Thursday 22 January. Afternoon/evening

Today's afternoon session, the last of Madridfusion 09, began with sincere thanks by the Summit organizers to the Town Council of Valladolid for the taster meal offered. Then we had the first of this afternoon's demonstrations given by Grant Achatz from the US on New utensils to serve avant-garde cuisine designed by the chef of Alinea in Chicago in collaboration with professional designers.

Then came the opportunity to enjoy the Madridfusion - Cinegourland Great Audiovisual Debates. For one hour, Skye Gyngell, Manuel Robledo, Rubén Picado and José Ramón Calva, with Pepe Barrena and José Carlos Capel as moderators, debated on the type of restaurants we can expect to see in the future. This led on to the projection of the documentary on Hasier Etxeberría about Hilario Arbelaitz, the last of a series of films on great Spanish chefs.

In parallel but in the Multi-Purpose Hall, a joint demonstration was given sponsored by Carbonell. Under the title Imagination, creativity and method with olive oil, Quique Dacosta spoke about Fruits and olive oil, and Íñigo Lavado taught us how to give a new look to the classic Spanish tortilla.

The last of today's talks - Gastrobar - was a joint demonstration sponsored by Heredad Segura Viudas. We heard about the activities of some of today's great Spanish chefs in their gastronomic bars -  Paco Roncero, Carles Abellan, Quique Dacosta, Dani García, Benito Gómez and María José Román.

All of this, plus the draws of an oven offered by Berlys and of a Vorwerk Thermomix, closed this latest edition of madridfusion.

Closing figures. Madridfusion 09 in figures

At the close of this year's session, here are the data for madridfusion 09. The international gastronomy summit offered 194 speakers, all top chefs and prestigious experts.

Over the 3½ days of this latest edition of madridfusion, more than 5,000 people were involved in the organization and logistics, either as guests, delegates, accredited journalists or exhibitors.

The total number of delegates, including the interns who helped out in madridfusion 2009, was 600.

International media: 246 professionals were accredited from all over the world - from Japan to Mexico, from Australia and New Zealand to India, Guatemala, Costa Rica, and many others.

Spanish media: almost 600 journalists from all types of media were present at Madridfusion 09 - radio, television, Internet, daily and weekly press.

Madrid Fusión received the support and participation of 130 exhibitors.

This has been, yet again, a great summit. We trust that next year the event will attract as much, or even more, interest amongst lovers of gastronomy.