The prize for the revelation chef that has been awarded at Madrid Fusión since its inception, 20 years ago, is the highest recognition that a young chef can pick up in Spain: a fairly accurate omen of a promising career. An award that this year has gone to Peter Aguilerachef at the Mesón Sabor Andaluz, in the Sierra de Cádiz, who has collected the award very excited.
Aguilera is a disciple of the Valencian Ricard Camarena, who is full of praise for his pupil, who was his head chef for four years. In the organization’s opinion, “its green, light and wild seasonal dishes excite those who enjoy them”.
For a short time, Aguilera has taken refuge in the family inn in the Sierra de Cádiz, in a restaurant whose rustic setting is unrelated to its advanced cuisine. His dishes dialogue with the local pantry, they are recreated in the vegetable universe and interpret tradition with haute cuisine criteria.
He returned after the pandemic to the restaurant, which has been operating for 27 years, and that they have consolidated as “a super vegetable cuisine” in which the menu cooked by his mother and his own kitchen coexist.
A milestone that, he says, he does not want to change because “when you have had a restaurant for so long, things have to change slowly.” Regarding the return, she is clear: “cooking in Alcalá del Valle is like playing local football: everyone supports you”.
A return that coexists with the family kitchen in which he declares himself in love with the “stew of tagarninas from my mother and the tail of a bull that she cooks like angels“.
GAZPACHO our favorite RECIPE so that it always comes out delicious
Second and third prize to Girona and Avilés
The second prize went to Elisabet Nolla, from the Normal restaurant (Girona), the accessible kitchen project of the Roca brothers. Nolla represents the legacy of the matriarchal cuisine of the Roca family, in which three generations come together: grandmother Angeleta, mother Montserrat Fontané and now Elisabet Nolla, the teacher formed in El Celler and Casa Cacao.
The third classified was Adrián San Juliánfrom the Yume Gastro restaurant (Avilés, Asturias), a disciple of Koldo Miranda, who in alliance with the hostess and head of the room, Iratxe Miranda, according to the organization, “has consolidated a modern style based on his knowledge of the flavors and recipes traditions in which it reveals an elegance that surprises”.
How the relief chef is chosen
As explained by the president of Madrid Fusión, Joseph Carlos Capel, those responsible for the congress make the selection of the candidates, but then it is a jury made up of 80 people, including gastronomic critics and gourmets, who choose the winner through a secret vote.
These have been the rest of the finalists:
Carlos Hernandez del Riofrom the ConSentido restaurant (Salamanca), a disciple of Hilario Arbelaitz, Dabiz Muñoz, Joan Roca and Aitor Arregui -his main mentor, with whom he opened Cataria in Sancti Petri-, from whom he has inherited respect for flavor and an appreciable creative freshness .
Lydia of the Elm and Xose Magalhaesfrom the Ceibe restaurant (Ourense), both disciples of Pepe Solla, who, as the organization explains, “cook in daily complicity with an enthusiasm that excites” rigorous seasonal recipes, spontaneous and heartfelt, that they solve at the minute.
Juan Viufrom the Viu & Bar Barrunto restaurant (Barbate, Cádiz), a chef specializing in both raw preparations and spoon dishes, with recipes that, explained from the congress, “affect the essence of Cadiz products, trace family traditions and they manage to excite with hardly anything”.
Alex Paz and Olga Garcia, from the Fuentelgato restaurant (Huerta del Marquesado, Cuenca), a minimal, rural restaurant for just a dozen diners in the heart of the Cuenca mountains. An enclave in which both break their heads to stock up on the best artisan products from Galicia to Cádiz.
Paco Villar and Sol Torres, from the Terra Olea restaurant (Córdoba), a restaurant that pays homage to the flavors of Cordoba and Andalusia, with traditional range dishes full of creative details in which proposals alternate that have been consolidated in recent months. “We have a prodigious ability to review classic sauces and turn some popular Andalusian marinades and dressings into elegant ones,” according to the organizers.
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