San Sebastian Gastronomika - Euskadi Basque Country has lived a frenetic second day, in which the Kursaal auditorium, with an audience full to the brim, has been the stage which has hosted some of the great names of world cuisine, but in which the activity has seethed throughout the entire venue with talks, workshops, championships and activities for every palate.

Those who have enjoyed the presentations in the Kursaal auditorium were able to travel around the world without moving from their seats, as the speakers provided gastronomic visions from Japan, Argentina, Italy, Denmark or the United States. From the Frenchified classicism of Zuberoa to the Danish pop showiness of Rasmus Munk, moving through the Galician naturalism of Javier Olleros or the culinary poetry of the Japanese Yoshihiro Narishawa.

The person in charge of opening fire was precisely the Japanese chef Hideki Matsuhisa (Koy Shunka*, Barcelona), the first chef from the land of the Rising Sun who has obtained a Michelin star in Spain. He emphasized the transcendence of cutting methods in order to preserve the product and gave an overview of his trajectory in Spain, which just like San Sebastian Gastronomika - Euskadi Basque Country adds up to 25 years.

Paulo Airaudo, the Argentinian chef, who leads seven projects in the capital of Gipuzkoa, among which Restaurante Amelia** stands out, took over the stage to explain how he tries to achieve excellence through a product which he always looks for among the small producers in pursuit of sustainability. 

One of the moments of the morning session in the auditorium came from David De Jorge, who presented a talk called ‘Memories of Zuberoa’, where different chefs who have been through the restaurant of the Arbelaitz brothers shared their experiences with the audience who filled all the seats.  Gorka Txapartegi (Alameda*, from Hondarribia); Jaime Uz (Arbidel*, from Ribadesella); Javier Goya (El Triciclo, from Madrid); Borja Sierra (Granja Elena, from Barcelona); Luis Lera (Lera*, in Castroverde de Campos, Zamora); and Maca de Castro (Maca de Castro*, in Alcudia, Mallorca) talked for over one hour to the delight of audience. “When I think of Zuberoa, I rid myself of those small-town complexes which sometimes invade me, I realised there that being true to yourself and escaping established norms can take you a long way”, recognised Luis Lera while he fried the head of a woodcock. “Having people remember you is the best prize we could receive”, conclude Hilario.

A classic person in the congress and a chef who is the heritage of Basque and world gastronomy such as Pedro Subijana, chef at Akelarre***, explained how Akelarre and his cuisine has evolved over five decades of dedicated work to his passion. “This is being one of the best congress editions I recall, not only because of the attendance or the personalities who are visiting us, but above all because of the positive atmosphere”, stated Pedro Subijana, acting as the proud host of an event he has never missed.

From Igeldo to Japan

On a day marked by its international character, San Sebastian Gastronomika - Euskadi Basque Country takes a kilometric leap, from the delights of Akelarre, to Japan, from where the Japanes gastronomic critic Masuhiro Yamamoto arrives to breakdown the clichés that exist as regards Japanese food. 

Also visiting the congress -for the fourth time- is the chef Yoshihiro Narisawa (Narisawa**, Tokyo) who is obsessed with sustainability and the natural environment by showing elements from the seasons of the year in his dishes. “Narisawa is in Tokyo and expresses Japanes culture through his cuisine using the best products in Japan. We are obsessed with sustainability and that is why we visit producers to find top quality fruits and vegetables, but also those from safe soils”, the chef explained. “For this reason, in 2001 we decided to eat soil and my first signature dish was soil soup”, he added.

Committed cuisine

From Culler de Pau** in O Grove, Javier Olleros proposed a cuisine connected with the rural and vegetable world and this chef born in Lucerne (Switzerland), but an adopted Galician, has placed value on the transcendence of a restaurant forming part of the environment it is located in. Rasmus Munk, chef at Alchemist** (Copenhagen), emphasized on the capacity chefs have to change the world and conveyed the importance of creating an ethical awareness and emotional state in the diner. 

The commitment with the environment is also the axis of the project of Javier Rivero and Gorka Rico, AMA (Tolosa) the leading exponents of kilometre zero cuisine, committed to local producers. They opened the afternoon session in the Kursaal auditorium, as well as Viviana Varese (Viva*, in Milan), who has put together a common project she is undertaking in Sicily, and a figure who never misses San Sebastian Gastronomika - Euskadi Basque Country such as Elena Arzak. In this house in San Sebastián they no longer look for customers, but friends, and will launch a loyalty programme in which the experience of visiting Arzak will commence from the very moment the booking is made. Another form of commitment, in this case with the customer. 

And, talking about commitment, to note is the meeting between chef José Andrés and journalist Ignacio Medina, and informal chat in which the Asturian reviewed his career, talked about dreams fulfilled, others yet to fulfil and the value of the product and the producer, as well as the transformative power of gastronomy: It’s hard for me to accept that I offer menus at 300 dollars in New York, and 100 meters from the restaurant there are people who go hungry. That is why I look for Trojan horses who enable me to unite both realities, and make gastronomy become an agent for change”, he assures, encouraging his colleagues to, without any pressure, always find a way to influence their community in order to achieve small changes to make this world a little better.

Ángel León was capable of surprising a good number of attendees in the last presentation of the day by revealing the latest discovery of the team at Aponiente***, sea soy. The chef of Aponiente explained the restaurant in Cadiz “has discovered a protein we never thought would ever be found in the sea. It is a protein that Juan Martín, the restaurant biologist, natural from Cadiz learnt about on a trip to Venezuela, where it attaches itself to a plant which is irrigated by seawater. It was a sea bean -canavalia rosae-.
 
The biologist explained that “it is a plant which has a yearly cycle and spends the whole year generating seeds, flowers, it lives in the tropics in both hemispheres, in dunes, five metres from the sea”. We are talking about fabaceae which have 50% protein and 30% carbohydrates. This is why, as Ángel León pointed out, “we started to think about fermenting the plant to turn it into the first marine soy sauce”. The chef ensures it will be “an ingredient that will be on the Aponiente menu next year”. 

Recognition of Michele Buster

One of the most emotional moments on the second day of the congress took place in the auditorium, where Michel Buster was presented with the Food and Wines From Spain award. She received the award from Elisa Carbonell, General Director of ICEX, in recognition of her career as founder of Forever Cheese in the United States in 1998, one of the most important cheese import companies in the Mediterranean.

Much more than the auditorium

Simultaneously to the activity in the auditorium, the Kursaal congress centre permeated activity through workshops and tastings organised by different brands and trademarks participating in the congress, as well as in competitions such as the National Russian Salad Championship, which crowned the eating house from Bilbao, La Viña de Henao, or the Apple Tart championship, which was won by Pastelería Daza (Málaga).

This Wednesday will hold the last day of an event which once again has placed San Sebastián in the centre of world gastronomy.