Oriol Castro and another two El Bulli chefs to open Compartir

Alexandra Forbes - 20/04/2012

Big news in the foodie world: the three key chefs in the El Bulli kitchen, who worked very closely with chef Ferran Adrià during the years when the restaurant was ranked among the best in the world in The World's 50 Best Restaurants list, are branching off on their own.

Oriol Castro (pictured above, with Adrià), Eduard Xatruch and Mateu Casañas continue to work for Adrià and will be involved in the El Bulli Foundation project (a think tank which will be built around the original, now-shuttered restaurant). But they are also working on their own project: the restaurant Compartir, which is scheduled to open at the end of this month in Cadaqués, a town on the Catalunuya coast about 40 minutes North of the El Bulli site (Cala Montjoi).

Adrià has said in interviews that he gives the new venture his blessing. The chefs claim that Compartir will specialize in small plates to share (compartir, in Spanish), and a cuisine that won't be classic but won't be reminiscent of the avant-garde food they served at El Bulli either. Whether the trio has the talent to run a business as well as a kitchen, only time will tell. Compartir: official site Tel.: +34 972 258 482

Posted by Alexandra Forbes, a Brazilian food and travel writer, food editor at GQ Brazil and columnist at Prazeres da Mesa and Folha de São Paulo newspaper.