Spain’s Food & Wine Fairs: A Perpetual Feast

Text & Photographs by Gerry Dawes

All photographs copyright 2008 by Gerry Dawes (Not to be used without permission, gerrydawes@aol.com)

Spanish food and wine fairs, wine trade fairs, , promotional events and gastronomic conferences can keep dedicated Spanish wine professionals, foodies and aficionados alike busy all year round, as I found out over the course of 2007, when I made a half dozen ten trips to Spain, many of them connected two and three deep to Spanish wine events. Spain now has thousands of wineries and it takes a lot of tastings to bring all that wine to the attention of the press, importers and consumers.

In January, it all begins at Madrid Fusión, an annual event, where a roster of the top chefs in Spain—augmented by other star chefs from around the world—come to show the latest superstar cooking techniques. Taking best advantage of the drawing power of the superchefs, ICEX Vinos de España / Wines From Spain puts on a star-studded show of their own at the event. In 2007, celebrating its 25th Anniversary, Wines From Spain presented more than 130 top-rated Spanish wines in several España: Vientos de Terruño / Spain: Winds of Terroir tastings at Madrid Fusión. La Rioja also presented two big panel tastings—one contrasting classic and modern style Rioja reds, the other focusing on versatility of the tempranillo grape.

Tetsuya Wakuda at Madrid Fusión

Ferran Adrià with a food producer at Madrid Fusión

Juli Soler, El Bulli & Teresa Barrenechea, Termomix Spain at Madrid Fusión

Esmeralda Capel with white truffles

José Mari Arzak, Ferran Adrià, Rafael Ansón, Tetsuya Wakuda

Wakuda, Trotter, Norman Van Aken and Friends Having Tapas at Rafa in Madrid

Gerry Dawes and Paul Prudhomme at Madrid Fusión

That was just the beginning. Later that month in Valencia, the sixth edition of Encuentro Verema, one of Spain's most prestigious wine conferences, took place in Valencia on January 26 and 27 at the five-star Meliá Valencia Palace Hotel. The conference, organized by Valencia-based verema.com, one of the world's most visited wine websites, featured two days of high level seminars and tastings. Bodegas Herederos de Marqués de Riscal, presented "The Evolution of Rioja Wines in the Past Century," following by a tasting of historic vintages of Marqués de Riscal Reserva wines back to the stellar, legendary 1945, as well as their 2001 Barón de Chirel, perhaps the greatest in that wine’s history. The next day, Managing Director-Winemaking Team Leader Agustín Santolaya of Bodegas Roda presented a tasting of representative vintages from the winery since its creation. One of the event’s highlights was the presentation of the Verema Awards for 2006 to: Best Bodega 2006: Bodegas Roda; Rising Star Bodega: Viñas del Vero; Best Wine Award 2006: Vega Sicilia Único 1994; Wine Personality of the Year 2006 Award: Mariano García of Bodegas Mauro, Maurodos and other wineries; and Award for Best Restaurant Wine Service: Restaurante Atrio (Cáceres).

León Grau, José Luís Contreras, Verema.com & Ricardo Pérez, Descendientes de J. Palacios, Bierzo

Ricardo Pérez, Descendientes de J. Palacios, Bierzo (left) & Juan Such, Verema.com (right)

Telmo Rodríguez

In early March in Ferrol (A Coruña, Galicia) the Chamber of Commerce of Vilagarcia de Arousa staged the bi-annual (2009 is next) Fevino—Fería de Vino de Noroeste—a show based primarily on the white wines of Galicia, but with exhibitors from around Spain. Here, in a less crowded environment, some 300 bodegas brought more than 1,000 wines to taste. This one is particularly good for importers and the press interested in the wines of northwestern Spain, because sit-down sessions with bodega principals and representatives are available on a one-on-one basis.

Also a bi-annual fair—and the biggest of them all—is the huge Alimentaria fair, a huge event with thousands of exhibitors (which next will take place in Barcelona from March 10-14, 2008). Hundreds of bodegas bring thousands of wines to show and along with a mind-boggling variety of foodstuffs, there is Barcelona’s equivalent of Madrid Fusión, the less well-known, but superb BCNVanguardia Congreso Internacional de Gastronomía de Alimentaria, all of which combine to make Alimentaria a not-to-be-missed event for wine lovers and foodies alike.

