A year in the life of the world’s most celebrated restaurant, chef Ferran Adrià’s now-closed temple of molecular gastronomy, El Bulli. After only a single sentence of introduction, the viewer is plunged into the restaurant’s Barcelona food lab, where ordinary foodstuffs (sweet potatoes, mushrooms) are subjected to extraordinary trials (vacuuming, juicing) under surgically precise conditions. If the viewer is bewildered as well as fascinated, well, so much the better. This is food alchemy, science in the service of magic. From there, it’s on to the exalted and expansive menu itself, fashioned by the clash of skill and chance, intellect and sense, and staff and chef. (2012) — Matthew Lickona
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