Chef Ferran Adria has caved to pressure from environmentalists and scaled down plans to create a mega, gastronomical think tank in an ecologically sensitive area.
Adria, famous for having helmed the world's best restaurant five times in an international restaurant ranking, has shrunk original plans that called for expanding his elBulli restaurant in Cala Montjoi by 300 per cent, into the sensitive Cap de Creus Natural Park in Catalonia.
Instead, the revised project will be downsized to expand by just 20 per cent, reports French publication The Independent, which serves the local area straddling the Spain-France border.
Adria's dream of opening an exploratory and creative R&D center for gastronomy in the former elBulli space has been scuttled by protests from locals and environmentalists who wanted to protect the area and were against the idea of turning the region into a tourist trap.
The new elBulli space was scheduled to open in March.
