Asisa Madrid Fusión 2017 in Photographs / Images From The 15th Anniversary Edition of One of the World's Greatest Gastronomic Conferences Day One, January 23, 2017

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 Star chef Juan Mari Arzak (Arzak), Esmeralda Capel (Directora Asisa Madrid Fusión) and Albert Adrià (Tickets, Enigma, Bodega 1900 and more) on stage during the 15th Anniversary Madrid Fusión celebration, Asisa Madrid Fusión 2017. Photo by Gerry Dawes©2017.  #amf17 #arzak #albertadria

 (L to R, faces visible) Star chefs Angel de León (Aponiente), Juan Mari Arzak (Arzak), Pedro Larumbe (Restaurante El 38 de Larumbe), María José San Román Pérez (Monastrell), Joan Roca (Celler de Can Roca), Quique Dacosta (Quique Dacosta), Andoni Aduriz (Mugaritz), Martín Berasategui (Martín Berasategui) and Esmeralda Capel (Directora Asisa Madrid Fusión) on stage during the 15th Anniversary Madrid Fusión celebration, Asisa Madrid Fusión 2017. Photo by Gerry Dawes©2017. #QuiqueDacosta #amf17

 Star chefs Pedro Larumbe (Restaurante El 38 de Larumbe), Ángel León (Aponiente), María José San Román (Monastrell) and Joan Roca (Celler de Can Roca) on stage waiting to be interviewed during the 15th Anniversary Madrid Fusión celebration, Asisa Madrid Fusión 2017.  Photo by Gerry Dawes©2017.

 Star Chef Joan Roca (three-star El Celler de Can Roca) on stage by the Madrid Fusión 15th Anniversary celebration cake made by star pastry chef Paco Torreblanca, at Asisa Madrid Fusión 2017.  Photo by Gerry Dawes©2017 #amf17

 (L to R, faces visible) Star chefs Angel de León (Aponiente), Juan Mari Arzak (Arzak), Pedro Larumbe (Restaurante El 38 de Larumbe), María José San Román Pérez (Monastrell), Joan Roca (Celler de Can Roca), Quique Dacosta (Quique Dacosta), Andoni Aduriz (Mugaritz), Martín Berasategui (Martín Berasategui) and Esmeralda Capel (Directora Asisa Madrid Fusión) on stage during the 15th Anniversary Madrid Fusión celebration, Asisa Madrid Fusión 2017. Photo by Gerry Dawes©2017. #QuiqueDacosta #amf17
 

 Star chefs Andoni Aduriz (Mugaritz) and Andoni Aduriz (Mugaritz), Martín Berasategui (Martín Berasategui) and Esmeralda Capel (Directora Asisa Madrid Fusión) on stage during the 15th Anniversary Madrid Fusión celebration, Asisa Madrid Fusión 2017. Photo by Gerry Dawes©2017. #Mugaritz #martinberasategui #amf17

 

Star chefs Martín Berasategui (Martín Berasategui) and Albert Adrià (Tickets, Enigma, Bodega 1900 and more)  on stage during the 15th Anniversary Madrid Fusión celebration, Asisa Madrid Fusión 2017. Photo by Gerry Dawes©2017.  #amf17 #martinberasategui #albertadria

 

 My dear friend Marco Sabatini, truffles expert, on screen in a video commemorating the 15th Anniversary of Madrid Fusión at Asisa Madrid Fusión 2017, Palacio de Congresos, Madrid, Jan. 23, 2017.  Photo by Gerry Dawes©2017 #amf17

 Legendary elBulli Chef-owner Ferran Adrià (who was noticably absent in person) in a video commemorating the 15th Anniversary of Madrid Fusión at Asisa Madrid Fusión 2017, Palacio de Congresos, Madrid, Jan. 23, 2017.  Photo by Gerry Dawes©2017 #amf17

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About Gerry Dawes

 Gerry Dawes was awarded Spain's prestigious Premio Nacional de Gastronomía (National Gastronomy Award) in 2003. He writes and speaks frequently on Spanish wine and gastronomy and leads gastronomy, wine and cultural tours to Spain. He was a finalist for the 2001 James Beard Foundation's Journalism Award for Best Magazine Writing on Wine, won The Cava Institute's First Prize for Journalism for his article on cava in 2004, was awarded the CineGourLand “Cinéfilos y Gourmets” (Cinephiles & Gourmets) prize in 2009 in Getxo (Vizcaya) and received the 2009 Association of Food Journalists Second Prize for Best Food Feature in a Magazine for his Food Arts article, a retrospective piece about Catalan star chef, Ferran Adrià. 

