The future of gastronomy

This year’s Madrid Fusion, themed around The Earth−Our Pantry, was a whirlwind succession of concept-packed talks, cutting edge videos, and heuristic chef demonstrations, and the adrenaline was no doubt pumped up by a stellar lineup which included Heston Blumenthal, Juan Mari and Elena Arzak, Paco Roncero, Triogros brothers, Andoni Luis Aduriz and Rasmus Kofoed.

The real theatrics was inside the auditorium where star chefs outdid each other in showing off the most progressive culinary concepts. Fernando Del Cerro of Casa José restaurant in Aranjuez expressed his philosophy of Neo-vegetarianism, and demonstrated how new flavours could emerge when vegetables are infused with fats from argan oil, avocado oil, and even sturgeon bones. The topic of foraging and locavorism were also high on the agenda of many chefs like Miguel Angel de la Cruz and Yim Gi Ho who spoke about hunting for wild ingredients in their own backyards. Cruz, whose asador La Botica de Matapozuelos in Castille-Leon is surrounded by a habitat of pine trees, presented a dish of quail breast with pine juice extracted from green pine cones, and quipped that eating this will make you feel “like you are taking a walk in the forest on your plate.”
Dubbed as the Chef of the Sea, Andalusian native Ángel León, who once famously sent a squid for an X-ray scan, waxed lyrical over maritime products like plankton, and showed how to transform fish into sea sausages, pigeon, and tripe of lamb.
Excerpt from the March issue of epicure.