Charlie Trotter at BCN Vanguardia

Ferran Àdria at BCN Vanguardia

Juli Soler of El Bulli

José Andrés & Quique Dacosta at BCN Vanguardia

In April, back in Madrid at the Casa del Campo, the Grupo Gourmets, for the past 21 years, has staged the Salón Internacional de Gourmets in three different exhibition halls, where some 1,000 exhibitors show an estimated 35,000 products, among them thousands more wines from all around Spain. This is one of best wine and food fairs I know and another no-miss event for wine and food professionals and aficionados of the best of Spanish products. For more than 30 years, Grupo Gourmets has been the publisher of Club de Gourmets magazine and an outstanding guidebook series that includes the annual Gourmetour Guía Gastronómica y Turística de España and the Guía de Vinos Gourmets wine guide.

Three-star Michelin Chefs Santi Santamaria, Ferran Ádria, Paul Bocuse and Juan Mari Arzak at the Salón Internacional de Gourmets in Madrid

Torta del Casar at the Cheese Judging at the Salon Internacional de Gourmets in Madrid

Also in April and coinciding with the Salón de Gourmets, the group behind verema.com, started a new upscale bienial wine event, Vino Elite, which featured some of Spain’s top wineries and seminars by such luminaries as Spanish art film maker José Luís Cuerda (also owner of the D.O. Ribiero wine, Sanclodio), Jonathan Nossiter of Mondovino wine documentary fame and his wife, Paula Pradini, who showed her Mondoespaña segment. The verema.com group and Emiliano García—owner of Casa Montaña (a revered Valencian bodega and tapas bar that dates to 1836) and Aranleón (a very promising new Utiel-Requena winery), also staged another star turn tasting event, Vino a Toda Vela (Wine at Full Sail), one of a string of events celebrating Valencia’s turn at playing host to the America’s Cup yacht races. The event, which featured top wines from Spain and around the world was held in the cloister of the 500-year old monastery that now houses part of the University of Valencia.

Palacio de Congresos, Valencia, site of Vino Elite

Paco Higón, Verema.com; Paula & Jonathan Nossiter

The Feria Nacional del Queso (National Cheese Fair), of Trujillo (Cáceres province) in the region of Extremadura, has taken place the first weekend in May since 1986. Called the most important cheese fair in Europe, this consumer-friendly event has nearly 100 cheesemakers showing some 300 different cheeses, which can be sampled with local wines by buying tickets that are exchanged for tastes at each tented stand. The fair takes place outdoors in Trujillo's spectacular, historic Plaza Mayor, the main square, which is surrounded by distinguished buildings and the large equestrian statue of Francisco Pizarro, the conqueror of Peru.

Cheese Fair in Trujillo's Main Plaza, La Plaza Mayor.

This is a wonderful fiesta for cheese lovers. All one has to do is show up, make your way to the Plaza on foot, purchase some tickets and enjoy a superb range of artisan cheeses, the majority of which are from Spain and neighboring Portugal. The local Extremaduran cheese such as the ewe's milk Torta de la Serena, Torta del Casar and Tortita de Barros, along with Trujillo's own goats' milk cheese Ibores, are superb and among the best cheeses in Spain.

Cheese stand at Trujillo's Feria del Queso.

Following on the heels of those events was Castilla y León’s most important wine judging event, Premios Zarcillo, in which wineries from this large region’s denominaciones de origen, which includes Ribera del Duero, Rueda, Toro, Bierzo and Cigales, vie for the coveted Zarcillo de Oro top prizes in each category. The judges—a distinguished group of Spanish and international tasters—labors for several days tasting hundreds of wines from the region (and beyond; there are wines from other Spanish wine regions and foreign countries) in an unforgettable setting in the heart of the Ribera del Duero at the 14th-century Castillo de Peñafiel, one of Spain’s most spectacular castles and now the Museum of Wine.

Premios Zarcillo, Peñafiel (Valladolid)

After the Premios Zarcillo, Fenavin (Fería Nacional del Vino), Spain’s biggest annual trade fair dedicated solely to wine, takes place the second week in May in Cuidad Real. Fenavin has more than 1,000 exclusively Spanish bodegas exhibiting in seven pavilions and some 2,500 wine buyers and importers scour the exhibition spaces for four days seeking new treasures for their portfolios. This fair also features some of the best wine seminars in Spain with top experts from the around the world and Spanish experts who are only a short AVE high-speed train ride away from Madrid.