Dawes was awarded the Food Arts Silver Spoon Award in a profile written by José Andrés. 

". . .That we were the first to introduce American readers to Ferran Adrià in 1997 and have ever since continued to bring you a blow-by-blow narrative of Spain's riveting ferment is chiefly due to our Spanish correspondent, Gerry "Mr. Spain" Dawes, the messianic wine and food journalist raised in Southern Illinois and possessor of a self-accumulated doctorate in the Spanish table. Gerry once again brings us up to the very minute. . ." - - Michael &riane Batterberry, Editor-in-Chief/Publisher and Founding Editor/Publisher, Food Arts, October 2009. 
 

Pilot for a reality television series on wine, gastronomy, culture and travel in Spain.
 

Experience Spain With Gerry Dawes: Customized Culinary, Wine & Cultural Trips to Spain & Travel Consulting on Spain  

Gerry Dawes can be reached at  gerrydawes@gmail.com; Alternate e-mail (use only if your e-mail to AOL is rejected): gerrydawes@spanishartisanwine.com

Madrid Fusión 2014, Day One Jan. 27 in Photos

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 Three-star chef Joan Roca of Can Roca (Girona, Catalunya), named by UK's Restaurant Magazine panel as The Best Restaurant in the World, on the first day of Madrid Fusión 2014 doing his presentation, Creatividad Urbana: Inspiración Externa, Motivación Interna. 
 Photo by Gerry Dawes©2014 / gerrydawes@aol.com / Facebook / Twitter / Pinterest. Canon 5D Mark III / Canon 70-200mm f/4L USM with Canon 1.4 Telextender. 

 
Madrid Fusión 2014. Photo by Gerry Dawes©2013 / gerrydawes@aol.com / Facebook / Twitter / Pinterest. Canon 5D Mark III / Canon 24-105mm f/4L IS USM
.

 
Juan Mari Arzak, María José San Román and Quique Dacosta at Madrid Fusión 2014. 
Photo by Gerry Dawes©2013 / gerrydawes@aol.com / Facebook / Twitter / Pinterest. Panasonic Lumix DMC ZS30 43-86mm f3.3 – f6.4. 

Chefs Sergi Arola and Jordi Cruz at Madrid Fusion 2014. Photo by Gerry Dawes©2014 / gerrydawes@aol.com / Facebook / Twitter / Pinterest. Canon 5D Mark III / Canon 70-200mm f/4L USM with Canon 1.4 Telextender. 

 Pitu Perramón, Owner of La Taberna de Gourmet and other restaurants in Alicante, Jordi Cruz (ABaC, Barcelona) and his assistant chef, David, and food writer / Catalan culinary personality Xavi Agullò with champion cortador de jamón Clemente Gómez at Los Pedroches jamón Ibérico stand, on a jamón stand hopping tour that I organized at Madrid Fusión 2014. Photo by Gerry Dawes©2014 / gerrydawes@aol.com / Facebook / Twitter / Pinterest. Canon 5D Mark III / Tokina 17-35mm f/4. 

 Three-star chef Martín Berasategui and two-star chef Paco Pérez (Hotel Mirror, Barcelona and Miramar, Costa Brava) at Madrid Fusión 2014. 
 Photo by Gerry Dawes©2014 / gerrydawes@aol.com / Facebook / Twitter / Pinterest. Canon 5D Mark III / Tokina 17-35mm f/4. 

José Andrés and three-star chef Juan Mari Arzak (Arzak, San Sebastián) at Madrid Fusión 2014. Photo by Gerry Dawes©2014 / gerrydawes@aol.com / Facebook / Twitter / Pinterest. Canon 5D Mark III / Tokina 17-35mm f/4. 

 
Slide Show of Madrid Fusión 2014, Day One Jan. 27

 ___________________________________________________________________________________________________

About Gerry Dawes

Writing, Photography, & Specialized Tours of Spain & Tour Advice

For custom-designed tours of Spain, organized and lead by Gerry Dawes, and custom-planned Spanish wine, food, cultural and photographic itineraries, send inquiries to gerrydawes@aol.com.  

I have planned and led tours for such culinary stars as Chefs Thomas Keller, Mark Miller, Mark Kiffin, Michael Lomonaco and Michael Chiarello and such personalities as baseball great Keith Hernandez and led on shorter excursions and have given detailed travel advice to many other well-known chefs and personalities such as Drew Nieporent, Norman Van Aken, Karen Page and Andrew Dornenberg, Christopher Gross, Rick Moonen, James Campbell Caruso and many others.

