Secret El Bulli Taller in the Heart of the City

The El Bulli Taller or workshop is located just off Las Ramblas, on a busy shopping street behind a modest doorway. Hundreds of people pass by there every day, unaware of the culinary creativity that is happening behind that closed door. It is where the El Bulli team spent their time during the months that the restaurant was closed, creating and experimenting with new dishes for the following season.

It is featured in the film ‘El Bulli: Cooking in Progress’ and now that El Bulli has closed its doors for good, it is used as a headquarters in Barcelona for the El Bulli Foundation. It is conveniently located two minutes walk away from the famous La Boqueria market so that the chefs may drop by early in the morning to buy their ingredients for that day.

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The Taller is part workshop, part museum, and part office. Once inside the front door, the hallway is covered in framed pictures, cookbooks and DVDs that show the diverse impact that Adrià and his team have had on the world. One particular frame stands out from the others, a printed document with handwriting in pencil stating the El Bulli ethos:

‘There are no schedules, no reservations, no routines, no walls, no certainty, nothing is foreseen, there is risk and there is creative freedom.’

The bottom floor is divided into a kitchen and an office space. The kitchen is a mix of stainless steel and sleek wooden finishes. 250 bottles line one of the walls that are filled with spices, herbs and an array of flavours from all over the world. Other walls are covered in architect’s drawings of the proposed El Bulli Foundation, which is to open up later in 2014.

Upstairs holds a museum dedicated to everything that has ever stemmed from the beginning of Adrià’s time in El Bulli. An array of items such as Ferran Adrià Pepsi cans, different chef jackets from over the years, signed copies of Ratatouille on which Adrià worked as a collaborator and unique crockery created especially for the restaurant. It’s an archive of over 30 years work, all meticulously preserved and organised in a way that mirrors the dedication and hard work from one of the world’s most infamous culinary teams.

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