Can the best cooking series in history be Catalan?

BarcelonaIn one food truck In a state-of-the-art kitchen located next to the studios of the Parc Audiovisual de Catalunya in Terrassa, a team of chefs led by Marc Cuspinera and Eduard Bosch are preparing around seventy of El Bulli's most iconic dishes. These are not imitations, but the original recipes that could be enjoyed at Ferran Adrià's restaurant. These dishes will be featured in GenesisThe 3Cat fiction series, currently being filmed, recounts the gastronomic revolution spearheaded by the Catalan chef, played by Miquel Fernández, a Catalan actor with extensive experience in Spanish television series. The goal is to create "the best culinary series ever," and every detail has been carefully considered.

GenesisThe series, endorsed by Ferran Adrià, will consist of six episodes and has an international focus. It will premiere in the fall of 2026 on TV3 and 3Cat, and Netflix will later distribute it in Spain and Latin America. The series has two main storylines: one focusing on Ferran Adrià and El Bulli, and the other on a food critic who wants to open a restaurant with her niece. "This timeline will allow us to explain our entire culinary culture, our region, and local produce. We want to show the world a powerful Catalonia," says Oriol Sala-Patau, producer at 3Cat. "One of Ferran Adrià's obsessions is that Genesis "It's going to be the best culinary series in history, and we're under pressure to make sure that if something looks like caviar, it must be caviar. If there's a langoustine, it has to be the best langoustine," explains Francesc Escribano, director of Minoría Absoluta, which is co-producing the series with 3Cat, Fischcorb, and Emulsió Films AIE, with support from the Generalitat.

Dodging Parody

Without a doubt, the actor of Genesis The one facing the biggest challenge is Miquel Fernández, who is in charge of playing Ferran Adrià, a character who can easily be taken apart in the parody due to his characteristic way of communicating. "It was very obvious that I didn't want him to be Poland"Because it's not a comedy series. It was important to work on Ferran's evolution, because the series begins when he's very young and jumps forward twenty or thirty years: he enters El Bulli as a dishwasher, very young and very shy, and he becomes empowered until he ends up being who he is," explains Fernández, whom TV3 viewers had seen in the comedy series. Welcome to the family

The actor explains that he couldn't ignore the chef's way of speaking, so he made phonetic notes on all the dialogue in the script. To prepare for the role, he met with the chef, with whom he had a long conversation that allowed him to learn details about his personality and his way of expressing himself. Initially, Fernández auditioned for another character, and during the process, he was also asked to audition for the role of Ferran Adrià.

One of the most well-known faces of Genesis It's Carlos Cuevas's role as Albert Adrià, Ferran Adrià's younger brother. "The relationship between the two brothers is very deep and full of love. Albert Adrià arrived at El Bulli when he was very young, and, as the script says, they practically met there, because they're seven years apart. A relationship of great trust and mutual support develops," says Cuevas, who points out that Albert is one of the few people who takes care of each other. The actor, who is also a restaurateur—he's one of the partners in the Lluritu restaurants—says he's learning a lot about the industry through the series. "They told me which stall in my market I should buy from, and that's a lot," he says, laughing.

Besides Fernández and Cuevas, the cast includes other names such as Ivan Massagué, Mónica López, Joana Vilapuig, and Pere Arquillué. Massagué plays Juli Soler, the mastermind behind El Bulli with Adrià, who died almost eleven years ago. "Juli Soler was like Dalí; when the press arrived or there was a camera around, he'd puff out his chest. I've spoken with his children, Pancho and Rita, and with Ferran and Albert and other chefs. And they tell me, 'No, Juli would say it like this here,' and you form your own opinion. Everyone agrees. Ferran was a genius in the kitchen," he emphasizes.

Behind the camera is David Pujol, who already filmed a fifteen-episode documentary series about El Bulli –El Bulli: Story of a Dream—, a project that led him to build a personal relationship with the chef. "The series focuses on one of our country's greatest assets: its cuisine. The fact that a small country like ours has had three of the world's best restaurants—Disfrutar, El Celler de Can Roca, and El Bulli—is unique, and the series highlights this. In a small restaurant, far removed from the mainstream, all the rules were broken. None of this would have happened if there hadn't been a traditional foundation," explains Pujol, who emphasizes that the Terrassa studios have created a very faithful recreation of El Bulli and its cuisine.