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“The American writer and town crier for all good Spanish things Gerry Dawes . . . the American connoisseur of all things Spanish . . .” Michael Paterniti, The Telling Room: A Tale of Love, Betrayal, Revenge and The World’s Greatest Piece of Cheese

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"Gerry Dawes, I can't thank you enough for opening up Spain to me." -- Michael Chiarello on Twitter. 

"Chiarello embarked on a crash course by traveling to Spain for 10 days in 2011 with Food Arts

contributing authority Gerry Dawes, a noted expert on Spanish food and wine.  Coqueta's (Chiarello's new restaurant at Pier Five, San Francisco) chef de cuisine, Ryan McIlwraith, later joined Dawes for his own two week excursion, as well. Sampling both old and new, they visited wineries and marketplaces, as well as some of Spain's most revered dining establishments, including the Michelin three-star Arzak, Etxebarri, the temple to live fire-grilling; Tickets, the playful Barcelona tapas bar run by Ferran Adrià and his brother, Albert; and ABaC, where Catalan cooking goes avant-garde." - - Carolyn Jung, Food Arts, May 2013.

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"In his nearly thirty years of wandering the back roads of Spain," Gerry Dawes has built up a much stronger bank of experiences than I had to rely on when I started writing Iberia...His adventures far exceeded mine in both width and depth..." -- James A. Michener, author of Iberia: Spanish Travels and Reflections

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Gerry Dawes was awarded Spain's prestigious Premio Nacional de Gastronomía (National Gastronomy Award) in 2003. He writes and speaks frequently on Spanish wine and gastronomy and leads gastronomy, wine and cultural tours to Spain. He was a finalist for the 2001 James Beard Foundation's Journalism Award for Best Magazine Writing on Wine, won The Cava Institute's First Prize for Journalism for his article on cava in 2004, was awarded the CineGourLand “Cinéfilos y Gourmets” (Cinephiles & Gourmets) prize in 2009 in Getxo (Vizcaya) and received the 2009 Association of Food Journalists Second Prize for Best Food Feature in a Magazine for his Food Arts article, a retrospective piece about Catalan star chef, Ferran Adrià.



In December, 2009, Dawes was awarded the Food Arts Silver Spoon Award in a profile written by José Andrés.



". . .That we were the first to introduce American readers to Ferran Adrià in 1997 and have ever since continued to bring you a blow-by-blow narrative of Spain's riveting ferment is chiefly due to our Spanish correspondent, Gerry "Mr. Spain" Dawes, the messianic wine and food journalist raised in Southern Illinois and possessor of a self-accumulated doctorate in the Spanish table. Gerry once again brings us up to the very minute. . ." - - Michael & Ariane Batterberry, Editor-in-Chief/Publisher and Founding Editor/Publisher, Food Arts, October 2009. 

Pilot for a reality television series with Gerry Dawes  
on wine, gastronomy, culture and travel in Spain.

Experience Spain With Gerry Dawes: Customized Culinary, Wine & Cultural Trips to Spain & Travel Consulting on Spain

Gerry Dawes can be reached at gerrydawes@aol.com

Madrid Fusión 2013: Super Star Chefs Dani García of Calima in Marbella and Manzanilla NYC with his mentor Martín Berasategui

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Dani García of Calima in Marbella and Manzanilla NYC 
with his mentor Martín Berasategui at Madrid Fusión 2013.
 Photo by Gerry Dawes copyright 2013 / gerrydawes@aol.com / Facebook / Twitter.

The Best of the Great Basque Three-Star Chef Martín Berasategui's Cuisine, at Bar Basque, Monday, Oct. 17, 2011.

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Martín Berasategui at the Basque Country promotional luncheon, 

The Best of Martín Berasategui's Cuisine, at Bar Basque, Monday, Oct. 17, 2011.  

Photo by Gerry Dawes©2011 /  gerrydawes@aol.com.

From pintxos-tapas using Basque products to a six-course retrospective, The Basque Country sponsored Best of Martín Berasategui's Cuisine at the Bar Basque was a tour-de-force, executed beautifully by Chef Berasategui and his pick-up crew in the kitchen.  The pintxos were delicious and the luncheon featured dishes from 2011 back to 1995 (the brilliant Bersategui signature dish of puff pastry layered with foie gras, smoked eel, spring onions and green apple), was as good as an out-of-house sit-down luncheon gets.  The dishes were paired to Basque Country wines such as Txomín Etxaniz Txacolí 2010 and Marqués de Riscal Reserva (Rioja Alavesa) from the great 2001 vintage. 

