Ferran Adria to shut down El Bulli for two years

The world's best chef, Ferran Adria, has shocked international foodies by declaring that he is to close his acclaimed restaurant El Bulli for two years in order to spend more time with his family. Adria made his surprise announcement yesterday at the Madrid Fusion culinary conference.
 
El Bulli is a three-Michelin star restaurant in the port town of Roses, north of Barcelona. It has topped the '50 Best Restaurants in the World' list - voted for by top chefs, restaurateurs and food writers - for the past four years. It will remain open this year and next, before closing in 2012 and 2013.
 
Adria's fans describe his trailblazing cooking method as 'molecular gastronomy' although the chef himself hates the term. Signature dishes include Parmesan ice cream sandwiches and seaweed foam, as well as freeze-dried foie gras and blackberry caviar.
 
Despite its position on the Costa Brava, El Bulli has become one of the world's most exclusive places to dine. Prior to yesterday's announcement, the restaurant only opened for six months a year, and for just one sitting per night. In recent years - since Adria's high-tech cooking methods came to worldwide attention - two million people have applied for the 8,000 spaces available annually.
 
Out of season Adria is no slacker, however. When the restaurant is shut from January to June, he works on new dishes and techniques and travels the world giving seminars.
 
Yesterday Adria, 47, said that he needed a rest after working 15-hour days for almost three decades. "I don't want to go and sit on a beach in the Bahamas but I think we deserve to lead more normal lives because for 25 years we have been focusing on the restaurant," he told journalists at Madrid Fusion. "Now we need more time with our families."
 
Although Adria plans to spend some of his two-year sabbatical in his food laboratory in Barcelona, foodies cannot depend on the world's best restaurant reopening in its current guise. "With a format like the current one it is impossible to keep creating," Adria said. "In 2014, we will serve food somehow. I don't know if it will be for one guest or 1,000." ·