I grew up in New Jersey, far from the picturesque seaviews of Northeastern Spain where legendary chef Ferran Adrià’s famed El Bulli sat for decades. They didn’t serve food, they served tasty science experiements – and lots of them. The dining was so spectacular at El Bulli that it was named the No. 1 restaurant in the world five times (2002, 2006, 2007, 2008 and 2009) by Restaurant Magazine.
Peruvian-born chef Paulo De Souza was one of few culinary artists to have worked at El Bulli (from 2005 to 2008). The chef recently held a one-night only culinary feast at Paresa Phuket, where 32 diners enjoyed several El Bulli classics from his time there.
“This dinner has a lot of sentiment for me. To redo [these dishes], I would be doing something that represented an era, a place, a special restaurant. I did this to commemorate a special time,” he said.
Each dish was paired with a wine vintage from the year that the dish was made. As De Souza puts it: “Each plate told a story of one year at El Bulli.”
The Gamba Enmascarada (translation: hidden prawn), made in 2008, is served on a plate of shale rock. The prawns were covered in a bisque and included mushrooms as well as nasturtium (an edible watercress). The fresh seafood was light and had a clean finish thanks to the bisque.
Mero del Emporda (translation: fish from Empordà region of Catalonia) was one of the delights of the night, with a puree of Aragon olives and a lightly cooked grouper that enhanced the flavours of the rest of the dish, including the leek ash.
At this point, it’s apparent that what El Bulli did during their nearly 45 year was above cutting-edge.
The restaurant closed in 2011 and served 8,000 diners a year (with 2 million reservation requests annually). Each month, the restaurant’s menu included anywhere from 27–29 small dishes (37 dishes at its peak). The menu, even recipes, would change four times a month, so their chefs worked hard and fast.
“The restaurant was so isolated and far from everything that you had to drive many hours to get there. In order to make a great experience for the customer, to make it worth it for them to drive, we gave them a 4-5 hour experience” De Souza said.
Perhaps this is what drove Paresa General Manager Dawid Koegelenberg to seek out De Souza. Phuket is slowly becoming a haven for fine dining, with several high-end restaurants making their mark on the island. The molecular gastronomy that went on at El Bulli was shaped by people with a passion for more than food: it’s all about the senses, the presentation, and making it all as unique as possible.
Case in point: the Carrillera Coulant (translation: flowing cheek), from 2007. Originally made with hare, the dish was the first time the restaurant had used game meat. It was stuffed with foie gras, served with a garlic sauce and crispy pieces of tomato-infused bread. On this night, wagyu cheek was used for hare.
Though we had three desserts, the clear favourite was the whimsical Jardin Floral (translation: floral garden), from 2009. It was created by pastry chef Albert Adrià in 2007, during a phase where he recreated landscapes.
“The idea is that this is a garden that you need to share with a person you are dining with,” De Souza said.
The dish had chocolate, hazelnut and edible flowers, each prepared with the theme in mind. There was soil, mud, flowers, sand, and other elements with a powerful chocolate taste.
It’s difficult for the chef to pick one dish as his favourite, since these recreations were only a sliver of what was on the original El Bulli menus. Though the diners were delighted, it was De Souza who will remember this night fondly.
“[All these dishes] are my favourites since they remind me of that beautiful moment in my career. It was the hardest job I ever had to do but I learned so much and it helped shape me into the pofessional I am today,” he said.
This article originally appeared in the January 23 issue of The Phuket News.