Slide show on The Best of Martín Berasategui's Cuisine luncheon at the Bar Basque.
(Double click on images to enlarge.)

In attendance were several dignitaries from the Basque Country, including Basque lehendakari (prime minister/president), Patxi López; Joxe Mari Aizega, Director of the Basque Culinary Center (BCC) in San Sebastián (a new exchange agreement between BCC and The Culinary Institute of America was signed Monday evening); and three-star chef Juan Mari Arzak, the godfather of modern Basque and Spanish cuisine.  Other distinguished culinarians and dignataries spotted were author and television personality Anthony Bourdain, International Wine Cellar wine critic Josh Raynolds, Instituto Cervantes President Javier Rioyo, Culinary Event Stager Mike Cimino, Food Arts Managing Editor Beverly Stephen, former elBulli stagiere Najat Kanaache (who assisted Chef Berasategui) and Wunderkind aspirant chef Greg Grossman.

Mike Cirino, events specialist, and Greg Grossman, aspirant chef 
at the Basque promotional luncheon at Bar Basque in Manhattan on Oct. 17, 2011.
Photo by Gerry Dawes©2011 / gerrydawes@aol.com.

There was also a show of Basque food products and wines featuring such products as Idiazabal cheese, squid ink and squid ink sauce from Nortindal Seafood Products, bacalao from La Bacalandera, Alkorta and Giraldo, surimi and faux angulas from Angulas Arguinaga, Agiña Piperrak's Ibarra guindillas (long thin piquant chartreuse peppers that are an indispensable condiment for Basque bean dishes),  Zallo tuna, Hijos de José Serrats tuna, Corpa anchovies and turron from Gorrotxategi.  

 

Slide show on Basque products (Double click to enlarge.)

Gerry y Sus Amigos (A one- minute trailer in Spanish filmed in 

The Basque Country for a proposed television series in Spain).

__________________________________________________________________________________  

About Gerry Dawes   

Gerry Dawes was awarded Spain's prestigious Premio Nacional de Gastronomía (National Gastronomy Award) in 2003. He writes and speaks frequently on Spanish wine and gastronomy and leads gastronomy, wine and cultural tours to Spain. He was a finalist for the 2001 James Beard Foundation's Journalism Award for Best Magazine Writing on Wine, won The Cava Institute's First Prize for Journalism for his article on cava in 2004, was awarded the CineGourLand “Cinéfilos y Gourmets” (Cinephiles & Gourmets) prize in 2009 in Getxo (Vizcaya) and received the 2009 Association of Food Journalists Second Prize for Best Food Feature in a Magazine for his Food Arts article, a retrospective piece about Catalan star chef, Ferran Adrià. 

In December, 2009, Dawes was awarded the Food Arts Silver Spoon Award in a profile written by José Andrés. 

 

Trailer for a proposed reality television series  
on wine, gastronomy, culture and travel in Spain.

Experience Spain With Gerry Dawes: Customized Culinary, Wine & Cultural Trips to Spain & Travel Consulting on Spain  

Gerry Dawes can be reached at gerrydawes@aol.com; Alternate e-mail (use only if your e-mail to AOL is rejected): gerrydawes@gmail.com

The Basque Culinary Center (San Sebastián, The Basque Country, Spain) Signs An Exchange Agreement with The Culinary Institute of America

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Basque Chef Andoni Luis Aduriz speaking in the Danny Kaye Theatre at The Culinary Institute of America in Hyde Park, New York during one of the first lectures that are part of the agreement between the Basque Culinary Center in San Sebastián and the CIA-Hyde Park. 
Photo by Gerry Dawes copyright 2011 / gerrydawes@aol.com.

The Basque Culinary Center will reveal the secrets of the Basque cuisine in the United States. As a partner, it will count on the world’s most important gastronomic university center, The Culinary Institute of America. 

Both institutions signed a cooperation agreement last Monday in New York, aiming to promote the education and the cultural and teacher exchange between both students and professors, as well as to deepen their sharing research on Basque and Spanish gastronomy, wine and culinary heritage.  Both agreed to promote values and benefits of the Mediterranean diet in the United States.


Joxe Mari Aizega, director of the Basque Culinary Center, and L. Tim Ryan, president of the Culinary Institute of America (CIA), closed a deal in the presence of Basque lehendakari (prime minister/president), Patxi López.

Chef Andoni Aduriz of Mugaritz (2cd from right) and his crew with 

Joxe Mari Aizega, Director of the Basque Culinary Center (far right), 

at the Conrad Hilton Library at The Culinary Institute of America at Hyde Park, NY.

