el Bulli

el Bulli was a Michelin 3-star restaurant (the highest rating) that was located in Roses, Catalonia. It gained international fame for the deconstructivist and molecular cooking styles of its head chef, an outspoken man named Ferran Adria who slowly became the face of Spanish cuisine on an international stage. 

el Bulli is important because it was the first restaurant focused entirely on progressive styles of cooking firmly rooted in molecular gastronomy with the intention of adapting traditional Spanish tastes into something deeply imaginative. 

Cuisine at el Bulli was dicated by texture. A famous dish was a frozen globe of ricotta cheese, presented to the diner with a hammer, which was then used to shatter the globe into bite-size pieces. Another was a spring made of congealed olive oil, placed on the finger and left to dissolve in the diners mouth. These dishes exemplify basic traditional tastes in Spanish cuisine, molded to fit a haute format, but still defined as much by their taste as their presentation. 

el Bulli marked a shift in haute cuisine from an obsession with expensive ingredients and elaborate presentation into one marked by an obsession with taste and texture, with interesting presentation just a by-product of presenting the best possible dish made of simple flavors.