Fenavin, Spain's Largest Wine Fair, Cuidad Real

Another bi-annual fair, and one of the most rewarding, is The Vinoble International Noble Wines Exhibition, is held every two years at the end of May in Jerez de la Frontera. In 2008, it will be staged from May 25 through May 28. It is the only wine fair dedicated exclusively to fortified, dessert, and naturally produced sweet wines, not just from Spain, which has a much overlooked vibrant production of luscious wine in this genre, but from around the world. The setting for Vinoble is Jerez’s beautifully renovated 12th-century Arabic Alcazar fortress, which dates from the Almohade epoch of the Moorish occupation of Spain. The site is spectacular with wine tasting stands occupying the gardens of the Alcazar, and wine tastings such as a Château D'Yquem retrospective and a palo cortado Sherries presentation are held in the complex's former mezquita (mosque) and tasting pavilions in the Renaissance Palace of Villavicencio, which was built within the walls of the fortress in the 17th and 18th centuries. More than 100 noble wine producing areas for from fortified and sweet wines from around the world show their best labels at Vinoble.

Vinoble: Tasting in the former Mezquita of the Alcazar in Jerez de la Frontera

But, at Vinoble, as might be expected, it is the host country, Spain, which shows the most extensive variety of high quality sweet and fortified wines. Local Sherry bodegas bring out a broad range of high quality fortified wines--finos, manzanillas, olorosos, amontillados, creams, pale creams, moscatels and Pedro Ximénez sweet wines, as do bodegas from nearby Andalucian wine regions such as Montilla-Moriles (Cordoba) with a range of finos, amontillados, olorosos and Pedro Ximénez; the Condado de Huelva with fortified Sherry-like wines, including delicious orange essence-flavored ones; and Málaga, which showed some exceptional moscatels. Cataluña was represented by sweet wines from Penedès and Priorat; Valencia by sweet mistela moscatels; Navarra by late harvest moscatels and vinos rancios; Alicante by moscatels and fondillones; Jumilla by late harvest Monastrell-based wines; and Rueda, Rías Baixas and Yecla by late harvest entries.

Only in Jerez at Vinoble can wine professionals and aficionados alike find such a broad range of high quality "Noble" wines. Even one day at Vinoble is an education into this relatively little-known, magical world of late harvest, fortified, botrytisized, dessert and dry wines such as manzanilla, fino and amontillado Sherries. Touring the Spanish stands in May 2006, I was able to taste an amazing array of wines that underscored the importance of this emerging genre of exceptional wines from all around Spain.

All these food and wine fairs take place before June, but there is more. On the first weekend in August, there is the lively Fiesta de Albariño (no permanent website) in Cambados, a charming Galician seaside town in the Val do Salnés region of Spain’s top white wine producing area, Rías Baixas. This region is where a wide range of producers make most of the excellent Albariños that are so food-friendly to modern (and traditional) cuisines have taken American wine lists by storm. Scores of the Val do Salnés region’s best Albariños are available for tasting at open-air stands along an esplanade outside the Parador de Cambados. Top wine journalists (and one American, this writer) taste wines for two days to select the top Albariños each year.

Xosé Posada, Presidente of the Irmandade de Vinhos Galegos (Brotherhood of Galician Wines) & Irmandade Member Gerry Dawes at La Festa de Albarinho in Cambados

Do Ferreiro Cepas Velhas Albariño & Nécoras (Crabs) from the Rías of Galicia, from which comes some of the world's greatest shellfish.

Those who think they might not get enough Albariño at Cambados can show up a week earlier for wonderful, little-known, country Albariño wine fair in Meaño, where more than a dozen small wineries from the Asociación de Bodegueros Artesanos, led by Francisco Dovalo of Cabaleiro do Val, stages a weekend showing of their artisan wines, along with Galician bagpipe music and culinary specialties such as pulpo a la gallega (octopus steamed or grilled and sprinkled with Spanish olive oil, superb Spanish pimentón [paprika] and sea salt) and local shellfish, which is some of the best in the world.

Asociación de Bodegueros Artesanos Emblem

With Francisco 'Paco' Dovalo, Presidente of the Asociación de Bodegueros Artesanos at their Albariño wine fair in Meaño.

