Ferran Adrià’s famous elBulli restaurant to reopen for the big screen

Ferran Adrià's elBulli may be closed, but its legend lives on and on

The world-famous elBulli restaurant – which closed in July 2011 – will reopen its doors for a few starstruck days later this year as a real-life training set for forthcoming film, El Bulli.

The movie will chuck in a healthy portion of fact to season this fictional tale about chef and owner, Ferran Adrià, and the tumultuous final year of the restaurant.

elBulli is widely regarded as one of the world’s best restaurants of the past decade, and regularly topped Restaurant of the Year in numerous polls across the globe, particularly in Britain, where critics were, well, smitten…

In Spain, Catalonia’s elBulli is regularly cited as the eatery that put Spain’s culinary expertise on the world map, blazing a trail of inventiveness that shattered the notion that Spanish food was little more than paella and pulpo.

Details about the temporary reopening are sketchy at the moment, but reports suggest that not even Adrià himself knows who will be starring in the film. The chef has, however, revealed that all meals created on set will be done so to the usual exacting standards, and real members of the public will be served.

Who those lucky diners will be is equally shrouded in mystery. A reservation system has been ruled out; during its heyday, elBulli would have to turn down thousands and thousands of disappointed diners unable to get themselves a table at the hottest ticket in town.

The film’s executives have landed quite a coup in persuading Adrià to train the actors. The chef is notoriously media averse, but reports have suggested that Adrià would only allow his restaurant and techniques to be filmed if he could train the cooks personally.

The film is an adaptation of the book The Sorcerer’s Apprentices: A Season in the Kitchen at Ferran Adrià’s elBulli, by Lisa Abend, and is expected to hit the big screen later this year.