Why it's the best restaurant in the world

I hope the few of you who get in to El Bulli this summer appreciate what you’re eating. I was in the kitchen at Adria’s famed restaurant on Saturday, and saw many fantastic things: cakes made without flour or eggs; mushroom broth turned into semi-solid spheres; snails escaping up the rim of the pot meant to cook them. But perhaps the most impressive sight was the first: right after the staff meeting, 25 young cooks, all in their chef’s whites, lined a center table and began peeling the tough outer shell from green pine nuts. Later, they would each go to their special tasks, but for the first hour, they slaved to free the tiny nuts—which would reappear in a pine dish as “caviar," about six to a plate.