"Juli brought rock & roll into fine dining and relieved the restaurant of the old, strict pomp (...) He was the driving force behind a much more dynamic style of dealing with guests. And ultimately, a lot more fun." This personal account by restaurateur Ramón Parellada is one of many compiled over more than 400 pages in a book that delves into the personality of a man who chose to remain in the background of chef Ferran Adrià, but who was instrumental in turning El Bulli into the most influential restaurants of its time.
A multifaceted journalist with a keen interest in fine dining, author Óscar Caballero always followed closely the story of the world's best restaurant. By 2014 he had published, first in French and later in Spanish, Texto y pretexto a texturas: El Bulli, Soler y Adrià en su contexto (Text and pretext to textures: El Bulli, Soler and Adrià in context). With a penchant for wordplay and an agile, dynamic writing style, he has penned a somewhat anarchic, unconventional book, not unlike the character he portrays.
Published in Spanish by Planeta Gastro, Juli Soler que estás en la sala is a compilation of interviews, accounts and notes interspersed with Caballero’s own memories. Time gaps and redundancies -the same or very similar episodes described by different persons throughout the book- are frequently used in an attempt to dissect a man who, according to Caballero, “everyone thought they knew well, but very few actually did”. Hence his view of “a solar, multilayered Juli Soler.”
While the reading experience may differ considerably for anyone who had the chance to meet Soler, his multifaceted, complex character gradually emerges. The book’s pages describe the adventurous guy who was mad about music and tried his hand as an occasional Dj, importer of music albums from London, concert and night club promoter, and a devoted follower and friend of the Rolling Stones. He was also an indefatigable driver, capable of turning on the go a short ride into a trip to Paris.
Then comes his role as managing director, when he acquired, in partnership with Adrià, the nouvelle cuisine restaurant that Hans and Marketta Schilling had opened in Cala Montjoi (Costa Brava) and transformed it into a creative R&D hub that took the world’s culinary scene by storm. In addition to its three Michelin stars, El Bulli topped The World's 50 Best Restaurants list for five years in a row to be named eventually "best restaurant of the decade".
Caballero charts the ins and outs of this process: the difficult years, with much more enthusiasm than resources, the financial constraints, the struggles to attract customers beyond the summer months... Also the meteoric rise of chef Ferran Adrià since he joined the kitchen, the endless working hours, the team’s camaraderie and the way Soler developed a perfect symbiosis between the front of house and the kitchen. Many at El Bulli were recruited by Soler in the most unorthodox places, such as the nightclubs of Girona or within his musical circle. This was the case with Lluís García, who became his right-hand man at the restaurant and now works as general director at El Bulli Foundation.
A forward-looking character willing to record everything that had been forged in the kitchen of El Bulli, Juli Soler also edited a collection of books listing the restaurant's dishes since 1983.
His area of competence was management, food service and wine but also to give free rein to the kitchen to do its work. Ramón Parellada sees him as someone “not unlike the manager of the Rolling Stones;” others compare his abilities to those of a soccer coach. Soler was the ultimate host and had a unique way to welcome customers: relaxed and friendly but always gracious and respectful. The most repeated anecdote in the book is a joke he used to play on customers telling them that there wasn’t a reservation under their name, so they had probably come on the wrong day. This is what Josep Roca, of Celler de Can Roca, refers to in the prologue as "daring to break boundaries in terms of emotional engagement". For Roca, Juli "pioneered instinct over reason in the dining room service".
Behind the unique, spontaneous atmosphere that set El Bulli apart from other three-star restaurants of its time, Soler had established a booking system adapted to the restaurant's seating capacity and a historical database of the meals served to every one of its customers, points out Francisco López Canís, founder of Gourmets Group. Undoubtedly food was central at El Bulli, but Adrià's dishes required such accuracy of service that coordination between the kitchen and the dining room reached new heights. So did attention to detail. Things that today seem commonplace, such as being given a printed menu listing the dishes and the wines, were started at this isolated spot in Cala Montjoi.
El Bulli was the result of a powerful combination of forces which had a multiplying effect: the strong personalities of Juli Soler and Ferran Adrià, a committed and tightly knitted team that was almost like a family, the artistic freedom that imbued everything...
The vinous foundations of El Bulli were built on sherry, champagne, Juli’s favourite burgundies and a relatively significant collection of Spanish wines.
El Bulli was one of the first fine dining restaurants to offer sherry, notably Fino and Manzanilla, as an aperitif. Ferran Centelles recalls that when he joined the team of sommeliers in 1999, half of all clients were totally at ease with sherry.
Gosset was the house champagne at El Bulli. Béatrice Cointreau, who ran the maison for three decades and often talked with Juli Soler, recalls his warmth even in business relationships. In the book, she describes him as a great taster with a keen interest both in the provenance of the wine and the producer behind.
Spanish wines also played a role. “He helped us to be confident about our wines, feel proud of our work and open ourselves to the world,” says Agustí Torelló i Sibil, a veteran cava and still wine producer from Penedès. Wine producers adored Juli Soler. According to Luis Cuesta, from Mas Pau hotel, “wine was a sort of relationship bond for him.”
