'Gènesi' Reopens El Bulli's Story — and Its Closing Mystery

Variety reports 3Cat's six-part series 'Gènesi' premiered at San Sebastian, dramatizing El Bulli's rise and explaining why Ferran Adrià closed it at its peak.

Variety reports that 3Cat's six-part dramatic series "Gènesi" premiered two episodes at the San Sebastian Film Festival on September 21, airing on the Catalan broadcaster the same day. The series looks back at the genesis of El Bulli, the Catalan restaurant crowned the world's best restaurant five times before closing in 2011. Ferran Adrià attended the festival alongside director David Pujol and actors Miquel Fernández, Carlos Cuevas and Joana Vilapuig. Netflix will distribute the series across the rest of Spain, Europe, Latin America and the U.S., with international sales handled by New Regency, according to Variety.

The reveal food fans will talk about: Adrià told Variety that roughly 70 of his signature dishes were recreated for the series, with former El Bulli chefs Marc Cuspinera, Alain Devhaive and Eduard Bosch-Lalo brought in to ensure accuracy. "The dishes are characters in their own right," Adrià said — they could not simply be props. Casting Ferran himself proved the hardest challenge, per director David Pujol, who says Miquel Fernández's restrained delivery, tone and expression made everyone in the audition room see immediately that he was made for the role.

Episode 1 frames the question that still lingers — why close at the height of popularity? Adrià tells Variety there was no single reason: the team felt they had reached the limits of what a gastronomic experience could be, Juli Soler was becoming ill, and Albert Adrià was developing his own projects. Pujol adds the striking numbers: more than two million reservation requests were coming in for just 8,000 available places each season when the decision was made. "We didn't close because El Bulli was failing. Quite the opposite," Adrià said.

The series positions El Bulli within Catalonia's culinary traditions, featuring prominent Catalan gastronomy figures including Oriol Castro, Santi Santamaría, Fermí Puig and Christian Escribà — figures Variety says are essential to appreciating El Bulli's legacy. Adrià stresses the revolution wasn't El Bulli alone: "Without them, El Bulli would have been only an anecdote." Pujol points out that within a 150-kilometre radius, no other region has produced three world's-best-restaurant winners, citing El Celler de Can Roca and Disfrutar as heirs to that mindset. The series was conceived in 2025 to coincide with Catalonia's designation as a World Gastronomy Region.

In a wide-ranging Variety interview, Adrià says he has been portrayed many times and loves it, but that capturing his voice and way of speaking is the hardest part — and he calls Miquel Fernández's performance authentic because it never slips into satire or caricature. Before filming, the actors spent several days observing how the real figures move, speak, taste food and operate. He also revisits a favorite theme from Episode 2: a meal at his late friend Rafa's place, reminding the team that great cooking can lie in the greatest simplicity as well as the greatest complexity.

The series is a 3Cat production co-produced with Minoria Absoluta and Fishcorb Media, in collaboration with the Government of Catalonia and supported by ICEC, per Variety. For food watchers, the remaining four episodes' gradual reveal of the closure decision is the arc to follow after the San Sebastian debut.