El Bulli: Cooking In Progress review

Hazelnut-oil-and-water cocktail anyone?

Scrupulous but ponderous, this documentary account of avant-garde Spanish über-restaurant El Bulli’s annual stint creating ker-aazy new recipes piques your interest but not your taste buds.

Interested in process rather than personalities, it’s an austere, lengthy look at the work of creating and logging experimental food research, with no MasterChef -style tears-to-triumph dramatics.

Legendary chef Ferran Adrià’s philosophising about pushing new food frontiers is fascinating, but barely glimpsed, so keen is the film on recording the appliance of science to innocent ingredients.

More heat and less ice in its approach would’ve made a tastier dish.