Photo by Gerry Dawes copyright 2011 / gerrydawes@aol.com.

Basque chefs Juan Mari Arzak, Martin Berasategui and Andoni Luis Aduriz, members of the Board of the Basque Culinary Center, were also present at the ceremony. Later, Basque chef Andoni Luis Aduriz offered a master class to the students at the CIA.

Basque Chef Andoni Luis Aduriz at the Danny Kaye Theatre at The Culinary Institute of America in Hyde Park, New York during one of the first lectures that are part of the agreement between the Basque Culinary Center in San Sebastián and the CIA-Hyde Park. 
Photo by Gerry Dawes copyright 2011 / gerrydawes@aol.com.

The Culinary Institute of America is a world renowned gastronomic learning center. Its main campus is located in Hyde Park (New York), but it has also centers in St. Helena (California), San Antonio (Texas) and Singapore. It has about 3,000 students and 43,000 former students.

___________________________________________________________________________

About Gerry Dawes

Gerry Dawes was awarded Spain's prestigious Premio Nacional de Gastronomía (National Gastronomy Award) in 2003. He writes and speaks frequently on Spanish wine and gastronomy and leads gastronomy, wine and cultural tours to Spain. He was a finalist for the 2001 James Beard Foundation's Journalism Award for Best Magazine Writing on Wine, won The Cava Institute's First Prize for Journalism for his article on cava in 2004, was awarded the CineGourLand “Cinéfilos y Gourmets” (Cinephiles & Gourmets) prize in 2009 in Getxo (Vizcaya) and received the 2009 Association of Food Journalists Second Prize for Best Food Feature in a Magazine for his Food Arts article, a retrospective piece about Catalan star chef, Ferran Adrià. 

In December, 2009, Dawes was awarded the Food Arts Silver Spoon Award in a profile written by José Andrés. 

". . .That we were the first to introduce American readers to Ferran Adrià in 1997 and have ever since continued to bring you a blow-by-blow narrative of Spain's riveting ferment is chiefly due to our Spanish correspondent, Gerry "Mr. Spain" Dawes, the messianic wine and food journalist raised in Southern Illinois and possessor of a self-accumulated doctorate in the Spanish table. Gerry once again brings us up to the very minute. . ." - - Michael & Ariane Batterberry, Editor-in-Chief/Publisher and Founding Editor/Publisher, Food Arts, October 2009.
 

Trailer for a reality television series on wine, gastronomy, culture and travel in Spain.
 

Experience Spain With Gerry Dawes: Customized Culinary, Wine & Cultural Trips to Spain & Travel Consulting on Spain  

Gerry Dawes can be reached at gerrydawes@aol.com; Alternate e-mail (use only if your e-mail to AOL is rejected): gerrydawes@gmail.com

MADRID FUSIÓN 2011 January 25, 26 & 27, 2011 Headliners: Ferran Adrià, Juan Mari Arzak, Joan Roca, rising Catalan star Jordi Cruz, Mexican chefs Bricio Domínguez and Martha Ortiz, Peruvian star Gastón Acurio, Chefs from Singapore and Flanders, Along with Carlo Cracco and Slow Food's Carlo Petrini from Italy.

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 Ferran Adrià in a pensive moment at Madrid Fusión 2009. 

Photograph by Gerry Dawes©2009

 

The 9th annual Madrid Fusión International Gastronomy Summit will take place in Madrid on January 25, 26 & 27.  Headlining the conference, as he has every year since its inception in 2003, will be Ferran Adrià, who will give his annual estado de Ferranismo (state of Ferranismo) address on opening day, this one entitled El Nuevo Bulli.

Chicago's Grant Achatz at Madrid Fusión 2009. 

Photograph by Gerry Dawes©2009.

This time Ferran will  elaborate further on the permanent closing of elBulli, "the world's best restaurant," on July 31, something he has done frequently for the past year since announcing the restaurant's closing at Madrid Fusión 2010 in a bombastic press conference that produced an explosion of articles about Ferran that could be described as the espuma (foam) that frothed around the gastronomic world--in record time.  Presumably, Ferran will enlighten this year's audience about his more definitive plans for the elBulli foundation (read Ferranismo think tank), when it opens in 2014 on the site of elBulli restaurant on Cala Montjoi, the legendary hard-to-get-to cove near Roses (Girona).   And certainly, we should hear more about the January opening in Barcelona Tickets, the flagship of undoubtedly will be become a string of tapas-and-cocktail bars that Ferran and his brother, Albert, have in the works.

