It was never easy to get to El Bulli, neither was it for Princess Elionor and Infanta Sofia, who yesterday got to know Ferran Adrià’s new creative space, chosen as the setting for their second visit to Girona, after which last year he took them to the Dalí Museum, in Figueres. The former restaurant, now converted into a museum and outreach center, promotes innovation, teamwork and creativity, principles that align with the ideology of the Fundació Princesa de Girona, which on Wednesday celebrates its big day with the presentation of awards to young talents at the Camiral hotel in Caldes de Malavella.
In the choice of El Bulli 1846, in addition to being a space recognized throughout the world, it was also taken into account that it is far from an urban center, which facilitated the organization and development of the visit .
The daughters of the Kings flew from Madrid to Girona airport yesterday morning and went directly to the Camiral hotel, the center of operations for the events scheduled yesterday and today. In the early afternoon, Elionor and Sofia held a meeting with a group of young participants from various programs of the FPdGi, with whom they exchanged opinions and experiences, and soon after they visited unannounced, or at least it is the version of the Zarzuela, the headquarters of the Fundació Princesa de Girona, located in a street close to the AVE station. A stoppage of only 20 minutes but of great symbolic value, since, due to the lack of institutional collaboration and the manifest rejection of the municipal representatives and pro-independence groups, the events of the Fundació Princesa de Girona are not held at the city ??since 2017.
After the visit, the Princess and the Infanta, accompanied by Francisco Belil, president of the FPdGi, and the director, Salvador Tasqué, continued on their way to Cala Montjoi and, after crossing Roses, had the opportunity to discover , from the car in which they traveled, the beauties of the natural park of Cap de Creus. Units of the Mossos d’Esquadra and the Civil Guard monitored the journey by land and also by sea, but, despite the announcement of pro-independence groups’ gatherings, the truth is that along the way the only presence other than the visit of the Princess and the Infanta were the few cars leaving or heading to Cala Montjoi. Ferran Adrià, the mayor of Roses, Josep Martínez (PSC), were waiting for them at the gates of El Bulli; the Government delegate in Catalonia, Carles Prieto, and the Secretary of State for Tourism, Ana Morillo.
Elionor and Sofia, like all people who observe the natural beauty of the Costa Brava for the first time, did not miss any detail of the landscape when they arrived at El Bulli 1846. The Princess wore a long orange dress knotted under the bust, by Lady Pipa , and his sister Sofia, a red half-legged frog, from Sfera; both chose to wear wedge espadrilles.
When the visit concluded, two hours after their arrival, Elionor and Sofia could already be included in the list of Bullinians, since yesterday, during the tour, they were guided by Ferran Adrià, who continues to manage the stoves, now virtual, of what was the best restaurant in the world. With Adrià, the Princess, the infanta Sofia and the young people of the FPdGi who accompanied them, they discovered some of the most important milestones of El Bulli and learned how the systematization of innovation was applied to change the paradigm of the culinary world and turning the restaurant into the gastronomic epicenter until its closure in 2011. The Princess and the Infanta began their visit through the building that housed the restaurant and which is preserved as it was on the last day meals were served, with tablecloths, crockery, cutlery and glassware. Felip de Borbó and Letizia Ortiz sat at one of the tables a month before the wedding and, over the years, the thousands of people who made the corner of Girona famous all over the world.
The daughters of the Kings also went through the kitchen to better understand the planning, organization and operation system of a gastronomic restaurant, where 28 iconic dishes from El Bulli have been recreated. The tour ended at El Bulli DNA, one of the most visually groundbreaking installations – it has the shape of a rock and integrates into the landscape of Cap de Creus -, where all the projects that have been carried out since 2011 and the space designed for research.
The museum, to which new buildings have been added to the original spaces, occupies nearly 4,000 square meters (2,500 outside and 1,300 inside), was called El Bulli 1846, a number that recalls the 1846 original works that came out of his kitchen and which coincides with the birth year of Auguste Escoffier, the father of modern gastronomy. Inaugurated on June 15, it will be open to the public until September 15 and, in the winter, it will host the initiatives of the Bulli Foundation.
