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Exciting times for Spanish tourism as world famous chef Ferran Adrià of elBulli, winner of Restaurant magazine’s ‘Best Restaurant in the World’ title a record five times, stopped by to make an announcement at London’s Spanish Embassy yesterday. He was present to launch The 1st European Congress of Gastronomy and Tourism which will be taking place in Madrid this May but of course all interest focused on his decision to close the three Michelin starred elBulli in its current format. He spoke of his desire to make elBulli the world’s foremost creative culinary think-tank, taking on thirty international students on scholarship placements in 2014. And his answer to the question on everyone’s lips; could we cling on to the dream of ever dining there? Adrià was guarded on the number of seats available but said that the students would need to serve some guests – so I haven’t given up hope yet!
The Spanish Secretary of State for Tourism, Joan Mesquida, also made a groundbreaking announcement relating to Adrià – that he will be acting as the key brand ambassador for Spanish tourism and featuring in a new advertising campaign. Great news as elBulli is already such a beacon of Spanish gastronomy and Ferran an engaging and charismatic spokesperson, asserting that food is so important as we spend 40% of our waking hours eating, breaking down his estimations as 8 hours a day working, seven hours sleeping, four hours eating, four hours watching TV or surfing the web and one hour of nudge nudge wink wink! It maybe so for the Spanish but I imagine the British average is slightly different!
White and red Rioja wines were served at both this event and Monocle magazine’s launch of their Spanish survey yesterday evening at Iberica where the wines made a great match for a range of delicious tapas including croquetas, jamón de Guijuelo, chorizo, garlicky patatas bravas and tostadas with blue cheese… ah, the Spanish do know how to party!
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