I have gone to all the events described in the past two years and was privileged to be invited to speak at several of them. I could have kept on going to any number of Spanish harvest wine fairs in September, October and November, when the great chefs conference, Lo Mejor de la Gastronómía, takes place in San Sebastián, and the excellent IberWine, billed the Salón Internacional de Vino (a biannual event devoted to Spanish and Portuguese wines that alternates between Madrid, Portugal and the U.S.), but even a marathon Spanish wine geek like me needs a respite sometimes. Still, I can’t wait for the next round to start each year.

--The end--

Gerry's View - Spanish Food Reports Filed in Foods From Spain News

2006 - Madrid Fusion, Alimentaria & BCN Vanguardia, Salon Internacional de Gourmets, Spain's Ten, CIA-Worlds of Flavor, San Antonio New World Wine & Food Festival

The world of Spanish gastronomy has never been more exciting. Culinary conferences spotlighting Spain, both in Spain and the U.S.; trade shows with a focus on Spanish foodstuffs and wines; and gastronomic promotional events throughout the year offer unique opportunities to sample, savor and learn about both exciting, cutting edge Spanish cuisine and the great cooking based on the rich food traditions of Spain.

In January, as reported in Foods From Spain News (Winter Issue), Madrid Fusión 2006 took center stage in Madrid and dazzled the world press with innovative presentations from Spanish star chefs and culinarians such as Ferran Adrià, Juan Mari Arzak, Martín Berasategui, Thomas Keller, Charlie Trotter, José Andrés and Harold McGee, the author of On Food and Cooking: The Science and Lore of the Kitchen.

On October 14, Madrid Fusión will make its debut in New York appearance with Spain's Ten, a day-long "mini Madrid Fusión"as a part of the events surrounding the inauguration of the new International Center for Food & Wine, an offshoot of the long-established French Culinary Institute. Invited to the event are ten top Spanish modern cuisine chefs including Adrià, Arzak, Berasategui, Joan Roca and Paco Torreblanca. Several of these same chefs will also cook at a gala dinner for the James Beard Foundation on Oct. 12 and for the press and invited American chefs on Oct. 13 in the kitchens of the International Center for Food & Wine.

In March, far less well-known that Madrid Fusión in international gastronomic circles, but quite spectacular for professional culinarians and aficionados was the superb BCNVanguardia ‘06 Congreso Internacional de Gastronomía de Alimentaria that was featured during the huge Alimentaria trade fair, a bi-annual event with thousands of exhibitors, which took place in Barcelona from March 6-10.

In May, late this year because of the Easter holidays, the Salón Internacional del Club de Gourmets (May 8-11 at the Casa del Campo) featured in three different exhibition halls some 1,000 exhibitors showing 35,000 products to more than 50,000 visitors. 2006 marks the 20th Anniversary of this stellar trade show. Grupo Gourmets, the organizers of this annual event is also celebrating 30 years as the publishers of Club de Gourmets magazine and an outstanding, indispensable guidebook series that includes the annual Gourmetour Guía Gastronómica y Turística de España, the Guía de Vinos Gourmets wine guide and GourmetQuesos, a guide to Spain’s superb cheeses. During the Salón Internacional de Gourmets each year, the Bocuse d’Or prize for the best young chef in Spain is awarded, as well as Gourmetour prizes for the best restaurant, best chef, etc. There are also competitions of national significance for the best Cortador de Jamón (Ibérico ham-cutting championship), sponsored /Dehesa de Extremadura, and the Cata-Concurso de los Mejores Quesos de España, a judging of Spain’s finest cheeses that has been narrowed to ten finalists in each of seven categories.

On May 15 and 16 in New York and May 17 and 18 in Chicago, at a series of tastings the government of Navarra’s trade mission to the United States presented a range of Navarra food products such as pimientos de piquillo, asparagus and a wide variety of quality conserved vegetables and fruits, olive oil, cheeses and wines–charming Chardonnays, superb rosados, world-class reds and luscious dessert wines. For more information about products from Navarra, contact: José Guerra (mailto:jose.guerra@mcx.es from Foods From Spain or Miguel Moncada (mmoncada@camaranavarra.com) from the Cámara Navarra, the Chamber of Commerce of Navarra. Tasting & Touring in Navarra.

