To continue, for another year, to spot collective trends and give the most outstanding individuals on the global gastronomic landscape a voice and a platform from which to share their knowledge. This is still the main goal of the most influential congress in the world that will return – from the 23 to the 25 of January at Ifema – to delve into what is going on now by offering a veritable range of diverse concepts that exist hand in hand in a kind of multicultural melting pot. 

Today, the world’s culinary universe is a complex one, in which sensations and unexpected flavours overlap. Offering a preview of the trends and currents that will shape the future, the 21st edition of Madrid Fusión Alimentos de España will be back in January – it’s traditional month – to showcase on its various stages what is going on now and what we can expect. Emotion, risk, creativity, thought, passion, innovation, wisdom and craziness. Knowledge as a creative tool. There are no borders for a world like that of haute cuisine that is abuzz with professionals who play by new rules, those of freedom, technique and respect for artisanal pantries, the hidden treasures in today’s cuisines. That is the idea behind Madrid Fusión’s 2023 slogan, Sin Límites-No Limits, and the event is almost here. 

There are no limits

Contemporary cuisine has never manifested itself in so many different ways before. There are no limits to imagination or to using new or already familiar techniques. Creativity is expressed in the simplest and the most complex aspects. Haute cuisine has never had such significant and varied resources at its disposal before. 

Far from being witness to a time when most of the protagonists of the greatest kitchens are working on the same wavelength or trend – as in Ferran Adrià’s day or when the naturalism and commitment of Nordic chefs became a mainstream trend – we are now living in a diverse and complex environment. Restaurants whose forte is based on creativity and techniques, while others champion different facets of the concept of sustainability: real fire as fuel and as a cooking philosophy, or a return to classic French cuisine, before the rise of Nouvelle cuisine, with the recovery of almost abandoned dishes such as pâté en croute or hare à la Royal. 

Culinary knowledge

Culinary knowledge has been shared the length and breadth of the globe over the last two decades as never before. Madrid Fusión was the cradle of technological and techno-emotional cuisine, different fusions of European and Latin American cuisine with techniques and cultures with roots in Asia, as well as the start and growth of Nordic cuisine and the later revolution in pursuit of sustainability and in defence of the planet. 

This Sin Límites-No Limits edition will bring restaurants and people from remote and improbable places to Madrid Fusión: such as Poul Andrias Ziska (Koks**, Faeroe Islands), and Virgilio Martínez, Pía León & Malena Martínez (Proyecto Mil, Peru), but also new urban cuisines like that of James Knappett (Kitchen Table**, United Kingdom). It will also look at fish cuisine from very different perspectives, giving a voice to cooks seeking to offer honest food sourced from rivers and lakes, a forgotten pantry, like Rodrigo Castelo (restaurant Taberna Ó Balcão, Portugal) and Konstantin Filippou (restaurant Konstantin Filippou**, Austria), like Takayoshi Watanabe (restaurant Teru Sushi, Japan), Dieuveil Malonga and ethnic cuisine (Rwanda), and scientific progress – knowledge, science and new techniques – with cooks such as Oriol Castro, Eduard Xatruch & Mateu Casañas (restaurant Disfrutar** and David Chamorro (Food Idea Lab, Spain) & Luke Jang (restaurant Luke, Spain). The programme is rounded off with the presence of chefs who cook Nature in extreme conditions, such as Nicolai Tram (Knystaforsen**, Sweden) and others who work with popular cuisines as a source of renewed inspiration like Rafael Cagali (Da Terra**, United Kingdom). The main stage will also welcome Massimiliano Alajmo (Le Calandre***, Italy) for the first time; one of the greats of Italian cuisine who, two decades on, is still the youngest cook ever to have been awarded two Michelin stars when he was just 28.

Spanish cooks are widely represented and the list is headed by Dabiz Muñoz, brothers Joan, Josep and Jordi Roca, Quique Dacosta, Ángel León, Ricard Camarena, Andoni Aduriz, Oriol Castro, Eduard Xatruch & Mateu Casañas; Alberto Ferruz, Nandu Jubany, Aitor Arregi, Pedrito Sánchez and Álvaro Salazar & María Cano.

Essential, minimalist compositions side by side with the most sophisticated dishes. Ethnic, traditional, urban, rural and conceptual cuisines harmoniously hand in hand with business models that have never been so diverse in restaurant industry. Everything is possible when it comes to achieving the best results, the balance between ingredients, techniques and seasonings. There are no barriers that limit haute cuisine.