fidelity to
ingredients, to sophistication in cooking techniques, is not going to get my
money.

Shock, shock, horror horror! Given your status as an erstwhile chemist,
Ian, I'd have thought that you'd be eager to try food made from liquid
nitrogen and inedible polymers ;-)


I have been invited by my brother to "The Fat Duck" where Hestor Blumenthal
seems to be leaning towards the El Bulli style in some of his dishes. We are
going in December. After I discovered this, I did try out one of his recipes
recently - slow roasted beef, where after searing with a blow torch the meat
is roasted at 55C for 20 hours. It was the best roast beef I've ever cooked,
and arguably the best I've ever eaten. The beef itself was magnificent, and
needed to be for this cooking method, which could do nothing to disguise or
hide the intrinsic quality of the foodstuff.

Do you think that the blowtorch treatment significantly changed the
outcome? Might not a traditional pot-a-feu have given you much the same
pleasure if the same cut of beef was used?

What I find interesting is the comparison in prices between these
restaurants with their stellar reputations and those of three star places in
France. For example the top menu at Bocuse is at €190 = $230 and Michel Bras
is at €152 = $184.

Indeed. It would be vaguely interesting to cross-reference these "top
restaurant" lists with their menu prices and see who comes out as the
value-per-money choice. I'd expect that several well-known Michelin
deux-etoiles would come out on top.

Mark Lipton

"James Silverton" in :

Forgive (well perhaps) my ignorance but I've never heard of el Bulli.
What is it (a restaurant of some sort I might guess), where is it and why
should I want to make a reservation?


(Saw the followups.) FYI it has been more or less the most fashionable
restaurant in the western world for the last few years. Sort of like on a
larger geography what the French Laundry (and more recently its Northeastern
expansion, Per Se) is within the US.

"Ian Hoare" in :

... All that to say that when you're seeking to book restaurants at this
level
of renown, you have to expect it to be hard to get a booking.


I've noticed the recurring pattern in situations like this, that above some
level of acclaim, the fact of being in demand _per se_ helps drive demand.
Therefore some people have trouble getting into a restaurant precisely
because of what got them interested in it. I've seen this recurrently for
25 years. (Following the usual pattern, there were some earlier years when
the French Laundry was not so crowded, but already displayed the same high
principles, and with easy access, for people willing to notice it, or seek
it out.)

It's a little like the frustrated situation of a wine consumer
(bad-mannered, though that's not part of this story) who demanded of a wine
merchant in my presence to have some of the good-value Chardonnays trumpeted
by a major article in the Wine Sp*ctator magazine. The bewildered merchant
tried to explain patiently that the customer could not get those
Chardonnays -- no one could, not for the last six weeks, because of the very
same article -- and the customer stormed off frustrated, maybe never even
noticing that the very factor that sparked his demand also assured its
frustration. (Which is a valuable lesson to learn, at least for wines,
where there are many alternative sources of info that don't have such side
effects.)

Admittedly, I reserved for no other reason than it's hard to get into
and it's just another excuse for me to make my boyfriend (who loves
food but not travel) to go on a trip to Spain w/ me.