'WITH-OUT good defaecation, there is no good cooking.' And with that pronouncement, three-Michelin-star chef Santi Santamaria made everybody in the auditorium sit up.
In the most provocative presentation in the entire four-day programme, the chef of Can Fabes restaurant near Barcelona, and owner of another two - Evo in Barcelona and Sant Celoni in Madrid - Santamaria lashed out against the current obsession with foams and freeze-drying machines and all things which require a mastery of advanced chemistry, calling for a return to the days when, in the words of respected chef Alain Chapelle, 'Cooking is more than just recipes. It is a way of understanding life.'
"But we are deceivers - we work for the sake of money. Let us admit that we are not missionaries - we are not suffering, our cuisine is snobbish, we are here to feed snobs."
With a collective six stars to his name, Santamaria certainly knows what he's talking about. For his entire career, he has won over legions of fans with his earthy yet modern approach to traditional Spanish cuisine. 'To cook well, if you have the ability to select the best products, do you really need any wrapping or packaging? Food needs honesty and truth.'
And if that kind of approach to cooking implies insipidity, 'then I praise insipidity,' he said to rapturous applause.
'There is a trend where if you have not been to El Bulli or Tetsuya's you are nobody, but is this what cuisine is?
'I must compliment chefs who research cuisine and work in the world of food so that their children and their grandchildren can eat. But we are deceivers - we work for the sake of money. Let us admit that we are not missionaries - we are not suffering, our cuisine is snobbish, we are here to feed snobs.
"Nowadays, chefs are in the front pages but people know more about the names of chefs than the names of people who are actually out there helping to make the earth better."
'I don't understand cuisine without food and wine pairing, good service and an atmosphere built up over the years. I was in a restaurant, but there was something missing - life. That is why I think it is so important to receive people at home, that is why my restaurant is actually my house - the one that I grew up in.'
While he insists that there is no 'fight' between traditionalists like him and the avant garde movement, he felt that it was time to remind people of the basics. 'If a cuisine is just trendy, that's fine. But I want to feel what I am doing. I can make mistakes, apologise and I do it better tomorrow.
'Nowadays, chefs are in the front pages but people know more about the names of chefs than the names of people who are actually out there helping to make the earth better.'
Even if his fellow chefs did not agree with him, Santi Santamaria's plea for people to think beyond the machines and into the heart and soul of cuisine was a timely reminder for those in the business of food to sit back and take stock.
As he put it succinctly: 'I don't want to go back to chemistry lessons. It was bad enough in school.' Touche.