Other highlights planned for Madrid Fusión 2010 include appearances by star Spanish Basque chefs Juan Mari Arzak, Elena Arzak, Martín Berasategui, Pedro Subijana, Andoni Aduriz and Eneko Atxa; Catalan stars Joan Roca and his brother Jordi, Carme Ruscalleda, Ramón Freixa and Jordi Cruz, a superb young chef who recently moved from the wonderful off-the-beaten-path provincial restaurant L'Angle (located next to Fundación Alicia near Manresa) to take over at Barcelona's tony Restaurante Abac.   Stars from other parts of Spain such as Quique DaCosta (Alicante), Mari Carmen Vélez (Alicante), Dani García (Andalucía) and Angel León (Andalucía).  Madrid chefs will include Paco Roncero (La Terraza),  Sergi Arola (Arola Gastro) and Ricardo Sanz (Kabuki  Wellington).   

The region of Galicia will be represented by transplanted Italian  chef Flavio Morganti (Galileo, Ourense) and Beatriz Sotelo (La Estación, A Coruña) plus Iago Pazos y Marcos Cerqueiro, two young rising stars who run an exceptional  tapas restaurant, Abastos 2.0, in the Santiago de Compostela market.  On the sweet side, super stars include the great pasteleros-chocolateros Christían Escribà, Oriol Balaguer, Jordi Butrón, Paco Torreblanca and Jacob Torreblanca.

Mexico and South America chefs invited include Mexico's Bricio Domínguez and Martha Ortiz, with Peruvian star Gastón Acurio.  Italy will be represented by the great Carlo Cracco and Carlo Petrini of Slow Food.

Each year, Madrid Fusión has a sub-theme representing the cuisines of a single country--Mexico, Perú, Japan.  This year Singapore will be represented with chefs Matthew Bax (Trippling Club), former Restaurant Daniel (New York) and elBulli stagier Kevin Cherkas (Blu) and French-trained (Ducasse and Gagnaire) rising star Andre Chiang (Restaurant Andre) and Flanders will feature presentations from chefs Bernard Lahousse (Sense for Taste, Bruges, Belgium), Dave De Belder (De Godevaart, Antwerp) and Gert de Mangeleer (Restaurant Hertong Jan, Bruges).  

The first version of Madrid Fusión in 2003 was a huge success and launched a plethora of international food conferences and spawned numerous imitators in Spain itself.  Each year it seems something of note that resounds throughout the culinary world occurs here.  

Nobu & Ferran, Madrid Fusión 2004. 

Photograph by Gerry Dawes©2004. Contact gerrydawes@aol.com.

Among the most memorable were the appearance of France's nouvelle cuisine super stars  and Nobu Matsuhisa in 2004, the appearance of Thomas Keller and awards to several great American culinary stars in 2006 (see photo below), Santi Santamaría's spectacularly scandalous declarations deriding Spanish cocina de vangaurdia practitioners in 2007--"The only truth that counts is the product   comes from the earth, passes from our stoves to the diner's mouth, and is then defecated."--and Ferran Adria's bomba announcement last year that he was closing elBulli.

The late Michael Batterberry, publisher-editor of Food Arts magazine, speaking at Madrid Fusión 2006
with a stage full of American and Spanish culinary stars as Mayor of Madrid Alberto Ruiz-Gallardón and Ferran Adrià applaud, with Juan Mari Arzak between them.  Photograph by Gerry Dawes©2010. Contact gerrydawes@aol.com.

San Sebastián Gastronomika 2010 - Day Three November 24 .

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Experience Spain With Gerry Dawes: Customized Culinary, Wine & Cultural Trips to Spain & Travel Consulting on Spain

Gerry Dawes can be reached at gerrydawes@aol.com; Alternate e-mail (use only if your e-mail to AOL is rejected): gerrydawes@gmail.com

Spain’s Innovative Vangaurdia Cuisine vs. Traditional Down-Home Cooking, my article on the CIA-Worlds of Flavor website.

* * * * *

Text & Photographs by Gerry Dawes ©2008

In 2003, The Sunday New York Times Magazine cover asked, “Is Spain the New France?” and carried Arthur Lubow’s “A Laboratory of Taste” article about elBulli’s Ferran Adrià, Spain’s ultra-modern cocina de vanguardia maestro. Adrià’s espuma de zanahorias (the Times cover shot of, a glowing red-orange carrot foam served in a crystal vessel); mango raviolis made to look like egg yolks: melon, pear and peach “caviars,” spherified “olives”; and nitrogen-frozen cocktails suddenly grabbed culinary headlines around the globe. Adrià and Spanish modern cuisine were propelled in the gastronomic stratosphere. 

