Grant Achatz Will Recreate El Bulli's Menu at Chicago's Next

Think it was hard to get into Grant Achatz's Next before? For three months kicking off in January, the restaurant's theme will be centered around Ferran Adrià's famous, now-defunct gastronomic temple, El Bulli. Achatz and crew will create a 20-course menu that will cover the last 20 years of El Bulli's existence, not to mention some Adrià-inspired snacks over at Aviary, the Alinea team's fancy neighboring cocktail bar. Both chefs sat down for an interview with the Chicago Tribune, where Achatz compares Adrià to Escoffier and Adrià reveals that he will not be opening a restaurant in the United States anytime soon.

Obviously, the 20-course menu won't be cheap, which prompted reporter Christopher Borelli to ask whether or not the super-chefs' restaurants should reflect the new dismal economic realities:

Achatz: The other night we had a culinary student who saved money for a year to come to our place. It's not about elitism or reflecting economic struggle, but the experience that we offer.

Adrià: But it is true that restaurants like Next maybe should have been conceived (in healthier financial times).

Better start saving now, poor culinary students! Maybe you can score a table at the four-starred Per Se as well.

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