El Bulli

*** EL BULLI: Cooking in Progress Directed by: Gereon Wetzel At: Museum of Fine Arts Running time: 109 minutes Unrated (food, clinical food) Just so it's clear who the stars are in Gereon Wetzel's documentary "El Bulli: Cooking in Progress," the film ends with close-ups of food. Tangerines in oil and little nuggets of ice. Pine nut cream with gin. Bone marrow tartar with oysters. Water, oil, and salt (with an infusion of happenstance). Pumpkin meringue on a tiny roll.

Chef Ferran Adria (left), who's been called "the Salvador Dalí of the kitchen," had lunch yesterday at Bravo, the restaurant at the MFA. Adria, whose award-winning El Bulli restaurant in Spain is a favorite of critics, chatted with MFA executive chef Tim Partridge (right) during his visit to the museum.

ROSES, Spain -- On an elegant, vine-covered terrace overlooking an unspoiled Mediterranean cove, six American diners nervously stared down pea-sized dollops of concentrated tarragon on silver spoons. "You must eat it now -- all in one bite," the waiter directed us, in English. The dense green blobs looked anything but appetizing. Several members of our group were downright scared. "Please, eat it now ," he repeated, more an order than an invitation. The damp clump immediately released an intense, earthy, licorice-mint flavor.

*** EL BULLI: Cooking in Progress Directed by: Gereon Wetzel At: Museum of Fine Arts Running time: 109 minutes Unrated (food, clinical food) Just so it's clear who the stars are in Gereon Wetzel's documentary "El Bulli: Cooking in Progress," the film ends with close-ups of food. Tangerines in oil and little nuggets of ice. Pine nut cream with gin. Bone marrow tartar with oysters. Water, oil, and salt (with an infusion of happenstance). Pumpkin meringue on a tiny roll.

Chef Ferran Adria (left), who's been called "the Salvador Dalí of the kitchen," had lunch yesterday at Bravo, the restaurant at the MFA. Adria, whose award-winning El Bulli restaurant in Spain is a favorite of critics, chatted with MFA executive chef Tim Partridge (right) during his visit to the museum.

BARCELONA -- El Bulli, the restaurant run by superstar chef Ferran Adrià, has held the world's attention for several years. With such unconventional dishes as melon caviar and ravioli of malt filled with sea urchin, lime, and butter, El Bulli has caused customers to cry, giggle uncontrollably, or even vomit -- from anticipation. The restaurant is a huge part of the reason Spain has basked in the culinary limelight lately. To keep the creative juices flowing, Adrià closes the restaurant's doors six months a year, retreating with his staff from the...

BARCELONA - If Bacchus were around today, he would most certainly invite Ceres to dine with him at Monvinic, a restaurant, wine bar, and wine library that opened last summer here. The Roman god of wine would dazzle the goddess of the harvest with his 3,500-bottle list. Glass doors open automatically when you enter the restaurant, and the sleek concrete and stainless steel design is a surprise, a stunning contrast to the Gothic architecture and nearby Gaudi buildings that make Barcelona so charming.

BARCELONA -- Over the last decade Spanish cuisine has been propelled into the global limelight in the slipstream of a culinary cannonball named Ferran Adrià. As the chef at El Bulli, probably the most coveted reservation in the world, Adrià builds dishes like gels, foams, and "spherified" olives, creating something Catalan author and El Periódico food writer Pau Arenos coined "technoemotional" cuisine. For a while, it looked like every chef in Spain wanted to be the next Adrià, creating his or her own gels and spherifications.

ROSES - Standing in the kitchen of what may be the best restaurant in the world, I shake hands with Ferran Adrià, the chef behind it all. Every year, it’s said that millions try for the few thousand seats at his restaurant, El Bulli, for the six months it’s open. The odds are not in their favor. If, like me, they are lucky enough to be invited by a friend, they drop everything and hop on a plane. Now, after all the hype, spectacle, and anticipation this man in front of me and his avant-garde cuisine have cultivated for 20 years, I don’t want to talk to him. I just...

