Ferran Adrià, in the news lately announcing that he would close his restaurant for 2 years, has now announced that elBulli will close permaently. The New York Times reports that Adrià has changed those plans and will shutter the restaurant for good, perhaps turning it into a culinary academy instead. The closing is due to economic reasons. Adrià said that he and his partner, Juli Soler, had been losing a half million Euros a year on both the restaurant, which is in a small town northeast of Barcelona, and the Barcelona workshop.

Adrià came to elBulli, now considered by many to be the greatest restaurant in the world, in 1983. In 1997, elBulli was awarded 3 Michelin stars. For years Adrià has made it a practice to close the restaurant for half of the year. “Throughout the history of elBulli we've made seemingly drastic decisions in order to maintain our level of creativity,'' Adrià told The New York Times. This latest decision is, of course, the most drastic. But, said Adrià of the relentless level of that creativity, “at that bestial pace, it would be impossible to continue.'' ElBulli, now closed, will reopen on June 15 and close for good in December 2011.

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