# elBulli restaurant - glorious innovation, or pretentious wank? **URL:** \ **Category:** Cafe Society\ **Created:** [February 20, 2008, 11:09am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/elbulli-restaurant-glorious-innovation-or-pretentious-wank/438371 "2008-02-20T11:09:06Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 9\ **Page:** 3
**Author:** ![devilsknew](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/4da419/32.png) [@devilsknew](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/devilsknew)\ **Post date:** [February 25, 2008, 2:55am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/elbulli-restaurant-glorious-innovation-or-pretentious-wank/438371/41 "2008-02-25T02:55:16Z")
I’m figuring it was plasticized in some way. Maybe the [olive oil was made into a powder with maltodextrin](http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hDVaAV2z2z8&feature=related) and some other secret ingredient, reagent, or hardener and then extruded into a string. Simple matter to wrap the filament around a cylinder to get the spring. ---
**Author:** ![devilsknew](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/4da419/32.png) [@devilsknew](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/devilsknew)\ **Post date:** [February 25, 2008, 4:31am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/elbulli-restaurant-glorious-innovation-or-pretentious-wank/438371/42 "2008-02-25T04:31:23Z")
That other secret ingredient might be [methylcellulose](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Methylcellulose). Then again, I’m just guessing. ---
**Author:** ![fruitbat](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/58f4c7/32.png) [@fruitbat](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/fruitbat)\ **Post date:** [February 25, 2008, 4:49am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/elbulli-restaurant-glorious-innovation-or-pretentious-wank/438371/43 "2008-02-25T04:49:20Z")
The best I have ever had was the Inn at Little Washington outside of Washington DC. It is maintained its status among the very best restaurants for over a decade, which is a lifetime in that business. What struck me was the intensity of flavor. As an example, I was floored by an amuse bouche described as the “world’s smallest baked potato”. It was simply a tiny baked potato filled with fresh cream and a variety of bacon. Two small bites and it was gone. I don’t know what they did to that cream or what pig that bacon came from, but the chef managed to distill the essence of bacon and cream into a tiny space. You also find a combination of tastes that are daring and unusual, but in the best restaurants they never fall flat. Seared tuna with cucumber sorbet and daikon radish slices would be something I would be scared of at most places. When done right that type of food can inspire you to experiment with flavors that you wouldn’t otherwise consider pairing. ---
**Author:** ![Madd\_Maxx](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/5f9b8f/32.png) [@Madd\_Maxx](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Madd_Maxx)\ **Post date:** [February 25, 2008, 3:55pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/elbulli-restaurant-glorious-innovation-or-pretentious-wank/438371/44 "2008-02-25T15:55:39Z")
Food is a lot like art, they are both very subjective and opinions on each are going to vary from one person to another. What is a brilliant masterpiece to one person’s eyes and palette is pretentious and bland to another. Some of Jackson Pollack’s “works of art” still just look like random splashes of paint to me. Some are interesting to look at, and I can see what he was going for in others but to me isn’t on the same level as a Picasso or Van Gogh. El Bulli is going to be the same for some people, they admire and appreciate something more traditional and familiar. And they aren’t wrong for feeling that way, nor is a proponant of Adria’s wrong in their admiration for him and his style. ---
**Author:** ![devilsknew](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/4da419/32.png) [@devilsknew](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/devilsknew)\ **Post date:** [February 27, 2008, 5:10am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/elbulli-restaurant-glorious-innovation-or-pretentious-wank/438371/45 "2008-02-27T05:10:13Z")
[QUOTE=Ferret Herder] :dubious: He named his restaurant after what’s basically a diner in France, and he serves up a similar style of cooking last I checked. [/QUOTE] If Les Halles is a diner, then I’m Julia Child. Bourdain was probably more conceptual than Adrian is his halcyon days as a young punk resteraunteur with the bad boys. Who’s more pretentious than Johnny Rotten? ---
**Author:** ![Ferret\_Herder](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/e47774/32.png) [@Ferret\_Herder](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ferret_Herder)\ **Post date:** [February 27, 2008, 11:38am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/elbulli-restaurant-glorious-innovation-or-pretentious-wank/438371/46 "2008-02-27T11:38:26Z")
[QUOTE=devilsknew] If Les Halles is a diner, then I’m Julia Child. [/QUOTE] Shit, I’m thinking of a restaurant that was nearby, not the market. What was the name of the place… :smack: They served all kinds of people, especially the laborers that worked at Les Halles proper. And I just saw or read something on the topic, how embarrassing. ---
**Author:** ![don\_t\_ask](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/e68b1a/32.png) [@don\_t\_ask](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/don_t_ask)\ **Post date:** [February 27, 2008, 12:19pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/elbulli-restaurant-glorious-innovation-or-pretentious-wank/438371/47 "2008-02-27T12:19:35Z")
[Simon Johnson](http://www.simonjohnson.com/Default.aspx?CN=ADVERT&CA=22%7CDRTEX04) the Sydney “Purveyor of Fine Foods” sells Ferran Adriá kits with the tools and chemicals to achieve his effects. Interesting stuff but pricey. ---
**Author:** ![devilsknew](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/4da419/32.png) [@devilsknew](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/devilsknew)\ **Post date:** [February 27, 2008, 8:54pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/elbulli-restaurant-glorious-innovation-or-pretentious-wank/438371/48 "2008-02-27T20:54:24Z")
[QUOTE=Ferret Herder] Shit, I’m thinking of a restaurant that was nearby, not the market. What was the name of the place… :smack: They served all kinds of people, especially the laborers that worked at Les Halles proper. And I just saw or read something on the topic, how embarrassing. [/QUOTE] Yea, Les Halles is the marketplace, and Bourdain’s Les Halles is modeled after a french restaurant nearby, but what I’m trying to get at is that Bourdain’s Les Halles Brasserie is a far call from a diner, even by French standards. The food might be relatively basic French Food, but it is still French Food by American standards and far from unpretentious. ---
**Author:** ![pulykamell](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/pulykamell/32/3166_2.png) [@pulykamell](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/pulykamell)\ **Post date:** [February 27, 2008, 9:06pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/elbulli-restaurant-glorious-innovation-or-pretentious-wank/438371/49 "2008-02-27T21:06:48Z")
[QUOTE=Mangetout] I stumbled across [this](http://www.elbulli.info/gallery.htm) site - detailing pictures and descriptions of… well… it’s not food. Edible art, perhaps? I can’t decide whether to love it for being inventive, or hate it for being so damn pretentious. Surely this sort of thing would get old really quickly. [/QUOTE] [You may get a kick out of these pictures as well.](http://www.alinearestaurant.com/pages/gallery/gallery_cuis.html) I especially enjoy the penultimate picture of the bacon in that contraption. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/elbulli-restaurant-glorious-innovation-or-pretentious-wank/438371.md?page=2)