Carrot "air" at El Bulli, October 2003. 

Photo by Gerry Dawes©2003. Contact gerrydawes@aol.com for publication rights.

Accompanying Adrià’s rocket ride into another culinary dimension were plenty of skeptics and detractors who did not understand what was going on in Spain, claiming that the Spaniards were selling “flavored air” and that Adrià himself was destroying Spain’s “national cuisine.” But, since Spain’s culinary ascendancy, because of the fame of Ferran Adrià and a sizeable clan of like-minded fellow Spanish chefs, a whole new genre of modern food emerged–including modernized traditional cuisine – attracting a steady stream of international chefs, food writers and food aficionados to Spain, and in its wake an awareness that Spanish traditional cuisine was some of the best food on the planet. 

 Ferran Adrià at El Bulli 2008.  

Photo by Gerry Dawes©2008. Contact gerrydawes@aol.com for publication rights.

Since few gastronomic travelers coming to find out what all the fuss was about could actually get into elBulli–which has 2,000,000 annual requests for 8,000 potential reservations–the rest fanned out around the country, experiencing modern Spanish cuisine at Arzak, Akelarre and Martín Berasategui in the Basque Country, at Sergi Arola’s La Broche in Madrid, at Joan Roca’s Can Roca in Girona and at Carme Ruscalleda’s San Pau north of Barcelona. Many ventured on to experience what Raul Aleixandre at Ca Sento (Valencia), Quique Dacosta at El Poblet (Denia, Alicante) and María José San Roman at Monastrell (Alicante) were doing. Professionals also came to conferences such as Madrid Fusión (maybe the world’s top annual culinary summit), the chef-driven Lo Mejor de la Gastrónomía in San Sebastián and Roser Torras’s superb bi-annual BCN Vanguardia in Barcelona. And many young chefs began to choose Spain over France as their first choice to do their stages. In their travels these culinary pilgrims also began eating in Spanish traditional cuisine restaurants. They soon discovered that, while Spanish modern cuisine can be creative beyond belief and is often delicious as well as innovative, it is often the great traditional eating experiences that leave the most indelible imprint in the minds of most travelers. 

Guisantes (peas)--real or spherification, or both?--elBulli, 2008. 
Photo by Gerry Dawes©2010. Contact gerrydawes@aol.com for publication rights.

Read the rest of the article here.

____________________________________________________________________________

About Gerry Dawes

Gerry Dawes's Spain: An Insider's Guide to Spanish Food, Wine, Culture and Travel


Gerry Dawes was awarded Spain's prestigious Premio Nacional de Gastronomía (National Gastronomy Award) in 2003. He writes and speaks frequently on Spanish wine and gastronomy and leads gastronomy, wine and cultural tours to Spain. He was a finalist for the 2001 James Beard Foundation's Journalism Award for Best Magazine Writing on Wine, won The Cava Institute's First Prize for Journalism for his article on cava in 2004, was awarded the CineGourLand “Cinéfilos y Gourmets” (Cinephiles & Gourmets) prize in 2009 in Getxo (Vizcaya) and received the 2009 Association of Food Journalists Second Prize for Best Food Feature in a Magazine for his Food Arts article, a retrospective piece about Catalan star chef, Ferran Adrià.

In December, 2009, Dawes was awarded the Food Arts Silver Spoon Award in a profile written by José Andrés.

". . .That we were the first to introduce American readers to Ferran Adrià in 1997 and have ever since continued to bring you a blow-by-blow narrative of Spain's riveting ferment is chiefly due to our Spanish correspondent, Gerry "Mr. Spain" Dawes, the messianic wine and food journalist raised in Southern Illinois and possessor of a self-accumulated doctorate in the Spanish table. Gerry once again brings us up to the very minute. . ." - - Michael & Ariane Batterberry, Editor-in-Chief/Publisher and Founding Editor/Publisher, Food Arts, October 2009. 

Mr. Dawes is currently working on a reality television series
on wine, gastronomy, culture and travel in Spain.

Experience Spain With Gerry Dawes: Customized Culinary, Wine & Cultural Trips to Spain & Travel Consulting on Spain

Gerry Dawes can be reached at gerrydawes@aol.com; Alternate e-mail (use only if your e-mail to AOL is rejected): gerrydawes@gmail.com

To Hell with Michelin! I Have the GeralDalí 'Persistence of Memory' Watch Awards and I am Bestowing Five Watches, My Top Rating, on Restaurante Quique Dacosta (formerly El Poblet), Chef Quique DaCosta and Quique Dacosta's Staff

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Gerry Dawes's Geraldo-Dalí Persistence of Memory* (Salvador Dalí)  Melting Watch Awards.

