Establishing new codes for creativity in haute cuisine. The case of Ferran Adrià and elBulli

Ferran Adrià is one of the most recognized chefs in the world. His restaurant, elBulli, was
awarded five times the title of the Best Restaurant in the World. Through an analysis of the last 30 years of the creative journey of elBulli, this contribution highlights that Adrià and his team of chefs succeeded in articulating two different processes: i) a process of creativity that aimed at defining a new “school” of high cuisine and ii) a process of innovation that was expressed by the new gastronomic experiences offered to the (happy few) customers of the restaurant until its closure in 2011. A careful examination of the coupling and decoupling of these two processes shows how they fueled each other, and how the management of the organization (through a specific type of ambidexterity) was conducive to the adequate articulation of the two processes.