Soler personally looked after Spanish wines, champagne and bordeaux (he had a very close relationship with Château Latour). He regularly bought a barrel of Corton Vergennes Grand Cru Cuvée Paul Chanson at the Hospices de Beaune auction as well as other wines that were later aged by his négociant friend Mounir Saouma from Lucien Le Moine.
The rest of the wines were chosen by Burgundy-based consultant George-Albert Aoust, who had close ties with many top European producers. As he explains in the book, his work involved “building an eclectic wine list with reliable brands (what I call the Old Testament), but also newcomers (the New Testament).” It was no mean feat. According to Aoust, "the often surreal dished created by Ferran Adrià were difficult to match, particularly in the face of land/sea pairings, spices, flowers, aromas and horizons that merge and intertwine."
Beyond pairings, says Frédéric Engerer, from Château Latour, the biggest challenge in a menu that could feature 25 to 30 dishes was to find the right wines to escort such a complex sequence. “Juli and his team had the ability to turn this into a seamless, straightforward experience,” he explains.
El Bulli was also a great school for sommeliers. Great wine professionals trained there such as Agustí Perís, currently at Abadía Retuerta Le Domaine in Castilla y León; US-based Lucas Payà, former wine director of José Andrés’ group, and now a consultant and wine educator; David Seijas, who has successfully become a wine producer; and Ferran “Fredy” Centelles, director of the wine chapter of the ambitious, colossal Bullipedia, and wine correspondent for Jancis Robinson in Spain. All of them recall travels to wine regions across Europe with Juli during the months that the restaurant closed its doors as true masterclasses filled with fulfilling experiences.
I was lucky to meet Juli Soler during my time at Todovino, a Spanish wine club that pioneered online sales and published a guide to Spain's best wines directed by José Luis Casado, who was very close to Juli, and an online magazine that I was responsible for. Gonzalo Verdera, Todovino's founder, held regular tastings with Juli and the team of sommeliers at El Bulli that included dining at the restaurant, so I had the chance to enjoy the experience twice in the second half of the 2000s. Following the restaurant’s closure announcement in 2010, we still held a tasting of the wines acquired by Soler at the Hospices de Beaune auction at El Bulli Taller in Barcelona.
What struck me most about El Bulli was how different it was from other Michelin-starred restaurants of that time. The act of eating somehow transcended into a full sensory experience. The wealth of impressions a single mouthful could produce, from explosions to evocations, its varying temperatures and textures, were so fascinating and reached so deep into the palate that wine tasting terms (retronasal, aftertaste, textures...) came across easily to describe Adrià's dishes.
The selection of wines was superb -Sotheby's auctioned the restaurant's cellar and it was a great success-, although the most versatile styles with Adrià's cuisine were sherries, sparkling wines and whites. After the customary glass of Gosset, I tasted my first Didier Dagueneau Silex at El Bulli as well as many of Juli's selections from the Hospices de Beaune. In 2006 I reported on their pioneering digital wine list which let customers choose their drinks in advance. It never really worked, admits Lucas Payà in the book, because the vast majority of guests preferred to let the sommeliers choose their wines. At that time there were upwards of 1,500 wines on the list ranging from €30 (60 wines at this price) to over €1,000 (24 in this group).
In 2008, Juli arranged a trip to Burgundy for Gonzalo Verdera, José Luis Casado and me. He would pick us at Girona airport and drive his Chrysler van –frequently mentioned in the book– where he invariably played Rolling Stones music at full blast. As the plane had landed at around 1pm, he suggested a quick lunch at a friend’s tavern before hitting the road. But he took us to the Michelin-starred Celler de Can Roca, which had just opened in a new location! We were in shock. Josep ‘Pitu' Roca welcomed us warmly and showed us around. As we sat at our table, we were promptly served a great vintage champagne followed by wines made by iconic producers from Mosel and Burgundy along with classic dishes such as red prawns and mussels with Riesling, a beautiful way of blending wine and food which I found fascinating. I will never forget that day and the generosity of Juli and Pitu.
Mounir Saouma was waiting for us in Burgundy, ready to impart a masterclass on the ground. I remember his words about how water plays a key role in shaping the landscape ("a major but often forgotten element in terroir", he said). For a wine lover, touring Burgundy’s grand crus is like visiting Florence for the first time, where you can finally admire in situ what you’ve read in books. As the trip was in February, it was rather cloudy, but the sun shone when we arrived in Montrachet.
Under Juli's guidance, we tasted many crus and villages at Mounir's cellar, visited the Hospices de Beaune, ate at George-Albert Aoust's home, who generously share beautiful bottles with us, and dined at Caves Madelaine, a classic destination for wine lovers in Beaune. There was a sad note one night when Juli seemed suddenly annoyed and left without an explanation. Perhaps this was a just a spark of the neurological disease he was diagnosed with some years later and forced him to retire in 2012.
Photos have been kindly provided by José Luis Casado, my former colleague at Todovino. He appears with Juli and a bottle of Romanée-Conti Échézeaux; followed by me -with a weird hairdo- and Juli at Aoust’s house, having lunch with Mounir; and Juli on his own.
Now, the stories compiled by Óscar Caballero (see photo below) in his book present the true self behind the brilliant, complex personality of Juli Soler, the restaurateur who brought El Bulli to life.
Juli Soler que estás en la sala
Óscar Caballero
Published by Planeta Gastro
479 pages
€19.95
