3. El Bulli – The Last Supper - a challenge of Setsuko Yuuki
As many of you probably know, El Bulli was a Spain’s famed restaurant and the name of “El Bulli” comes from French bulldogs. (see Sanji’s comment in his thread “Ask a Doc”.) There were many bulldog’s pictures & drawings at El Bulli. They had been No.1 five times in total at “The World’s Best Restaurant 50”:
* The World’s Best Restaurant 50 (archive ranking)
www.theworlds50best.com/list/past-lists/2006/It’s a restaurant magazine and it’s not any authority like Michelin. But I read that many young chefs in the world say they are eager to get this ranking rather than Michelin recently. As for Michelin, their agents select the restaurants and evaluate, but “the World’s best restaurant 50” looks like different:
* The World’s Best Restaurant 50 (global selection)
www.theworlds50best.com/globalselection/about-the-global-selection.htmlEl Bulli was No.1 in this ranking continuously during 2006-2009 (in the new ICJ Ep #5, “a nominee from Spanish cuisine”, they introduced about El Bulli at 00:00 - 00:08.) but in 2010, they announced that they would close their restaurant business in July, 2011. (*If my information has something wrong, please correct.)
* EL BULLI - THE LAST SUPPER -
www.emirates247.com/news/world/world-s-best-restaurant-elbulli-serves-last-supper-2011-07-30-1.410407My friend informed me about an interesting video. It’s just “The Last Supper” at El Bulli and a Yuuki’s documentary aired on 9.21.2011 and 4.26.2012 by FujiTV NONFIX. We can see Yuuki, Hattori, Sakai, Ishinabe, Chen Kentaro and a bit of young Wakiya’s photo.
As far as I read the food writer’s blog in the above, I thought Yuuki was scary. But after my friend passed me this video and I watched it, I found her good point and understood she is really an expert for all about food culture. (She is not just a food display coordinator anymore.):
* YOU TUBE VIDEO *El Bulli - “Spread the ingredients of Tohoku region to the world” - Challenge of Setsuko Yuuki and Iron Chef Japan
www.youtube.com/watch?v=D-lPFDCdHKE (Japanese) www.youtube.com/watch?v=LAyx3qYkZ1M (Japanese)
(sorry for my terrible summary translation)
- First, they introduce about Yuuki. She has experienced whatever any top chefs made in Iron Chef Japan as a staff. Hattori and Sakai talk about Yuuki’s great carrier, knowledge, insight about the foods. Hattori says, any chefs are nothing compared to her knowledge. Sakai says, her experiences and insight are rather greater than chefs.
- We see Yuuki travel to Spain to enjoy the last dinner of El Bulli before they close. They explain that El Bulli’s capacity for the guest is 50 people a day but they receive 2 million people’s applications to make a reservation a year. That’s why they are called the most difficult restaurant in the world to make a reservation. The avant- garde culinary techniques we can see in Iron Chef today were all invented by Ferran Adria, the last head chef of El Bulli. (They did research the molecular structure, the temperature of freezing point and melting point and chemical reaction of the ingredients and invented the advanced cooking equipments or techniques.)
- Yuuki talks about her experience. She experienced many chef’s focused culinary skills when she worked for Ryouri-no-Tetsujin but she thought El Bulli was quite an evolutionary stage apart when she ate El Bulli’s dishes. She thought, “Picasso came in culinary world.” Also Ferran Adria talks, he was affected so much by Japanese cuisine techniques that Yuuki introduced him in Japan.
- Yuuki visits a market in Spain and her favorite restaurant. She shows us her extraordinary knowledge and cultural histories of each food fluently. She says she referred to beautiful display in European market for the food display in Ryouri no Tetsujin she used to work for.
- She visits Tohoku, Japan before leaving to Spain. She is going to bring some ingredients of Tohoku to Ferran Adria. Because any unusual ingredients he uses would spread to the world so quickly. eg. “Yuzu”
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Yuzu she introduced Adria before is now used by the chefs in all over the world. That’s one of her biggest purposes for this trip to El Bulli. She visits the restaurant of an old challenger in Ryouri no Tetsujin, Shimamura and they discuss what she should bring to Adria. She picked up two ingredients:
“Sake-kasu”:
kyotofoodie.com/what-is-sake-kasu/“Kuro-ninniku” (black garlic):
blackgarlic.com/- We can see many amazing culinary techniques of El Bulli. Some are like chemical experiments. And…holy! Yuuki complains to the world’s best restaurant’s No.2 chef’s dish and advises some improvement to him!
- And finally the last dinner at El Bulli begins. 50 chefs serve 50 guests. Adria says, he is planning to serve 44 or 45 dishes!
- 32:51 --- Hotdog of Mojito
- 33:20 --- Ball of green olive liquid
- 33:40 --- Macaroon of Parmesan
- 33:48 --- Balloon of Gorgonzola
- 35:30 --- They eat something like a brown bean on a spoon.
There is something white on the bean. It is miso soup with tofu.
- 36:04 --- Match stick of soy source and Wasabi.
- 37:19 --- Tofu Tiramisu and soy source powder with Dashi soup.
Chen Kentaro eats it and says with laugh, “I can’t explain the view of Adria’s world in my own words!”
- 38:02 --- Sushi-roll of Sake-kasu Gelato and laver powder. Yuuki says it’s perfect.
- 39:24 --- Kuro-ninniku Glace.
- 39:55 --- Hattori comments, ”I totally admire Adria and his creativity.”
- 40:00 --- Ishinabe comments, “Fantastic! That’s my only word.”
- 40:40 --- Tartar of Oyster
- 40:42 --- Taliatelle of Consommé, Carbonara source
- 40:44 --- Caviar source appended with Hazelnut Caviar
- 40:51 --- Ceviche of Clam
- 40:57 --- Gazpacho (White Gazpacho)
- 41:26 --- Cappuccino of Gibier
- 41:32 --- Ravioli of Rabbit with Bolognese source
- 41:45 --- Dr. Hattori looks FULL…! (everybody laughing)
- 41:50 --- Nippon Pond
(Adria made this dish contributing to one of his today’s guests. It’s a message from Adria that El Bulli’s close doesn’t mean the end but mean the new start. After ice of pond melting, spring comes.)
- 42:47 --- Coke of Glass
- 42:54 --- Chocolate in Jewel box. (The last course.)
49 dishes served after all.