(The opinions in this post are entirely those of Gerry Dawes.  Quique Dacosta was not consulted.)

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Quique Dacosta. Photo by Gerry Dawes©2008.
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Video of Quique Dacosta's Restaurant in Denia (Alicante).

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Quique Dacosta is probably the brightest culinary star of his generation and this year, he and his stunning restaurant and stunning state-of-cocina de vangaurdia food were yet again royally screwed by the Michelin Guide (2010), who failed to give Quique (and others) a deserved third star. 

Let's get it straight, at one point restaurants in France had received around 1,700 Michelin rosettes while Spain, in the same year, had less than 200.  The ratio is roughly the same this year.  Let's be gracious and call it eight to one in favor of France over Spain.

Taking into consideration that Spanish restaurants and Spanish cuisine--vanguardia, modernized traditional and traditional--have been recognized by far more credible judges than the Michelin Guide as among the best restaurants in the world and that France is in mortal competition with Spain for gastro-tourism Euros, why is anyone giving any credence to Michelin's shameful French-centric judgement any more?

In addition to the long-vaunted modern cuisine restaurants like Ferran Adrià's El Bulli, Arzak, Can Fabes, Martín Berasategui, San Pau, Can Roca and many others, Spain has a slew of traditional cuisine restaurants that merit one and two rosettes (usually called "stars") from Michelin, some of them three.  If Elkano and Kaia in Getaria in the Basque Country alone (Not to mention a slew of other Basque restaurants) don't merit two stars for stellar food, stellar service, ambience, wine cellar, etc., who does?  I go on on listing restaurants all over Spain worthy of Michelin's lofty ratings, but it is futile, since even the vociferous protests of Madrid's culinary press corps who have voiced their displeasure to the faces of Michelin representatives who invited them to press luncheons in Madrid to present each year's new Red Guide, apparently have had little effect. 

If I were the Spaniards--and I often feel like I am--I would get Michelin's attention quick. 

"Señores (Monsieurs y Madames), is it not true that the Michelin Guides originated as a way to help your company sell more tires?" 

"In that case, would you prefer to sell rubber or paper?  Because we intend to organize a boycott against your pneumaticos if you don't manage to award Spain at least, at the very least, 1,000 more rosettes by the next time your guidebook to Spain and Portugal is published." 

Yes, we know there are Michelin tire factories in Spain.  Do you know how many people restaurants in Spain employ, how many farmers supply food to Spanish restaurants, how many wineries and winery employees provide them with wine?

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About Gerry Dawes

Gerry Dawes's Spain: An Insider's Guide to Spanish Food, Wine, Culture and Travel


Gerry Dawes was awarded Spain's prestigious Premio Nacional de Gastronomía (National Gastronomy Award) in 2003. He writes and speaks frequently on Spanish wine and gastronomy and leads gastronomy, wine and cultural tours to Spain. He was a finalist for the 2001 James Beard Foundation's Journalism Award for Best Magazine Writing on Wine, won The Cava Institute's First Prize for Journalism for his article on cava in 2004, was awarded the CineGourLand “Cinéfilos y Gourmets” (Cinephiles & Gourmets) prize in 2009 in Getxo (Vizcaya) and received the 2009 Association of Food Journalists Second Prize for Best Food Feature in a Magazine for his Food Arts article, a retrospective piece about Catalan star chef, Ferran Adrià.

In December, 2009, Dawes was awarded the Food Arts Silver Spoon Award in a profile written by José Andrés.

". . .That we were the first to introduce American readers to Ferran Adrià in 1997 and have ever since continued to bring you a blow-by-blow narrative of Spain's riveting ferment is chiefly due to our Spanish correspondent, Gerry "Mr. Spain" Dawes, the messianic wine and food journalist raised in Southern Illinois and possessor of a self-accumulated doctorate in the Spanish table. Gerry once again brings us up to the very minute. . ." - - Michael & Ariane Batterberry, Editor-in-Chief/Publisher and Founding Editor/Publisher, Food Arts, October 2009. 

Mr. Dawes is currently working on a reality television series 

on wine, gastronomy, culture and travel in Spain.

Experience Spain With Gerry Dawes: Customized Culinary, Wine & Cultural Trips to Spain; Travel Consulting on Spain

Gerry Dawes can be reached at gerrydawes@aol.com; Alternate e-mail (use only if your e-mail to AOL is rejected): gerrydawes@gmail.com