Also on the calendar are at least two other exciting Spanish-oriented gastronomic events, both of which will take place in November, 2006. The Culinary Institute of America's 9th annual Worlds of Flavor International Conference & Festival, will take place at their Greystone campus (a former monastery and winery) in Napa Valley from November 2-4, 2006. Widely acknow-ledged as the America's premier annual forum on world cuisines and culinary flavor trends for chefs, food journalists, and other food service, beverage and hospitality industry professionals, this year’s Worlds of Flavor event will be dedicated to Spain. Greg Drescher, Senior Director of Strategic Initiatives at the Culinary Institute of America told Foods From Spain News, "This year the CIA will stage the largest and most comprehensive conference ever held in the United States on Spanish food and wine, and the contribution of Spain to world menus past and future. Our 2006 program, Spain and the World Table: Regional Traditions, Invention and Exchange, will bring together more than 50 guest faculty, leading chefs, cooks, cookbook authors, and other culinary and beverage experts from throughout Spain as well as from across the United States and elsewhere around the world. Conference presenters will lead seminars, tastings, and demonstrations and collaborate on special meals and the spectacular food bazaars and cultural events at the World Marketplace held in Greystone's historic 15,000 square foot Barrel Room."

This year’s Worlds of Flavor event, which focuses on the traditional cuisines of Spain–as well as modern cuisine elements–promises to be the most spectacular Spanish gastronomic event of the year. José Andrés, author, Spanish television personality and chef-partner in several Jaleo restaurants in Washington, D.C. will chair the event. For more information see: http://www.prochef.com/WOF2006

Less than a week later, from November 7 to 12, the 2006 San Antonio (Texas) New World Wine and Food Festival will also be dedicated to Spain in general and will highlight the gastronomy of the Canary Islands (many San Antonio area residents trace their roots to the Canary Islands). The festival will feature seminars and tasting on Spanish gastronomy, Spanish wines and cheeses and Canary Islands food, wine and culture. Spanish chefs from both the mainland and the Canary Islands will be invited to do demonstrations, cook at gala dinners, etc.
See: http://www.nwwff.org/

Super Star Chefs Show Their Stuff at Alimentaria’s BCNVanguardia ‘06

Text & Photographs by Gerry Dawes ©2006

BCNVanguardia ‘06 took place in Alimentaria’s 2006 Restaurama section, a pavilion alongside the two very large Intervin buildings that housed hundreds of Spanish wine producers. Directed by Roser Torras, the BCNVanguardia cooking demonstrations were brilliantly focused. Each day featured star Spanish and international chefs doing friendly mano a mano riffs with designated themes within a main theme such as La Tierra (dishes from the earth, i. e., vegetables, beans, potatoes, pasta, rice, salads; El Mar, fish and shellfish; and Las Viandas, meat, game, and birds (with truffles). Each entire day was devoted to these themes in order and pairs of chefs gave their unique interpretations of how to handle their assigned ingredients.


On the first day, Raúl Aleixandre, of Ca Sento in Valencia, a maestro of rice (and shellfish) dishes was paired with Hiroyuki Kanda of Kanda restaurant in Tokyo. It was refreshing to see both chefs doing traditional rice dishes, using traditional ingredients, Aleixandre with his typical, delicious arroz meloso marinero with squid and shrimp flavored with Spanish pimentón (paprika) and Kanda with a traditional Japanese rice dish with vegetables and mushroom.


Ricardo Gil of Restaurante 33 in Tudela (Navarra) did a preparation with regional ingredients–cardoons, borage and white asparagus–from the vegetable rich region of la Ribera de Navarra (from where many of Spain’s superb jarred and tinned vegetables such as pimientos de piquillo come) and the legendary Bitor Arguinzoniz from Restaurante Etexebarri in the Basque Country showed how he has become one of the world masters of grilling, using with laser-made, micro-mesh skillets to grill vegetables over an open fire.


Charlie Trotter did a deconstruction interpretation of the ubiquitous American Caesar Salad, and Andoni Aduriz of Mugaritz, near San Sebastián, produced a beautiful salad of roasted and raw vegetables, sprouts and even edible flowers with a cheese "dressing."

Andoni Aduriz of Mugaritz (near San Sebastián)

Rounding out the day, to a standing room only crowd, Ferran Adrià presented a master class, A Scientific-Gastronomic Lexicon: A Synthesis of the Philosophy of El Bullí.

