A four-hand effort, with four stars, this year's congress closed on a high note, with a fine improvised showcook by Ricard Camarena (Ricard Camarena** Valencia) and Alex Atala (DOM** São Paulo). An exercise in creativity with no parachute, in the words of Benjamín Lana who, alongside maestro Pedro Subijana, gave his approval to the original medley menu. A pot-pourri with the same base, where they composed their tunes like musicians, with an uninterrupted tasting session, "seeking the extremes of possibility", as the Valencia chef remarked.

And all this because they felt it was not enough to replicate that first jam session they brought the house down with on Camarena's turf in March, featuring delicacies such as Amazon and "margalló" palm hearts in truffle juice, shrimp "cortado" with coffee stock, and artichoke with Amazon honey and pollen, along with some major reflections on creativity in the kitchen. 
“25 years ago I was in this same place, and I think it's only the colour of my hair that's changed, because my enthusiasm's still intact", said an emotional Alex, who considers himself "a pleasure professional, because a chef sublimes the pleasure of eating by cooking delicious food with the ingredients". For the Brazilian chef, there is a major difference between invention and creativity, because the latter is "the ability to innovate in relation to parameters already established", echoing the opinion of Ricard that "you can't improvise without registers, without baggage, without having played the instrument already. It's not divine inspiration”.

“If you think a long menu is boring, eat it all at once!”

With the challenge of "not sticking to any script, and with no expectations other than enjoying the experience of being among friends and having fun all the while", they went to Donostia's La Brecha market yesterday to stock up with the best ingredients to produce "a festive Basque Country banquet". A moment immortalised in video to convey how they feel about each other. “Alex is generous and extremely noble”, says one; “Ricard is easy-going - he feels very much at home in the kitchen", says the other. And together they amused us with their fine band, a mixture of jazz and rock, doing something that very few dare to attempt, filling the Kursaal auditorium with freshness and spontaneity.

From hot to cold, and delicate flavours to stronger varieties, they laid out a single dish, full of coherence, starting off with a ‘Vitelo Merluzzatto’, their funny name for a defatted steak with berry purée made with gravy from the meat roasted in the Hosper, and stock from the heads of turbot and hake, drenched in vinegar and tucupí sauce. They came up with a salad of turbot skin in the pil-pil sauce, also made from the meat and fish juice, in the format of a mille-feuille with lettuce leaves and fried nuts. This was followed by a risotto in salad, or risotto salad, featuring rice with fungi stalks and tomatoes, along with avocado ground with the juice of the previous salad, removed to a bag for hours, turbot "pipas", raw nuts and "piparra" peppers.

On the final straight, a turbot and squid sashimi with tucupí and pepper vinaigrette, anchovy paste, red piquillo pepper and capers, served on a plate with crunchy fish tripe, dressed with a dashi made from the turbot's bones, apple and roast chestnuts, drenched in quince vinegar and an apple-reduction molasses. And for the finale, pieces of apple and cheese with Amazon honey and frozen apple powder. “It might not be so impressive, but this kind of challenge shows me that, sometimes, we think about the recipes too much, and lose spontaneity", concluded Ricard.