elBulli, the Spanish restaurant repeatedly crowned the world's best, is to become a non-profit foundation from 2014, its avant-garde chef Ferran Adria announced Monday.
elBulli, the Spanish restaurant repeatedly crowned the world's best, is to become a non-profit foundation from 2014, its avant-garde chef Ferran Adria announced Monday.
elBulli will become a "foundation for all avant-garde gastronomy lovers.., a breeding ground for new ideas and for new talents," he told a news conference at a culinary fair in the northwestern city of Santiago de Compostela.He said the new "private and non-profit" foundation will grant between 20 and 25 scholarships annually for chefs and other industry professionals,
"We want it to be a think-tank of gastronomic creativity," said the controversial creator of "molecular gastronomy".
elBulli, on Spain's northeastern Catalan coast, last year came top of the World's 50 Best Restaurants list for the fourth year in a row following a poll of more than 800 chefs, restaurant critics and industry insiders for Britain's Restaurant Magazine.
But in a surprise annoucement last month, Adria, 47, said that his three-Michelin-starred restaurant would close for two years from 2012, citing fatigue and a need to plan for the future.
He said Monday that one of the long-term aims of the new foundation would be the completion of an "exhaustive and detailed" encylopedia of contemporary cuisine.
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"The creation of this foundation is another step forward, certainly very significant, in our aim for constant evolution and permanent commitment to creativity," he said.
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