El Bulli, the Spanish restaurant considered by many, as the world's best, will be temporarily closed in 2012 and 2013.
Chef Ferran Adria said it was because of fatigue and a need to perfect new recipes.
"But El Bulli is not closing down. These are not two years on sabbatical. I need time to decide how 2014 is going to be. We want the year 2014 to stand out and I know that when I return it will not be the same."
A statement on the restaurant's website added that "these two years will be devoted to thinking, planning and preparing the new format for subsequent years."
El Bulli, on Spain's northeastern Catalan coast, continues to be the top of the World's 50 Best Restaurants by more than 800 chefs, restaurant critics and industry insiders for Britain's Restaurant Magazine.
Chef Adria, 47, reportedly appeared tired and nervous, said he found working 15 hours a day "difficult."
"It's impossible with the current format of El Bulli to continue to create."
"It's like telling (British designer) John Galliano to go work in a factory."
He acknowledged that in closing the restaurant, he would lose his three Michelin stars.
"I have a lot of respect for the guidebooks, and when you go, you go."
Remember, this is the menu that has included oyster meringue, hot ice cream, frothy truffle cappuccino and liquid ravioli, while vegetables are turned into lollipops or whipped foams.
But there are critics who say the chemicals used in his "molecular gastronomy" make it unhealthy.
"Can we be proud of a cuisine ... created by Ferran Adria and his chorus of fans which fills plates with gelling agents and laboratory emulsifiers?," another top Spanish chef, Santi Santamaria, said in 2008.
Adria dismissed the comments as "nonsense."
