Spanish chef Ferran Adrià, who led a gastronomic revolution at his elBulli restaurant in Spain, is selling the world’s most famous restaurant’s wine collection to fund its transition into a laboratory of food creativity and innovation. The elBulli Foundation, which will open at the site of the restaurant in Roses town in Spain’s Catalonia region in 2014, will also codify the knowledge in Bullipedia, an online repository of food innovation experiments.
The three Michelin-star restaurant, which used to get up to two million requests for bookings for just 8,000 seats during its limited opening season every year, was closed by Adrià in July 2011.
The avant-garde food and recipes will continue to be experimented upon and created in the elBulli Foundation, being set up by Adrià and Juli Soler. The foundation will focus its activity on creativity and study the efficiency of the innovation processes, using cooking as a language that interacts with other disciplines.
“ElBulli is transforming into the elBulliFoundation. Thanks to this sale, our work on creativity can continue,” says Adrià. The restaurant is selling 8,807 bottles of wine, and aims to raise between $1.1 and $1.6 million.
“The elBulliCellar comprises a unique collection of wines, created by Juli Soler and the sommelier team,” he says, “Due to the transformation of elBulli into a foundation, we decided this special collection should be used to make a founding contribution to ensure its successful launch.”
“Those of us lucky enough to have dined at elBulli will never forget the extraordinary sensations laid before us. There was both an explosive genius about the food and a calm way in which it was delivered, so that one could discover all the secrets of smoke, foam and spheres of liquid. There was delight and elation in every dish; a seamless procession of magic!” recalls Serena Sutcliffe MW, the head of the international wine department at Sotheby’s. “The extra ingredient was the intuitive pairing with the phenomenally interesting wine list. We are delighted to be able to bring these wines to auction so collectors can share the enchantment of elBulli,” she added.
The wine collection will be auctioned on April 3 in Hong Kong and on April 26 in New York, Sotheby’s said. The sale includes rare sherries dating back to 1830.