Princess Leonor and Infanta Sofía will visit this Tuesday, in Cala Montjoi, the recently inaugurated elBulli1846 museum, where, in addition to touring the facilities, they will get to know, together with other young people, the workshops that elBullifoundation plans to organize in the coming months. The visit of the princess and her sister puts the spotlight on the center created by Ferran Adrià to promote the innovative spirit, share gastronomic knowledge and safeguard the legacy of what was once the best restaurant in the world, closed since 2011, and which, since the province of Girona, revolutionized gastronomy.
The visit to the facilities, in which the daughters of the King and Queen will be accompanied by Ferran Adrià, takes place the day before the events, convened by the Princess of Girona Foundation, which are held on Wednesday at the Camiral de Caldes de Malavella hotel with the assistance of the Kings. With the visit to elBulli1846 by the Princess and her sister, the aim is to highlight the importance of the initiatives of Catalan civil society and highlight the interest of the Royal House in maintaining ties with Girona, despite the difficulties derived from the position of the political formations and leaders linked to the process that since 2017 have shown their rejection of the presence of the royal family
The elBulli1846 museum, which opened on June 15, is located in the same place where the restaurant was opened, to which new buildings have been added. It is made up of four different spaces, on the outside there are several facilities where homage is paid to the Bullinianos who made the history of elBulli possible and the Sapiens Methodology is presented, a proprietary methodology developed to understand that culminates in the first encyclopedia of restoration cuisine in the West, the Bullipedia. The elBulli1846 museum will also host research and dissemination workshops.
On April 26, 2004, shortly before their wedding, the then Prince of Asturias and his fiancée Letizia Ortiz were having dinner at El Bulli and Ferran Adrià, together with Juan Mari Arzak, was in charge of preparing the menu that was served at the dinner that on May 21, 2004 was offered at the El Pardo palace to the guests at the royal wedding.
The FPdGi has been forced to look for alternative scenarios and resort to private initiative to hold the main events. The lack of collaboration of the people in charge of the Girona city council have prevented, for the last five years, both the awarding of the prizes and the calling of the rest of the activities organized by the foundation, including the stay of the royal family, in the city that gives name the historical title of the heirs of the Crown of Aragon, which Leonor holds together with those of Duchess of Montblanc, Countess of Cervera and Lady of Balaguer
From 2009 to 2017, the events took place at the Girona Auditorium and in 2018, due to the refusal of the city council to cede the facilities, the awards ceremony was held at Mas Marroch, a hotel complex in Vilablareix, property of the Roca brothers, and the workshops, in the Camiral hotel. In 2019, with the excuse of the tenth anniversary of the Fundació and after the lack of collaboration from the representatives of the Catalan institutions, the awards moved from Girona to Barcelona; in 2020 they were suspended due to the pandemic; in 2021 they continued in Barcelona and last year they were held in Cornellà.
The fourth visit of Princess Leonor to Catalonia, and the second to Girona, takes place without the presence of the King and Queen, who will join this Wednesday in the events organized by the Princess of Girona Foundation (FPdGi) that will take place throughout the day at the aforementioned hotel establishment.
Just a year ago, the heiress and her sister visited Girona for the first time, but not the city, which they still don’t know, but a symbolic setting for the province: the Dalí Museum, in Figueres. The visit took place on Sunday, July 2, amid tight security measures and in the absence of the public, with the exception of two groups: one of an independentist nature that protested the visit at one end of the entrances to the museum, and another, summoned by Spanish Concord in support of the presence of the Princess and the Infanta, on the other side of the building.
