Next vs El Bulli

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mr drinky said:
I don't know about the rich yucking it up. Everyone spends, splurges, and wastes money in different ways. Every weekend in the fall close to a million people pour out of pro football stadiums who could have instead lingered over a meal at the finest restaurant in town. They'd rather splurge on that experience, and I'd rather spend it on knives and good food :)

k.
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I feel the same way, everyone has their hobbies/vices that they spend money on.
 
4.5 hours and 29 courses! That's sounds like a little too much, no? I'd be passed out about 1/2 way through the meal... :-D
 
mr drinky said:
I don't know about the rich yucking it up. Everyone spends, splurges, and wastes money in different ways. Every weekend in the fall close to a million people pour out of pro football stadiums who could have instead lingered over a meal at the finest restaurant in town. They'd rather splurge on that experience, and I'd rather spend it on knives and good food :)

k.
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I agree. We like knives and food. It isn't about the money . It's about seeing what is possible with what we love and an appreciation of it.
 
Yeah, well. I'd been drinking, but I stand by my post. It keeps me upright.
 
Tomorrow I will have a chance to post the pics from the dinner and my thoughts.
 
Cocktails el Bulli style?

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By chicagopete at 2012-02-17

The rest will be posted tomorrow, I promise. What can I say, this week has been very busy for me.

Here's a quick shot of the menu.

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By chicagopete at 2012-02-17
 
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By chicagopete at 2012-02-17

Balls of dough surrounding salmon roe, absolutely amazing with a slightly sweet exterior and intensely salty interior!

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By chicagopete at 2012-02-17

Tapas el Bulli style. The olives on the spoon to the left are very unique, bursting with great olive goodness but with the texture of an egg yolk. "Clouds" of bread almost like a very thin cracker surrounded by delicious spanish ham. To the rear of the table was one of my favorites of the night, a crostini with essentially a take on caesar salad with fresh anchovies.

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By chicagopete at 2012-02-17
Close up of the bread cloud

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By chicagopete at 2012-02-17
Close up of one of my favorites.

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By chicagopete at 2012-02-17

Chicken croquettes. Imagine the very best chicken kiev you've ever had and then shrink it to the size of a large vitamin pill.
 
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By chicagopete at 2012-02-17
Next up is the famed "golden egg." Sweet almost carmel like outside with an egg yolk in the inside.

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By chicagopete at 2012-02-17
Liquid smoke, which tastes exactly the way it sounds. This did not taste good and the point was to challenge the diner in their way of thinking but I think it's for the dogs.

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By chicagopete at 2012-02-17
Cuttlefish raviolo stuffed with a magical liquid, which I cannot remember what it is nor can I figure out where my Wife hid the menu's so I can't locate the english side. Long story short this was another one of my favorites with soy and wasabi sauces.

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By chicagopete at 2012-02-17
Carrot air, similar to liquid smoke, it tastes exactly like it sounds. This time it was very tasty with sweetness towards the bottom from coconut milk. Apparently this was the dish that put El Bulli on the map in the U.S.

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By chicagopete at 2012-02-17
Almond milk gel on the bottom with tomato ice on the top. The tomato ice tasted like a homegrown tomato that had been sprinkled with sea salt, ooh so good. Micro basil on the top, I'm guessing a play on caprese salad.

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By chicagopete at 2012-02-17
Think Potatoes, butter, eggs rolled into a multilayered custard that was phenomenal.
 
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By chicagopete at 2012-02-17
Cous Cous made out of cauliflower and a traditional herb sauce with just the herbs. This was very flavorful and very interesting texturally speaking.

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By chicagopete at 2012-02-17
Mushroom course with Rabbit liver or kidney, I cannot remember exactly. Long story short, one of the best mushroom dishes I've had, which beat out an amazing one at Alinea last June.

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By chicagopete at 2012-02-17
Seafood stew, now imagine the best lobster bisque you've had, triple the awesomeness and add shrimp instead of lobster. Needless to say this was another one of my stand out favorites.

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By chicagopete at 2012-02-17
Rabbit confit with an orange sauce, foie gras and cocoa, good but a bit too much orange flavor for my taste.

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By chicagopete at 2012-02-17
Red Mullet, which was on the very first menu from El Bulli with Adria as chef. Incredibly tasty but certainly a bit dated presentation wise but that's not the point.

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By chicagopete at 2012-02-17
This was very interesting, three bites to be eaten from left to right. The one of the left was bone marrow on top of eel, next a flower and finally a cucumber that was "seared" although I could detect no sear. This started off incredibly rich and finished very light and refreshing.

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By chicagopete at 2012-02-17
Shucked baby corn with a gel made of agar agar with lump crab and crab stock. Very tasty, once again showing El Bulli's early techniques.
 
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By chicagopete at 2012-02-17
Globe of Gorgonzola, more please thank you. This was not only the most eye catching dish but one of the most mouth watering as well.

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By chicagopete at 2012-02-17
Here's another shot with freshly grated nutmeg on the top.

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By chicagopete at 2012-02-17
Guess the spice? A very acidic/tart gel with a motley assortment of herbs and spices suspended in the style of a clock. We were supposed to match the hour with the spice on a small square of paper.

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By chicagopete at 2012-02-17
Chocolate three ways, yeah it was good. I believe the picture tells the entire story.

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By chicagopete at 2012-02-17
The doughnuts were the size of a half dollar and made with no dough. Simply a thin dark chocolate exterior with a liquid coconut center, yes they were delicious. The other items were very simple light pastries.

