Seven honoured at chef summit

France's most outspoken three-Michelin-starred chef, Marc Veyrat, has once again confirmed that he believes the lead in cutting-edge cuisine has moved away from his homeland.

Accepting a lifetime achievement award at Madrid's annual Cumbre Internacional de Gastronom¡a (also known as Madrid Fusi¢n) last week, he said: "We're moving towards European cuisine based on regions like Tuscany, Rhône et Alpes and the Basque country."

Veyrat was one of seven European chefs accepting a lifetime achievement award at the three-day international gastronomic summit, which was held at Madrid's Palacio de Congresos. The summit was set up in 2003 by the Madrid city government and the city's chamber of commerce to put Spain at the epicentre of cooking fashion. Also honoured was Bray's own Michel Roux.

The summit included masterclasses and lectures by celebrated chefs from around the world, including Britain's new three-starred chef, Heston Blumenthal. One day before receiving his third star, he brought the house down when he persuaded his audience to blow up balloons and eat two kinds of beetroot pastilles in order to identify specific aromas and tastes.

Spain's own culinary wunderkind, Ferran Adrià, once again headlined the event, which provided a showcase for its featured chefs - predominantly Spanish - to challenge the accepted norms of dining. Millefeuilles of tuna hearts, Parmesan glass noodles, gin fizzes in eggshells, cod tripe and foie gras ganache were just a few of the culinary tricks and recipes that made a mockery of the conventional repertoire.

Thermomixes, espumas and vacuum cooking starred in many of the gadget-led cooking demos. Three-Michelin-starred Spanish maestro Juan Mari Arzak, of Restaurante Arzak in San Sebastiàn, showed how to prepare a thickened custard in a cafetière without any starch or egg simply by controlling steam pressure.

On a more basic level, New Yorker Marcus Samuelsson (executive chef at Aquavit) predicted that chefs would move from squeezy bottles to paintbrushes when applying sauces to the plate.

However, a scientist did have a word of warning for the 600 chef and food writer delegates. Herv‚ This, a French government chemist working for the Institut National de Recherches Agronomiques, cautioned that science had to serve, not lead, the way chefs work. He said: "Science explains what happens, but it's up to chefs to apply the information." This has worked with Pierre Gagnaire and Blumenthal.

Lifetime achievement awards

• Juan Mari Arzak
• Freddy Girardet
• Gualitieri Marchesi
• Michel Roux
• Alain Senderens
• Pedro Subijana
• Marc Veyrat