elBulli comes to London: Ferran Adrià exhibition opens at Somerset House next week

His restaurant may have shut its doors permanently two years ago, but Ferran Adrià hasn’t hung up his toque and embraced retirement. Quite the opposite. The superstar chef seems busier than ever as he finalises his vision for the elBulli Foundation, including a retrospective exhibition on the workings of the former number one restaurant in the world, which opens at Somerset House in London next Friday, July 5th.

The El Bulli Foundation has a team of 15 chefs working on projects including a museum of food and exhibition centre in the former restaurant premises in Girona, an ambitious internet project called Bullipedia, which aims to document every edible morsel on the planet, and travelling exhibitions such as the one now visiting London, called elBulli: Ferran Adrià and The Art of Food.

The retrospective will take visitors behind the scenes at the world’s most talked about restaurant, revealing the workings of the development lab in Barcelona where the chef and his team dreamed up 1,846 original dishes, as well as the kitchen from where they were served to diners lucky enough to secure reservations. Handwritten notes and sketches, and plasticine models of each of the dishes – which were made so that plating and portions size would be uniform – are on display, along with photographs and press reviews and multimedia exhibits.

An Audience with Ferran Adrià (£25, including admission), will give the chef an opportunity to introduce the exhibition to the public on the opening day, next Friday at 6.30pm, and the exhibition will run until September 29th. For ticket information, see somersethouses.org.uk