COPENHAGEN -- Northern European countries have never been terribly tantalizing destinations for the food-obsessed voyager. When you think of the Continent's gastronomic hotbeds, a list of destinations always crops up, and Copenhagen isn't on it. Two Danes in Copenhagen, a city much better known for hot dogs and Hans Christian Andersen than top-flight food and drink, are working on the problem. A product-based food movement called New Nordic may be about to pick up the torch from Spanish chef Ferran Adrià of restaurant El Bulli and run in a new direction.

ROSES - Standing in the kitchen of what may be the best restaurant in the world, I shake hands with Ferran Adrià, the chef behind it all. Every year, it’s said that millions try for the few thousand seats at his restaurant, El Bulli, for the six months it’s open. The odds are not in their favor. If, like me, they are lucky enough to be invited by a friend, they drop everything and hop on a plane. Now, after all the hype, spectacle, and anticipation this man in front of me and his avant-garde cuisine have cultivated for 20 years, I don’t want to talk to him. I just want to eat. Dining at...

BARCELONA - If Bacchus were around today, he would most certainly invite Ceres to dine with him at Monvinic, a restaurant, wine bar, and wine library that opened last summer here. The Roman god of wine would dazzle the goddess of the harvest with his 3,500-bottle list. Glass doors open automatically when you enter the restaurant, and the sleek concrete and stainless steel design is a surprise, a stunning contrast to the Gothic architecture and nearby Gaudi buildings that make Barcelona so charming.

BARCELONA -- Over the last decade Spanish cuisine has been propelled into the global limelight in the slipstream of a culinary cannonball named Ferran Adrià. As the chef at El Bulli, probably the most coveted reservation in the world, Adrià builds dishes like gels, foams, and "spherified" olives, creating something Catalan author and El Periódico food writer Pau Arenos coined "technoemotional" cuisine. For a while, it looked like every chef in Spain wanted to be the next Adrià, creating his or her own gels and spherifications.

COPENHAGEN -- Northern European countries have never been terribly tantalizing destinations for the food-obsessed voyager. When you think of the Continent's gastronomic hotbeds, a list of destinations always crops up, and Copenhagen isn't on it. Two Danes in Copenhagen, a city much better known for hot dogs and Hans Christian Andersen than top-flight food and drink, are working on the problem. A product-based food movement called New Nordic may be about to pick up the torch from Spanish chef Ferran Adrià of restaurant El Bulli and run in a new direction.

BARCELONA -- El Bulli, the restaurant run by superstar chef Ferran Adrià, has held the world's attention for several years. With such unconventional dishes as melon caviar and ravioli of malt filled with sea urchin, lime, and butter, El Bulli has caused customers to cry, giggle uncontrollably, or even vomit -- from anticipation. The restaurant is a huge part of the reason Spain has basked in the culinary limelight lately. To keep the creative juices flowing, Adrià closes the restaurant's doors six months a year, retreating with his staff from the...

ROSES, Spain -- On an elegant, vine-covered terrace overlooking an unspoiled Mediterranean cove, six American diners nervously stared down pea-sized dollops of concentrated tarragon on silver spoons. "You must eat it now -- all in one bite," the waiter directed us, in English. The dense green blobs looked anything but appetizing. Several members of our group were downright scared. "Please, eat it now ," he repeated, more an order than an invitation. The damp clump immediately released an intense, earthy, licorice-mint flavor.

*** Mysteries of Lisbon (unrated), 12 *** Sholem Aleichem (unrated), 13 ** Brighton Rock (unrated), 15 ** Chasing Madoff (unrated), 11 ** Griff the Invisible (unrated), 16 *½ Don't Be Afraid of the Dark (R), 14 *½ Our Idiot Brother (R), 10 Reviewed Wednesday *** El Bulli: Cooking in Progress (unrated)