Ferran Adrià, El Bullì


Day Two at BCNVanguardia ‘06 was a day from heaven for fish and shellfish lovers. Sergi Arola of La Broche in Madrid (and the new Arola in Barcelona) paired with Elena Arzak of San Sebastián’s three-star Restaurante Arzak, one of the most famous restaurants in Europe, to do their takes on sardines and anchovies. Arola did a modernized dish of smoked sardines with trompeta de la muerte mushrooms and Elena Arzak did a futuristic, artistic dish called Ámbar de anchoas, using anchovies, pimientos de piquillo and Spanish extra virgin olive oil.


Turbot, known as rodaballo in Spain, may reach the apogee of its greatness–as perhaps the world’s finest fish–in several restaurants in Getaria (west of San Sebastián), a remarkable fishing village that is the hometown of Juan Sebastián Elkano, the first man to circumnavigate the globe; the designer Balenciaga; and opera singer Plácido Domingo’s mother. The most notable of these restaurants, owned by members of the same family, are Kaia and Elkano. At BCNVanguardia ‘06, the chef-owners of Elkano, Pedro and Aitor Arregui, demonstrated how to grill a whole turbot over wood charcoal, simple, but with magical results. French chef Gérard Allemandou of Restaurante la Cagouille in Paris fileted his turbot and prepared a more French haute cuisine version.


Pedro and Aitor Arregui

Aitor Aregui of Elkano fileting a grilled turbot.


In the Moluscos y Crustáceos segment, two top chefs, Quique Dacosta of El Poblet in Dènia (Alicante) and Josè Andrès of Jaleo in Washington, D.C. prepared several dishes each. Dacosta did a cherry gazpacho with shrimp and an elaborate avant-garde, Frank Gehry’s Guggeneheim Bilbao Museum-inspired dish called Guggenheim 2006 (oysters with platinum and silver, served at room temperature), a dish that actually included fine silver flakes. Josè Andrès brought over on the plane from United States a selection of American molluscs and shellfish, including softshell crabs and demonstrated a modernized version of New England Clam Chowder that featured clam foam and clam gelatin.



José Andrés

The third day featured some of the greatest chefs in Spain, sometimes alternating with French chefs, intrepreting Las Viandas (meat, game and bird dishes [with truffles]. Carles Gaig of Gaig, one of the star restaurants of Barcelona, paired with the great Manchegan chef, Manuel de la Osa (whom this correspondent had the pleasure the next day of introducing to breakfast at Quim de la Boquería in the fabulous Boquería market). Gaig and de la Osa presented dishes made from veal and from suckling goat. Michelin two-star chef Joan Roca of Can Roca in Girona paired with Cánido López of Segovia’s Mesón Cándido. Each did distinct versions of suckling pig, Roca with a terrine that included garlic and membrillo, López with Cándido’s famous traditional signature dish, cochinillo asada, roast suckling pig so tender that he cuts it with the edge of a plate.

Don Juli Soler, Founder-Partner, El Bullì

Three-star chef Martín Berasategui, whose eponymously named restaurant in Lasarte outside San Sebastián is one of the world’s greatest, did a terrine of veal tongue with foie gras and truffles, while his counterpart, Jean Louis Nomicos of Restaurant Lasserre in Paris, made suckling veal sweetbreads and prawns with grated orange and lemon.



Three-star chef Martín Berasategui
Jean Louis Nomicos of Restaurant Lasserre in Paris

Two-star chef Hilario Arbelaitz of Zuberoa (near San Sebastián) paired with Marco Antonio García of Restaurante Mannix in Campospero (Castilla y León), each doing a lamb dish. Arbelaitz made a confit of lamb with cumin and García demonstrating the classic roast suckling lamb of Castilla y León with crispy skin and succulent, juicy, tender meat. Finishing out this spectacular day were Fermí Puig, Executive Chef of Restaurante Drolma in Barcelona’s Hotel Majestic, and Gérard Besson of Restaurante Gérard Besson in Paris doing creative dishes featuring game birds and truffles.


I have been to few gastronomic conferences more rewarding than BCNVanguardia ‘06, which was especially attractive to me because it featured traditional preparations that highlighted the great food products of Spain, as well as the more trendy avant-guardia and alta cocina dishes. This international, but Mediterranean-focused, gastronomic conference was so good, in fact, that one hopes that BCNVanguardia will become an annual event. I am ready to go back!!