Ferran Adrià and Carme Ruscalleda reinvent haute cuisine in San Sebastián, Japanese style.

23rd November, 2009

Today chefs Ferran Adrià and Carme Ruscalleda inaugurated the San Sebastian Gastronomika Haute Cuisine International Conference with a tribute to the culinary dialogue between Spain and Japan. They proved to 1,200 spectators that there is still much to discover in the world of gastronomy.

Alter the speeches by the Secretary of Tourism Enrique Ruiz de Lera, the MP for Sports and Foreign Affairs of Guipuzcoa, Iñaki Galdos and the President of the Spanish Gastronomy Academy, Rafael Ansón, the large cube filled with over a thousand of the 4,500 professionals that visited San Sebastian Gastronomika today.

They all arrived eager to learn from the man considered the best cook in the world and the woman with most Michelin stars on the planet.

This duet of Catalans, both with an intimate and close-up culinary relationship with Japan - Ferran assures his life changed after he was introduced to the Japanese culinary culture while Carme owns a restaurant In Tokyo - joined efforts today to inaugurate the 11th edition of San Sebastian Gastronomika.

The two chefs explained the influence the most oriental of cuisines has on their work to an expectant audience and presented some of the results of this trans-cultural impact among the cooking rings.

Adrià began by taking a trip back in time with a video of his first trip to Japan in 2003 and the day the chef from Mibu, Hiroyoshi Ishida, visited the Bulli. After this tribute he rolled his sleeves up: Shark fin with angel hair, artichoke looking edible roses, crunchy ultra-thin Osaka biscuits and revolutionary ravioli which due to its dough based medical wafer, dissolves as soon as it touches the mouth allowing to fully enjoy the flavours of the pasta filling.

In turn Ruscalleda presented a menu with several references to Japan, where she owns a two- star restaurant, including an octopus in pipirrana or an original ham tapa, a dish with asparagus, cod brandade and olive which the Catalan chef baptised as “Miró Bird”.

The cook reserved the highlight of the presentation for one of her rice menus, the main ingredient in Japanese cuisine, and which according to Carme, “joins east and west together”, a message representing one of the main pillars of this new San Sebastián Gastronomika edition where Japan is the guest country.

The two chefs fired the starting gun for this new era of San Sebastián Gastronomika, which with a star-ridden repertoire aims at imposing this conference format, under which all the actors of the gastronomic world converge under a single roof, as the format of the future.