Madrid Fusión Alimentos de España returns, one more year, to the Ifema fairgrounds in Madrid to take the pulse of gastronomy. The global summit opens tomorrow the first of the three vibrant days of this event. In its XXI edition, the congress will highlight the moment of freedom –in all the surroundings– experienced by chefs and their work structures. A spirit that the organizers –Vocento Gastronomía– have embraced under the slogan 'Without limits', thus reaffirming the instantaneous and plural diversity of contemporary cuisine.
"Never before has it manifested itself in such an infinite and different way, without barriers and without following the same key or trend," they point out. This year the auditorium will collect the testimony of chefs who defend their projects from remote and unlikely places. Also new urban kitchens that record the world. Thus, from Japan comes the master of the knife Takayosi Watanabe. There will be talk of unique cuisines or scientific progress around ancestral techniques such as fermented foods.
Poul Andrias Ziska will approach the restaurant Koks – two Michelin stars – in Madrid from the Faroe Islands. Nicolai Tram –two others in Sweden–, his project linked to fire: Knystaforsen. And Virgilio Martínez and Pía León (Proyecto Mil, Peru) will transmit everything they have learned in the Peruvian highlands. Dieuveil Malonga, leader of an authentic culinary movement with Meza Malonga Lab (Rwanda) will show the unstoppable development of African cuisines.
Tomorrow, for the first time at the congress, the main stage will host a legend of Italian cuisine: Massimiliano Alajmo –Le Calandre, three Michelin stars–. The chef is still, two decades later, the youngest chef to achieve the highest distinction in the red guide at 28 years old. Among the international speakers are also James Knappett –from Kitchen Table, two stars– and Rafael Cagali –Da Terra, two stars–, both from the United Kingdom. Or Konstantin Filippou – two others in his eponymous restaurant – who will explain the renaissance of Viennese cuisine.
The list of Spanish chefs who participated in this XXI edition is headed by Dabiz Muñoz; Joan, Josep and Jordi Roca; Quique Dacosta; Angel Leon; Ricardo Camarena; Andoni Luis Aduriz; Oriol Castro, Eduard Xatruch and Mateu Casañas; Alberto Ferruz; Nandú Jubany; Aitor Arregi; Pedrito Sánchez and the duo of Álvaro Salazar and María Cano.
All of this has been collected in the special supplement that this newspaper dedicated to the great event organized by Vocento's Gastronomy division and which will be available tomorrow with each issue of ABC – it will be available, similarly, in the Ifema pavilions where undid the summit. A total of 56 pages with a central report dedicated to the quiet job of chefs, assistants and right hands of chefs in restaurants of the stature of DiverXO, Azurmendi or Disfrutar, among others.
The high demand has caused the organization to have to hang the 'sold out' sign. Tickets to go 'in situ' to the main auditorium were sold out last Friday, January 20. It is only possible to purchase them to follow the presentations directly through the event's digital platform www.madridfusion.net.
