Food Fights

Why 70,000 Environmentalists Are Fighting the elBulli Museum

Yo, Ferran, think of the piping plovers for once.
Yo, Ferran, think of the piping plovers for once. Photo: Carlos Alvarez/handout El Bulli/Getty Images

Spain’s Cala Montjoi is the bay above which elBulli was perched and where the restaurant will be reborn in 2015 as a foundation and learning center called elBulli 1846 — in yet another vaguely smug elBulli solipsism, 1,846 was the total number of dishes served at the restaurant. The area isn’t just sacred turf for modernist-food folk, though, it’s a national park that environmentalists don’t want Ferran Adrià’s ā€œtourist attractionā€ despoiling. The project will unlawfully expand elBulli’s footprint in a ā€œprotected areaā€ by more than 200 percent, argues a Change.org petition with more than 72,000 signatures.

What’s more, petitioners believe the parkland is protected by at least four other laws. The foundation, however, is Catalan government–backed; there’s even a bill pending to declare elBulli’s project in the public interest by arguing the five-time world’s best restaurant is inextricably linked to the area. Critics fear this means the government is saying elBulli’s spherified olive oil trumps the well-being of Roncus elbulli, a local arachnid named for the place. The opposition apparently tried meeting recently with AdriĆ , but it ended without ā€œcom[ing] to an understanding.ā€ They felt maybe he wasn’t taking them seriously when he claimed, ā€œHow many people do you want to go there every day? If you say 25, then we’ll make it 25.ā€

ElBulli foundation plans anger environmentalists [Guardian]

Why 70,000 Environmentalists Are Fighting the elBulli Museum