21 May 2008

MADRID - Spanish chefs are up in arms over recent statements by one of their own who has criticised "showbiz cuisine" and warned about the use of chemical substances that could be harmful to diners' health.

Santi Santamaría, one of Spain's top chefs and owner of El Racó de Can Fabes, a Catalan restaurant with three Michelin stars, lashed out against what he sees as the excesses of Spanish haute cuisine on 13 May, when he picked up first prize for his book La cocina al desnudo at the Premio de Hoy awards ceremony in Madrid.

Santamaría focused his criticism on his rival Ferran Adriá, owner of the exclusive El Bulli, which also holds three Michelin stars and was in April declared the best restaurant in the world for the third year in a row by the Britain's Restaurant Magazine.

Adriá, who is credited with putting Spanish gastronomy on the international map thanks to his experimental cuisine and tireless media presence, is famous for pushing back the boundaries of cooking and producing dishes such as carrot air, liquid olives and parmesan snow.

"Some chefs are offering a media spectacle and are seemingly unconcerned about healthy eating," said Santamaría, admitting that while Adriá and himself were once close, they are currently "conceptually and ethically divorced."

A proponent of traditional Mediterranean cooking versus molecular cuisine, or "techno-emotional cuisine" as he termed it, Santamaría was especially critical of Adriá and his followers' use of emulsifiers, gelling agents and other chemical substances "that even they wouldn't eat".

He even went as far as to say that their use of methylcellulose, a vegetable extract that gels when heated and thickens when cold, can be harmful and asked for public health authorities to exercise control over what goes onto people's plates.

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