The best chef in the world is from Madrid but the best chef in Madrid is not the best chef in the world. It sounds like a riddle, but it is a peculiarity derived from the fact that each contest has a way of working. The Association of Chefs and Pastry Chefs of Madrid (ACYRE) ruled yesterday the grand final of the XXXI Gastronomic Contest of the Community of Madrid.
And the award, which last year went to Javier Morales (and his assistant Jorge Sánchez Salcedo) of the Hotel Mandarin Oriental Ritz Madrid, this year went to Alejandro García and his assistant Francisco Amate, of In-pulso.
In-Pulso is a peculiar restaurant, which defines its recipes as a cuisine with heart and that is off the beaten track (Méndez Álvaro). El País referred to them less than a year ago as “the restaurant that recovers forgotten Madrid recipes, from Felipe III’s favorite dish to the breakfast of the Golden Age”.
With their energy focused on the recovery of this imaginary or a nod to the verbenas of Madrid, García and Amate have won the award ahead of eleven pairs of chefs.
what’s in the winning dish?
The prize in question was awarded to two specific recipes and the ones that obtained the highest score from the tasting and technical jury were, on the one hand, a grilled Iberian prey with roasted coffee sauce, pickled chantarella, corn molasses and fritter of trotters stew with coffee ham and, on the other hand, grilled sea bream with bordelaise sauce of its bones, chutney and rhubarb bouquet with San Isidro salad in one bite
The award winners’ interpretation of the dishes is as follows
“We have made the Dorada de Estero as a tribute to the verbenas of Madrid, this coming weekend is approaching that of San Antonio, and we wanted to make a wink reinterpreting the verbena or San Isidro salads that were taken to these celebrations with pickled bonito, lettuce, hard-boiled egg, olives and onion.”
And they add: “but we have adapted it to a snack by changing the tuna for the anchovy of Casa Santoña with Madrid Quality seal with a yolk gel, another one of olive and we have wrapped it in a lettuce jelly”
More awards and competitors
The competition not only awarded prizes to the best chefs, but also to the best confectioners. In this case it was Mariella Pili and Alberto Barba (from Saddle) with their textured dessert: Peach with honey and its éclair: Chocolate and strawberry with vinegar.
As for the best cooks, second place went to Guillaume Brun and Osneiver Gabriel Galea from Inclan Brutal Bar, while third place went to Mario Lazar and Jorge Casado from restaurant Olmo.