Madrid Fusión 2015 Day 1: Fish Exsanguination, A Leafy Kitchen, And Live Eel Cocktails
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On the stage inside the Palacio Municipal de Congresos de Madrid in Campo de las Naciones Convention Centre, a sea bream in a transparent plastic water-filled bin worked its lips repeatedly. Then chef Ángel León of Aponiente in the Andalusian town of El Puerto de Santa María — one of Spain's most renowned seafood specialists — pulled the fish out of the water, held it flat on the counter, and withdrew a vial of its blood with a syringe. The idea? Keep it alive but use its blood in a classic dish. Back to the water went the fish, and into a pan of melted butter went the blood. An egg stored in plankton for 15 days was cracked into oil, fried, plated, drizzled with blood sauce, and served with dried, salted moray eel. The fish? After chef León passed water over its gills, it seemed just fine.
"I love the Spanish," a nearby journalist turned to me and said. "They never disappoint."
Indeed. I could have told you that before I even left New York City at the invitation of Spain ICEX Export and Investments. Why? Because my last name is Bovino ("bovine" in both Spanish and Italian) and before I even was able to get on the plane, Iberia's online site notified me that "Cattle are not registered as a passenger for this booking." I've been told things about my surname over the years (including from a Sicilian that it sounds like a Mafia name), but at no point did I ever think that the technology that allows most people to secure seats would hold the literal meaning of my last name against me. So no, no disappointment.
The first-day sessions came fast. Chef León's "La Sangre del Mar" was the kick-off demonstration on the first day of Madrid Fusión 2015, whose theme for its 13 year is "Cocinas Viajeres: Una Aventura Por El Conocimento" (Traveling Cuisines: An Adventure Through Knowledge). But the humane and unexpected presentation that he'd researched at Aponiente was just the first of many video-accompanied, out-of-the-box demonstrations that began to quickly follow. Quickly, because with more than 100 cooks from 12 countries participating in this year's event, chefs only have about 20 minutes to explain their philosophies and present their techniques and dishes.In demonstrations to follow, we saw a machine used to extract the natural essence from a truffle to impart the flavor to other ingredients (including vodka), a chef cooking scallops on a Parisian street tile that had been thrown at police officers in 1968, and one of Spain's most celebrated young chefs seasoning wines with seawater and making a live eel cocktail while his team was dressed in straightjackets. Parody truly is dead.
Filip Langhoff of Restaurant Ask in Helsinki presented a four-course tasting menu with smoked reindeer heart tartar and fermented carrot with cream of yesterday's bread, demonstrating his philosophy on the balance of protein (20 percent) to vegetable (80 percent) and featuring the importance of root vegetables. "For most people a carrot is a carrot," he said. "But when you have many different kinds of carrots you can discover which ones can be stored in a jar and used in six months and those that can be stored in sand. "
Mugaritz's Andoni Luis Aduriz showed a video thanking 1,000 chefs and cooks he said had worked for him over the past 17 years. Then he jumped into a presentation on the mechanisms of creativity ("We all have the capacity of being a murderer and we all have the capacity of being a creative person") that featured self-whisking whisks, a chicken-headed person with a lobster crema catalana, and a guest sitting at a table on the beach, his back to the waves. "If you have bad habits of thinking, you have to create more positive layers that are stronger," explained Aduriz, who then presented videos of dishes he said were meant to demonstrate his philosophy: a sweet blood sausage ("Everything we can do with blood we can do with egg whites, or vice versa"), fried duck neck skin stuffed with things a duck would eat, lamb perfumed by bark, a cream-stuffed mussel, and an edible handkerchief. "If you can't be creative in your kitchens, be creative in your lives," he said before leaving the stage.[pullquote:right]
A more interactive demonstration followed from Mario Sandoval of Coque, the Michelin-starred restaurant in Humanes, about 12 miles from downtown Madrid. Truffle and seaweed oil were passed out to the audience and out came equipment Sandoval developed while working with Madrid's Institute of Food Science Research on "extracción de fluidos supercriticosto," an attempt to extract ingredients' aromas and essence for use as flavorings. "Gastronomic journalists are always against the use of synthetic oil, and this is drawing out the natural oil of the ingredients," explained the host as a few lucky audience members sampled truffle vodka.
Parisian chef Jean-François Piège prepared two dishes from two of his restaurants, for his presentation on "emotional cooking." Both featured scallops prepared and presented in interesting fashion. In one the scallop was chopped fine, spread between two Silpats and steam-cooked into scallop skins that could be fried. In the other, chef Piège cooked two scallops on the aforementioned Parisian street tile that had been heated in the oven. "In Saint-Germain-des-Prés there's not a terroir," explained chef Piège. "There's not a culinary tradition. So I wanted to create one by using something that had a cultural imprint."
