Chef of the Sea: Cultivating the Ocean's Purest Flavors
Ángel León shares the Ocean's Purest Flavors on the Main Stage
Spanish Chef Ángel León walked onto the Main Stage, greeted the audience with a warm smile fresh from Spain’s southern Atlantic coast, and introduced close to 10 cutting edge techniques and concepts out of his kitchen at Aponiente in El Puerto de Santa María outside of Cádiz. He bases his cuisine on the ocean’s food chain, from the smallest sea creature (picture plankton) up. Squeamish audience members wrinkled their noses at the green plankton paste passed around for them to taste, but on the tongue it was salty, briny, buttery, and delicious. Beyond being the first chef on Earth to sow, harvest, and serve plankton, León seeks out other sustainable means of respecting the sea, like transforming the kind of catch deemed unfit to sell by fishermen into menu items at his restaurant. He also transports harbor-bound, bottom-feeding (and hence, petroleum-filtering) grey mullet to a natural reserve “paradise” fish sanctuary. After a time there, the fish bellies go through total detox. León’s team then harvests their unctuous fatty bellies and produces charcuterie that parallels pork-based boudin blanc or chorizo in texture and whose flavor carries a touch of brine—which made a splash with a crowd full of hungry ICC attendees. To close, we got a deeper glimpse into the heart of Aponiente: “He sido cocinero desde pequeño. Pero fue primero el mar que me llamó.” (I’ve been a cook since I was little. But it was the sea that first called to me.”)
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