EAT SHIT

So for the third year running El Bulli has won the obsequious prize of the 'Best restaurant in the World'. The Fat Duck & Gagnaire being yet again runners up.

It's amazing how gastronomy has  managed to force itself into the world of bling bling and gliteratti... 

Restaurants being more and more the place to be seen at. It's the 'pseudo intellectual bubble'.  A few decades ago, it was art collecting, as Picasso's and Pllock's were harder to come by, and therfore more expensive, and therefore a sublte way to vomit your ostentatious personality. Now it's the BIG restaurants. El Bulli being the most exclusive, as he closes for 6 months, and has to refuse dozens of thousands (yes thousands) of demands...

I mean it's easy, how the fuck can you compare restaurants ?

What makes the food you taste at El Bulli better than your secret little eatery that you discovered on a street corner ? What is the the criteria of making one restaurant edge another to take the master spot ? How can something as personnal as eating/tasting be but into competition ? One can compare, yes, feelings, impressions, but not evaluate them. 

After all nobody has ever dared say that Guernica is better than the Mona Lisa, that is better than the sunflowers...

How is it possible to compare a deconstructed raviloi to a delicate green curry or to a simply grilled fish, or even a boiled farm egg, and to say that one dish will have 10 points because it involves several different way of cooking using steam, pressure, heat, cold, and another dish gets just one point because just about everybody, just about everywhere can stick an egg in  boiling water for a few minutes ?

Yes I've been to El Bulli. Yes, i was baffled, and yes i thought it was the most amazing experience my palet would ever live. Yes, we talked about it. Yes people talk to you as though you have been to Mars. Yes, the picture above was taken there, and it represents a light parmesan raviloli that when it comes in contact with the warm basil froth/bouillon, expands like a baloon. And yes, it tastes good. And yes, simple spag al dente, with a dash of pure olive oil, a squeeze of garlic, a load of shredded basil, some ground pepper, tastes just as good.

Have a laugh