DINING IMPOSSIBLE 15 – BARCELONA
The final gourmet raid of the dining season and an extra edition of the epic and all-time favorite, Barcelona. Spain’s second city and the self-confident capital of Catalonia – including The World’s No. 1 in Girona.
We enter the mouthwatering metropolis in early December, offering an otherworldly all-round, in-depth gastronomic experience to pleasure aficionados flying in from around the globe.
3 days – 3 unique dining venues – 1 great dinner party.
Tuesday, December 1st – Wednesday, December 2nd – Thursday, December 3rd
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THE MENU
Tuesday, December 1st
Chapter 1 – The Grand Theatre
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Our first dining destination: the famous, glorious, adventurous and notorious Tickets. It is the beating culinary heart of Albert Adrià’s ambitious but straightforward goal: to convert Barcelona into the culinary capital of Europe.
While Ferran Adrià’s focus shifted to the El Bulli Foundation, a program dedicated to transforming the former restaurant into a competitive cooking school, Albert’s attention returned to Barcelona full time.
“If anyone can transform an entire neighbourhood into a gigantic restaurant, it is Albert Adrià – one of the best cooks in the world,” says the Basque chef Juan Mari Arzak, who met Albert through Ferran when Albert was just 17 years old. “He’s always been a lively, quick-witted and extremely inventive individual. There aren’t many chefs who can match his creativity.”
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This evening the stage is set for a magnificent show: La Vida Tapa. At Tickets, gastronomy is linked to a way of understanding life. In this respect you will find humour, a great deal of character and a 20+ elaborated tapas menu extraordinaire. Expect elBulli classics as well as new wizardry combinations conceived by a great culinary mastermind.
You may feel as though you are a spectator at the circus or about to sit down to an evening of live theatre, but one thing you will not experience is boredom. Expect to encounter olives which are not actually olives, cotton candy trees studded with fruits and mouth watering Iberian cured ham which is found sneaked into mini hollow “air baguettes” or painted on top of fresh tuna belly.
An evening of surprises, we will have a party within a party in the circus-come-theatre-come-restaurant that is Tickets.
Talk to chefs and restaurant people around the world and they know Albert Adrià not just as the little brother of the most important chef of the past 20 years, but as the brain behind Ferran’s empire, the wizard who helped establish the terms of avant-garde cuisine, and the man as responsible as any other for turning elBulli into the most influential restaurant of the modern cooking era.
Chefs will stand in line to tell you about his brilliance. The first in line will be Ferran himself. “He is without a doubt the most complete cook working in the world today.”
After the grand Tickets, the party enters the Barcelona’s Golden Quarter and a lively lounge club, having seducing cocktails and sets by the best current DJs.
Dress code: Classy laissez faire.
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“The ultimate dinner party” – Forbes Magazine (2013)
Wednesday, December 2nd
Chapter 2 – The World’s No. 1
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The passion for cooking and hospitality shared by the three Roca brothers is palpable, but the food is playful rather than serious (caramelised olives are brought to the table on bonsai trees) and Catalan ingredients are given centre-stage on the menu.
Superior techniques complement simple flavour combinations designed to titillate the palate and the memory rather than confuse the mind. It’s very clever stuff – but thankfully it is also utterly delicious.
El Celler de Can Roca holds three stars in Guide Michelin and was voted the “World’s Best Restaurant” in 2013, and recently again in 2015 by the San Pellegrino World’s 50 Best Restaurants list. The first time the restaurant was named No. 1, its website had 12 million hits.
This highly internationally acclaimed restaurant, featuring the stylish, laid back and world renowned staff of El Celler de Can Roca, offers Champagne, a grande feast, an extensive wine menu, mineral water, gourmet tea/coffee, delicious petit fours and avecs, all served in a semi-private dining room.
Furthermore, a private guided tour of the kitchen and “battle station” of the restaurant and a tour of the large wine cellar, which stores around 60000 bottles.
Reservation Impossible.
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The journey to and from El Celler de Can Roca in Girona (100 kilometers north of Barcelona) will be made in stretch limousines, accompanied by bubbles after attending a Champagne reception in the dazzling Vienés-rooms at the iconic Casa Fuster.
Dress code: Formal elegance.
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“The world’s best dinner party” – The Telegraph (2014)
Thursday, December 3rd
Chapter 3 – The elBulli Alumni
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Disfrutar means “to enjoy” and there is no doubt that the three sterling chefs behind this restaurant delivers in full.
In Spain this glorious trifecta is pretty famous, thanks to their pure and utter devotion to elBulli – with a joint accumulation of more than 45 years of experience at the 5-times voted “The World’s Best Restaurant”, including long hours at El Bulli Taller and the innovation lab.
From the beginning to its last day on July 30, 2011, Oriol Castro, Eduard Xatruch and Mateu Casanas were a part of the creative core team that innovated endlessly and ultimately through these heavily documented experiments, that changed the way we understand food today.
Even though there are many similarities then don’t be fooled; Disfrutar does not pretend to be elBulli – it’s very much its own.
Like other art movements, after the revolution caused by the most imaginative generator of haute cuisine on the planet, we are in the saturation point of this style as Disfrutar has returned to a more simplistic state and one with a strong focus on nature and techniques that get back to the rawness of cooking: fire, maturation, faisandage and fermentation.
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“If the art of seduction could be boiled down to a tasting menu, this would surely be it” an esteemed, local food critic recently wrote.
That’s exactly the intention, to be seduced, going all-in with a 25+ serving grand tasting menu – in a restaurant that pushes the envelope while never losing its Mediterranean sense of place.
Disfrutar was without a doubt the most anticipated Spain-opening of 2015. A pivotal of international diners to visit when being in town – sending them off caressed, challenged and dazzled. Our newest diamond.
Dress code: It’s all about the attitude.
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“Plenty of people throw good dinner parties; few hosts are so successful they take their soirees around the world.”
– The Wall Street Journal (2014)
Famous by day, notorious by night.
After the finalé dinner, we’ll end up in the Barceloneta district and rise up to the 26th floor to W Hotel’s exclusive Eclipse, where the freshest cocktails are complemented by world-class DJs and live performances, all inspired by its stunning Mediterranean setting and edgy London personality.
Flirty with a touch of whimsy, Eclipse has changed the face of Barcelona’s nightlife and established itself as the city’s ultimate entertainment lifestyle destination for local tastemakers and global jetsetters.
Dining Impossible has private tables by the dance floor where bubbly bottles awaits, overlooking Barcelona and its beaches. Here we end 72 remarkable hours in style.
DI 15.
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DETAILS
Dining Impossible 15 – Barcelona is the full experience. Besides the extraordinaire dinners, it also includes receptions, selected transport and after parties at exclusive spots with a range of drinks, beverages and canapés.
All dinners include full wine/beer/cocktail menus predetermined with the respectful sommeliers, as well as mineral water, various taxes and gratuity.
As always the guest list remains a secret to the public and will only be shared in detail amongst the participants. Menus and wines will be served découverte, meaning presented and discovered on the night of the dinner parties as a part of the full-blown Catalan storytelling.
Price per cover is confidential. Please contact Kristian Brask Thomsen at ambassador@bon-vivant.dk for further information.
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“Billed by Forbes Magazine as “the ultimate dinner party” and by Huffington Post as “the world’s most coveted dinner tickets”; Dining Impossible is a three-day gastronomic bender organized by culinary ambassador Kristian Brask Thomsen.”
– Sydney Morning Herald.
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