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Madrid Fusión 2023 has started in style, with tickets sold out and a massive attendance both in person and online, to kick off the most influential gastronomic summit. On this first day, tribute was paid to the 20 chefs who won the Cocinero Revelación Award, bringing together on stage such important names as Ricard Camarena, Rodrigo de la Calle, Camila Ferraro, Javier Sanz and Juan Sahuquillo.
Also present was Dabiz Muñoz, considered the best chef in the world, who stressed that this award “is an important boost and a window that opens so that people know what you do and come to your restaurant”. In this edition, moreover, there is a large attendance of hotel and catering schools from all over Spain.
At the start of Madrid Fusión, the presence of Andoni Luis Aduriz also stood out, on the occasion of the 15th anniversary of his restaurant Mugaritz. The Basque explained that thanks to his tenacity and effort, Mugaritz has managed to build “a path that did not exist, which is ours”, the basis of which “is to break the established codes and where some ideas lead you to others”.
International gastronomy and the Roca brothers’ new project
Chefs from different places such as Max Alajmo (Italy), Dieuvel Malonga (Rwanda), Konstantim Filippou (Austria), Alejandro Chamorro (Ecuador) and Benjamín Nast (Chile) have participated, representing international gastronomy and vindicating the recovery of local produce because cooking, as well as food, should be emotion and commitment to the environment.
The Roca brothers also took advantage of Madrid Fusión to present their new project, Esperit Roca. They are launching their liquid cuisine on the market with which they “encapsulate the landscape from a respectful point of view”. They are using some of the distillates they have been working with in recent years at El Celler de Can Roca.
On the other hand, the sea also played a major role with four speakers: the Spanish chefs Ángel León, from Aponiente, Diego Murciego from Desde 1911, Carlos del Portillo from Bistronomika and Alberto Ferruz from BonAmb. Ángel León has surprised by turning all the products that end up in his restaurant’s rubbish bin into sweets, including the skin of moray eels and invasive algae.
Together with his team, he started researching with the skins of sea bass, moray eel, sea bream and sea bream, and developed a technique with a milk protein that removes the taste of the fish. With this skin, for example, they have created recipes such as fish canutillos, with salt and sugar, dried and boiled in sunflower oil, blown into the skin to give it shape and filled with waffle cream.
The best croquette
The first day also saw the famous competition for the best ham croquette, which this year went to the creation of chef Juan Monteagudo, from the Ababol restaurant in Albacete. And The Wine Edition highlighted the value of Spanish territories and terroirs to discuss what the next great wines will be like.
An interesting debate took place with Pedro Ballesteros MW, Andreas Kubach MW (general manager of Península Vinicultores), Pepe Mendoza (owner of Casa Agrícola), Pedro Ruiz Aragoneses (CEO of Alma Carraovejas), Loreto Pancorbo (Wine Consultant at Támdem SC) and Luis Sande (co-owner of Pagos de Brigante). Beforehand, Kristell Monot, sommelier at Mugaritz, opened the event with a masterly tasting that covered the collection of wines from this culinary temple in Rentería.
We will see what other surprises the 24 and 25 January will bring.