I missed taking pictures of two courses, one was a caraway sponge cake and the very last course of grapefruit marshmallows if I remember correctly. If you have any questions about the dishes please feel free to ask, I simply put a quick statement of what I thought of each dish. Thanks!
 
Oh and there was no way I could forget the custom beer that Next brewed in conjunction with Half Acre brewery here in Chicago.
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By chicagopete at 2012-02-17
 
Wow! Thanks for taking such great pictures and sharing your impressions of the dishes.

It's difficult to tell the size of some of the dishes... Was it just an overwhelming quantity of food in the end? Could you finish each dish completely? How much did you have to drink? (Various wines/beers as the dinner went on?) How did you feel when it was all over?
 
Can we be friends?? hahaha. Are you photos downloadable?
 
Johnny.B.Good said:
Wow! Thanks for taking such great pictures and sharing your impressions of the dishes.

It's difficult to tell the size of some of the dishes... Was it just an overwhelming quantity of food in the end? Could you finish each dish completely? How much did you have to drink? (Various wines/beers as the dinner went on?) How did you feel when it was all over?
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After about two thirds of the way through I found myself completely stuffed from the food and libations. The server brought out this next course, which I forgot to post above. It started with the following three powders: peppermint, green tea and then a sugar with molasses.
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By chicagopete at 2012-02-17

Then the servers brought out those glass plate, which had clearly been sitting in a freezer of some sort. The server spooned individual amounts of the above powders into the center of the plate and had us break the center with our spoons. Turns out the center was a thin layer of ice that blended perfectly with the glass of the plate so you could not even tell, very cool. This flavored ice dish refreshed both my wife and I and gave us the second wind needed to continue on.
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By chicagopete at 2012-02-17

The size of the dishes were very small, most of them being one to three biters. There was a choice of wine, mixed or non-alcholholic beverage pairings. I went with the mixed, which contained various wines, sakes and of course my favorite, beer. I was definitely able to finish each dish except for liquid smoke because it just was not good tasting. After the meal I felt full and certainly had a slight buzz but was able to keep myself under control although I could have easily found myself stumbling around from a liquid stupor if I had tried. Next has a wonderful practice of leaving the bottle on the table for your pairings so you're free to keep filling your glass until a new pairing comes out.
 
Thanks for posting pictures! How'd you do on guessing the spices?
 
Thanks for the show Pete. Btw, I've seen that gorgonzola globe before and it always fascinates me. It is good to know that it tastes great too.

k.
 
Thanks Pete.

Was there anything you were served that you feel like you could reproduce at home without crazy equipment? Or was it all just too wild and technical to imagine trying.
 
Johnny.B.Good said:
Thanks Pete.

Was there anything you were served that you feel like you could reproduce at home without crazy equipment? Or was it all just too wild and technical to imagine trying.
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Excluding presentation the dish of Red Mullet could have been prepared at home.
 
Zoinks!!!! That's some impressive looking stuff!!!!!! As for the comments about the pricing, I may be wrong on this, but I seem to recall reading that the price at El Bulli for the last couple of seasons was 250 Euros or $325-350 depending on the current exchange rate and they were consistently losing their ass during the time that the place was actually open and serving food. The "profit centers" for the restaurant were books sales and speaking engagements. I don't know if Mr. Keller is doing the same thing at his places, but that is sure one highly time and labor intensive way of doing things.. Some of you might know what the bottom line at a place like that looks like.
 
******* said:
Zoinks!!!! That's some impressive looking stuff!!!!!! As for the comments about the pricing, I may be wrong on this, but I seem to recall reading that the price at El Bulli for the last couple of seasons was 250 Euros or $325-350 depending on the current exchange rate and they were consistently losing their ass during the time that the place was actually open and serving food. The "profit centers" for the restaurant were books sales and speaking engagements. I don't know if Mr. Keller is doing the same thing at his places, but that is sure one highly time and labor intensive way of doing things.. Some of you might know what the bottom line at a place like that looks like.
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Not many michelin starred places (Per Se, Daniel, Eleven Madison Park, etc.) are making money off their food preparation. What profit they do see from the restaurant side of the business comes from wine, which El Bulli didn't emphasize as much as restaurants here do.
 
I don't know how many customers they could seat at El Bulli, but I did see that they employed 45 chefs!!!!!!!! Talk about some SERIOUS labor costs!!!!!! From my limited exposure to the food industry in my youth, I had heard that your real potential profit center is your alcohol sales.
 
stereo.pete said:
There was a choice of wine, mixed or non-alcholholic beverage pairings. I went with the mixed, which contained various wines, sakes and of course my favorite, beer. I was definitely able to finish each dish except for liquid smoke because it just was not good tasting. After the meal I felt full and certainly had a slight buzz but was able to keep myself under control although I could have easily found myself stumbling around from a liquid stupor if I had tried. Next has a wonderful practice of leaving the bottle on the table for your pairings so you're free to keep filling your glass until a new pairing comes out.
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Interesting how they handle the wine and mixed pairings. Alinea gets beat up a bit about their wine (unfairly IMO). How do you compare the pairings versus Alinea?

k.
 
mr drinky said:
Interesting how they handle the wine and mixed pairings. Alinea gets beat up a bit about their wine (unfairly IMO). How do you compare the pairings versus Alinea?

k.
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I was very disappointed with the pairings at Alinea. Not so much with the choice of wines but the fact that the pour's were so small and that they never came back to refill an empty glass. I know if I had asked they would have poured some more, I just would expect at that level that they would be on their game.
 
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