Spanish culinary royalty was also present in the form of Elena Arzak, chef of Arzak, the San Sebastián institution opened by her great-grandparents in 1897. Arzak, which has been featured on the San Pellegrino list of The World's 50 Best Restaurants 11 times, and currently ranks 8th, has its own culinary laboratory where Ms. Arzak and team create new dishes, try new flavors, and investigate products and techniques. "We need to change our presentation and our way of serving because we don't always want to do the same things," she explained, adding, "Arzak takes everything very seriously." On the first day of Madrid Fusión, that meant celebrating 25 years with three Michelin stars, and a focus on something called La Cocina Frondosa, or "the leafy kitchen," the practice of cooking and presenting dishes in leaves per traditions all around the world. Lemongrass leaves, bamboo leaves, and huge, dried lotus leaves all made appearances, but other vegetables were also prepared and cut with molds to resemble leaves.
Fish exsanguination, a rotating group of translators of varying expertise trickling out of your headphones, and theories about happiness and what it takes to embrace the creative process can put you in curious state, one that definitely requires sustenance. Luckily, the part of Madrid Fusión that is the trade show helps take care of that. There are some three floors of cheeses, canned seafood, and other booths featuring everything from Alaskan seafood to Japanese wagyu. But there are just as many people with the same idea outside the huge auditorium looking for quick bites as watching the main presentations inside, so this means that my Day One product report is mostly a survey of the lay of the land fueled by various jamón ibérico stations set up on the different floors and a bite of artisinal turrones by Albert Adrià, one of the products singled out for awards earlier in the day. Beyond that, I had to draw on energy reserves from the previous day, supplied by plates of morcilla and jamón with Jeff Weiss, author of Charcutería: The Soul of Spain (the definitive work on Spanish cured meats) at one of his favorite spots in Madrid, La Sorberbia; glorious carabineros (gigantic red shrimp) grilled a la plancha, and one of those epic dinners you can't plan on but that happen to you when you're traveling: a meal with writer George Semler, his wife Lucy, and Spain expert and wine importer Gerry Dawes at the legendary Casa Lucio (yes, poor me). Speeches about rosado, spontaneous birthday singing by the staff, and a plate of huevos rotos, restaurant founder Lucio Blazquez's take on the Spanish favorite of fried eggs and fried potatoes — cut-up egg blended with soft french fries — that Spain's King Juan Carlos II reportedly helped make famous....
The rest of Monday afternoon at Madrid Fusión 2015 featured some curious presentations, the first from Dong Zhenxiang of restaurant Dadong in Beijing, whose chef described a five-point definition of "the DaDong Artistic conception" he has been developing over the past 10 years:
• The fusion of great Chinese dishes
• There are four seasons a year – do not eat unseasonal food
• Influence of Chinese art
• Influence of Western art
• Zen aesthetics
The chef, who noted that his two Beijing restaurants employ 5,000 people (5,000?!) explained further that he aims for a culinary experience that arranges the food with an eye to a pictorial composition, integrates Chinese and Western culture, and provides an "all-around visual, audio, and perceptual romantic journey with the goal of promoting Chinese culture." Having grown up in Hong Kong, I'm going to add that I think there's a great deal here lost in translation.
The other curious presentation was from the celebrated punkish chef David Muñoz and his colleague Javier Arroyo. Muñoz wore a black shirt, his Mohawk thin and closely cropped to the skull. Arroyo and the rest of the team from DiverXO — Muñoz's Michelin three-star Madrid restaurant, which operates on a ticketing basis — wore uniforms that resembled straightjackets. These culinary outlaws strutted the stage talking about looking for "taste explosions" and explaining their agenda "Sabor+Cocina+Alcohol = Vino Y Cocteleria," which translated to treating wine as something that needs seasoning and viewing through another dimension — that is, drinking wine through straws and out of freshly-shucked oyster shells (sans oyster), adding black olives to it, rinsing glasses with seawater before pouring wine in, adding fingerling limes for extra acidity, and treating wine like a margarita with a half-salted rim and jalapeño. There were echoes of an indulged child having taken over the classroom, and a cocktail made with tobacco-infused rum, chocolate liqueur, and live angulas (elvers, or baby eels) reminded me of that time in the school cafeteria when we added ketchup, salt, pepper, and French fries to the lunchtime chocolate ice cream. But hey, I'd swing by DiverXO if I could score a reservation (no luck).
Recurring themes from the first day included chefs' desire to tap into their guests memories and experiences, and the idea of encouraging customers' participation with the food and integrating them into the cooking process, most frequently by bringing elements of the cooking process into the dining room and finishing dishes there. In one instance, chef Piège explained that the box of venison cooking over roasting chestnuts is brought tableside in his restaurant, the cover lifted off to reveal a cloud of chestnut smoke at the table. In many others, final plating components were finished at the table.
More coverage of Madrid Fusión to come tomorrow. As for tonight? I trust George and Lucy Semler and Gerry Dawes know what's up, so hey, I'm just following their lead. Colman Andrews said that was the move after all, and I figure he may know a few things about Spain.
All Madrid Fusión Coverage on The Daily Meal
Madrid Fusión 2015 Coverage: Day 1, Day 2, Day 3
Madrid Fusión 2014 Coverage: Day 1, Day 2, Day 3
Madrid Fusión 2013 Coverage: Day 1, Day 2, Day 3
Madrid Fusión 2012 Coverage: Day 1, Day 2, Day 3