È stata tanta e tanto grande l’opera di Ferran Adrià, che mettersi a speculare su qual è la formula tecnologica più trascendentale della sua lunga traiettoria d’inventore di ricette impossibili è poco meno che cercare di scoprire il sesso degli angeli. Anche il caviale di melone, o la sfera di mango, o gli spaghetti di due metri dell’anno scorso (solo per citare tre esempi in un mondo inesauribile di insolite scoperte culinarie) hanno potuto essere superati da questo gelato, che ci permettiamo di qualificare ai quattro venti come il migliore della storia, poiché ha supposto un cambio radicale, imprevedibile, di consistenza e di sensazione termica, sino al punto di aver dato alla luce un altro gelato.

È meglio o peggio delle genialità di Adrià del 2003? Ci sembra una domanda destinata a rimanere senza risposta, come non ha una risposta plausibile dire se nel 2004 è stato superato il già imbattibile livello raggiunto nel 2003. Questo non lo sappiamo. Però siamo assolutamente convinti che la sua genialità continua a svilupparsi a pieno regime. È difficile riconoscerlo con un solo esempio, a richiesta dello stesso Ferran, quando per fare giustizia avremmo dovuto nominare tre o quattro Piatti dell’Anno. Valga comunque questo gelato come opera maestra.

Un gelato etereo come l’aria, di una fragilità inconsistente, che trasmette una purezza gustativa di parmigiano che praticamente uguaglia quella del formaggio, con una forma irriverentemente industriale di terrina e con una “temperatura” fresca piuttosto che fredda, il che ci appare come la più evanescente e temperata maniera di vedere il gelato dai mille sapori, dai mille canditi di frutta, la cassata.

The fact that Martín Berasategui is a perfectionist who constructs his work from a standpoint of reforming history and reinventing himself does not mean that he is not a creator. His personal style and life philosophy is not based on radicalism or exaggerations. He is a true evolutionist, carefully imagining, subordinating his ideas to the results, which, in his case, are always extraordinarily refined and balanced. He almost never tries to impress his guests with pairings that express strong, sapid juxtapositions. On the contrary, he tempers his contrasts, sweetening them, making them subtle… bringing the nuances together in harmony. Gastronomic diplomacy.
Another example of his culinary personality is found in this extremely elegant and original dish whose main characters are played by vegetables. Remember that Martín was awarded the Reyno Gourmet prize in the II Congress “Viva las Verduras” in Pamplona, Spain, for his professional work with vegetables, especially for the consistent use of liquefied sauces and his development of the flat salads, whose historic testimony we find in the vegetable marrow with shellfish salad. On this particular occasion, he gives a forward push, offering us a formula of tubers, celeriac, Jerusalem artichoke and salsifies, presented in various manners: chopped, as a cream, frozen…
In short, the base of the dish appears coated by an apple jelly. He tops this with a vertical structure of rye bread filled with mustard chantilly that takes the shape of a sandwich. To the side, the cream of the three tubers is intercalated with cubes of celeriac, Jerusalem artichoke balls and cylinders of salsifies, along with a quenelle of ice cream made from all the tubers, adorned with sweetened crispy versions of the same vegetables. The ornamentation is completed with a few drops of seaweed vinaigrette and assorted sprouts of broccoli and amaranth.

Quique Dacosta created dishes with very different ideas and procedures in 2008–the white truffle (sugar crust powdered with pulverized mushrooms that take the shape of a truffle stuffed with Parmigiano-reggiano), “Springtime” (a vase of flowers over the plate), “Mist” (a televised show in pure Blumenthal style where importance is given to the visual aspect and arrangement of the mushrooms, vegetables, nuts, earth… the newest and most brilliant Gargouillou), foie gras with wood crust (intrinsically and technically perfect, adorned and texturized with bulbs). A masterful idea and a profiled style find their most brilliant moment with shellfish. Product, 10, fantasy, 10, aesthetics, 10, in the ‘essential oyster’ (oysterleaf on top of codium jelly and julienned wakame, followed by an uncommon Gillardeau oyster with a jelly made from its water, a light silver-plating and a hint of smoke from a seaweed tea), or the ‘corals’, which will find its way onto the menu in 2009 (crab, urchin, roe from various shellfish and fish, spheres and crispy codium), or the ‘Rock’ or ‘Iceberg’. Arguably they all deserve the honor of Dish of the Year. To avoid repetition we have chosen the final two.
It is possible that the ‘Rock’ gives the guest greater pleasure, more robust, as the barnacles and seaweed drench the palate in delicacy. It is also possible that the ‘Iceberg’ has more talent: velvet swimming crab, a jelly made from the same crustacean, bitter almonds, ficoide glaciale, brushstrokes of thickened ajoblanco and a frozen snow made from the same chilled soup. Judge for yourself…

Vittor Arginzoniz is a unique and unrepeatable character. A true genius that has revolutionized char-grilled cuisine. A contemporary artist of the embers. A visionary that has technocratically transformed the most primary of tools, restructuring the mediums themselves to achieve his goals. Inventing much of his own equipment, following his own path. In this case, he has created a large pot with a conical crater in the center where the flames of pine erupt though, perfuming the mussels through steam, mussels that only just open at which point they are removed and taken out of their shells. The small amount of juice that remains after the pinewood steaming process is mixed with a base of carrots, which is obtained by reducing the heat substantially for about a half hour, more or less, to give the liquefied juice its intensity. The iodide flavors of the shellfish intermingle with the sweetness of the carrot. The sapid complexity is an extension of the mussels, preserving all their character and oceanic qualities. The iodide and sweetness of the mussels are seasoned with an astringent touch: powdered pimiento choriceros (small red peppers from the region). An ingredient that goes to the greatest depths of Basque gastronomy, making this pepper a local standard. Essential, supernatural magic with a great deal of literary backing.