elBulli: The Taste of Innovation

Approach: The case revolves around the creativity, consumer experience and product innovation. Chef Ferran Adrias restaurant elBulli is a restaurant which has taken the experience of eating to a new level through its innovative and creative style of cooking and presenting food to the patrons. This approach makes elBulli separate from all other restaurants. Chef Adria is more focused on giving an unforgettable experience of life to the diners than on just serving food. Chef Adria follows the principle of Molecular Gastronomy which is practiced both by scientists and by food professionals and which studies the physical and chemical processes that occur while cooking. Molecular gastronomy also refers to a modern style of cooking, which takes advantage of innovations from the scientific discipline.* The elements that create value to the customer include: a. b. c. d. e. f. g. Unique experience New style of cooking - Creativity mixed with dinning Food for five senses Experiential dinning Innovation to the core Extraordinary presentation of food Surprise element in food presentation

Creative Process: a. The Adria has a team dedicated to research on the emotions of the people for food. Adrians believes that the customer loves surprises and delighting the customer is his objective. b. The creative process targets all six senses by introducing emotions in the cooking. Adrias restaurant focus on sensitive customers rather focusing on millionaires. c. The elBulli explores new recipes every year, providing fresh experience to customers alongside mixing an element of surprise. The restaurant opens only for half of the year and for the other half of the year chefs spend time researching new recipes. d. The equipments and the cooking accessories used by the Adria are highly advance and hi-tech. Weaknesses and Possible resolution: a. Restaurant only works half of the year The Adria would be able to serve the customer around the year instead of half, if he can have a R&D team separately working around the year for him. b. Limited clientage: The scenario that only a fraction of interested customers get a reservation can lead to lost clientage. elBulli can plan of limited expansion, without diluting the reputation and processes. c. Major focus on innovation rather than profit maximization. Alternate strategies can be explored for profit maximization. Whats Next: The Recommendations: a. elBulli follows the principle of innovation and offers a new set of dishes every time. This leads to a scenario that even if a guest wants, he/she cannot experience a dish again. elBulli can resolve this by also having a set menu, consisting of its most famous dishes, as an option for the revisiting customers. b. elBulli can consider opening a for profit training school to impart knowledge and learning gathered over the period. c. Fast Food Chain: elBulli can open its own fast food chain to cater to a segment of customers who are willing to taste its meals but who doesnt have time and opportunity to enjoy them in a leisured way. With elBullis brand and reputation, developing interest in people will not be difficult and with this chain elBulli will be able to generate profits to support its other R&D based ventures.

*( Molecular gastronomy seeks to investigate and explain the chemical reasons behind the transformation of ingredients, as well as the social, artistic and technical components of culinary and gastronomic phenomena in general. The term molecular gastronomy was originally intended to refer only to the scientific investigation of cooking, though it has been adopted by a number of people and applied to cooking itself or to describe a style of cuisine. In the late 1990s and early 2000s, the term started to be used to describe a new style of cooking in which some chefs began to explore new possibilities in the kitchen by embracing science, research, technological advances in equipment and various natural gums and hydrocolloids produced by the commercial food processing industry.)