AN EVENING OF CINEMA, AVANT-GARDE, MEXICAN AROMAS AND COCKTAILS

The afternoon/evening session of the first full day of Madridfusion 09, which  began just after the Summit's much-deserved acclaim of the lunch served by the Town Council of Valladolid, revealed the two main novelties of this year's edition. The Madridfusion-Cinegourland Audiovisual Gastronomy debates, led by José Carlos Capel and Pepe Barrena, enjoyed great success in both the number of people present and the actual content. The subject chosen for the debates, "Chaos in the house" proved to be an endless source of stories and viewpoints among the professionals, making the event one of the most interesting and entertaining of the day.

After the audiovisual debates came the films, with the world premieres of the films directed by Hasier Etxeberría about the careers of Juan Mari Arzak and Pedro Subijana, two documentaries which enhanced our already magnificent impression of these two great Basque chefs.

And after the novelties, we had the opportunity to learn from several spectacular  master-classes. Sebastien Bras, the first to take the limelight, sparked great excitement with a demonstration of so-called culinary neonaturalism. This chef, who works alongside Michel Bras at the family restaurant in Laguiole, put on a display that offered both elegance and philosophy. Next was Mexican chef Enrique Olvera who revealed the direction being taken by the culinary avant-garde in the country of the Aztecs. The next event was the Madridfusion 09 Tribute to Mexican chefs, represented in Madrid by Olvera himself, alongside Patricia Quintana, Mónica Patiño, Bricio Domínguez and Ricardo Muñoz.

Later on, Nacho Manzano, Jordi Vilá and Paco Roncero re-discovered some of the great Italian cheeses with a joint demonstration entitled Creative haute cuisine with Gorgonzola, Parmigiano Reggiano and Provolone Valpadana. This was followed by the presentation to Ferran Adriá of the Award for Technical Precision, granted by the Swiss watch firm Frank Müller. Finally, the last demonstration of the day, a spectacular, brilliant display of talent from Javier de las Muelas in the field of cocktails: Third-generation cocktails. The latest designer drinks.

Today's competitions included the 1st ANFACO Competition for Haute Cuisine with Canned Fish. Alberto Gómez de Letón, from Aris Bar in Madrid, received the first prize for his dish Light tuna in olive oil with a tomato pil-pil sauce.

Other interesting options for the afternoon/evening session today were talks: New solutions to guarantee food safety (sponsored by Silestone); Cheese boards, a gate to the stars (sponsored by Lactalis) and Coca-Cola below Zero, (sponsored by Coca-Cola), all of which suggested plenty of practical ideas.  Meanwhile, the Denominación de Origen Rías Baixas offered an outstanding tasting session of aged Albariño wines, called Albariños, young in old age.