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It will be the most global edition of Madrid Fusion in its 24 years of history, with more international chefs on the main stage than Spanish ones
The next edition of Madrid Fusion Foods from Spaina will arrive with a direct and transformative motto: ‘The client takes control’. After years in which great restaurateurs set the pace of the gastronomic experience, Now the movement goes in the opposite direction.. Diners are demanding more freedom, more authenticity and more decision-making capacity. The most global edition in its 24 years of history, with more international chefs on the main stage than Spanish ones, will be celebrated of the 26 al 28 January 2026 in the pavilion 14 by Ifema, where the great global gastronomic summit will address the new challenges facing the world of gastronomy, that is experiencing a transformation in which the passive diner disappears and an informed consumer emerges, demanding and with criteria. The dialogue between the kitchen and the living room stops being vertical and becomes a horizontal conversation in which the public sets the pace and the discourse..
Everything that is happening in the room and at the table is being reviewed. The rigid structures of the tasting menu - which for decades were an absolute symbol of fine dining where excellence ruled, ritual and creativity- are beginning to be questioned by an important part of customers, who no longer accept empty stories. More and more diners want to modulate the route, choose dishes, skip steps, or even reject what they no longer feel is their own. The same goes for mandatory pairings., that many customers are beginning to reject because they prefer to enjoy wine without impositions.
Hyperopinion and social networks
This change doesn't come out of nowhere., reflects a broader social phenomenon. In an era marked by hyper-opinion, social media and open public conversation, customers arrive at the restaurant informed, with own criteria and, above all, with a critical position towards certain established codes. They want to be heard, not directed. They demand that their point of view have a real impact on the experience.
Both, the demand is oriented towards a more essential discourse. More product, less artifice. Diners look for clarity and truth on the plate, and they often find that truth in ancient techniques that return prominence to fire, to the smoke, to fermentations, to masses and long cooking. In that return to the origin they see coherence and honesty, values that today outweigh technical complexity or visual impact.
The new luxury
The motto 'The customer takes control' does not anticipate a rebellion against haute cuisine, but its natural evolution. The new luxury is not letting yourself go: is to be an active part of the story. The challenge for restaurants will be to find the balance between the freedom of the diner and the vision of the chef., without losing identity and gaining complicity.
In this new scenario, great chefs don't just cook: they listen. to the territory, to the producer, to the planet and, above all, to the client. They adapt, reinterpret and question. The diner demands diversity, regeneration, real stories, ingredients with identity and experiences that connect with the territory or personal memory. And it is precisely many of the chefs selected this year—from all continents—who best represent this transformation.: a kitchen made for a client who no longer observes, but participates, demands and evolves. They represent a world where cooking stops imposing and begins to converse.. The diner wants to participate, influence, feel part of the experience and not just be a spectator.
The new geography of flavor
That's why from Europe, Asia and America will disembark in Madrid Fusion Foods from Spain, international chefs who have reformulated their menus to adapt to this new type of curious diner, critical, informed and emotional. The first list of chefs who have confirmed their participation is extensive and includes the Dutch Bas van Kranen, from Flore restaurant** (Amsterdam, Netherlands) who is presented as one of the most radical cases of current cuisine in Europe. After a break forced by the pandemic, decided to question the historical comfort of European cuisine: eliminated dairy—no butter, of pictures, nor milk—and built a gastronomy based on consciousness, responsibility and connection with the producer. Your dishes, rural based and subtle Japanese influence, They are proof that creativity flourishes when the usual crutches are broken.
From Paris comes the magnetic figure of Bruno Verjus (Table Bruno Verjus**, Paris), eighth in the world on The50Best list, a cultured self-taught, hedonistic and deeply free. Doesn't follow rules, does not repeat formulas: Every morning he receives what his producers send him - often without asking for it - and with that unpredictable pantry he builds an essential kitchen that avoids artifice.. Verjús is a narrator who cooks, a philosopher of taste who claims simplicity as a path to intensity.
at your side, another Parisian with a nomadic spirit: Akrame Benallal (Akrame*), one of the most stimulating voices in France. Born in Paris, raised in Oran, formed together with Pierre Gagnaire and marked by a stage at elBulli, Akrame represents modern France: Maghrebi roots mix, French technique and an imagination that turns each dish into an exercise in precision and audacity. Your minimalist kitchen, traveling and surprising has brought vitality back to the Parisian scene.
Mauro Uliassi returns
Eighteen years after his last appearance at Madrid Fusión, one of the great stars of Italian cuisine returns, Mauro Uliassi (Uliassi***, Senigallia, Italia), whose cuisine is a contemporary expression of the Adriatic coast: pure and elegant seafood cuisine, where the product is worked with absolute sensitivity. Reinterprets tradition from emotion - “grandmother is an emotion, not a recipe”- transforming flavors from memory without copying them, but returning them with a personal and light look. All of this is supported by a rigorous creative laboratory that renews its proposal every year with precise techniques., fresh ideas and a deeply personal identity.
Italy will also contribute one of the most beautiful stories of this edition: that of Diego Rossi, soul after the Trippa phenomenon (Milan). Rossi has shown that creativity does not belong only to the temples of fine dining: from a simple trattoria, without tasting menu or R&D laboratory, has revolutionized popular Italian cuisine. They are fried tripe, are veal with tuna sauce aerial and its reinterpretation of ancestral recipes have conquered the entire gastronomic community. Rossi is proof that emotion can arise from humility when there is technique, sensitivity and truth.
Another Italian chef in this edition will be Giuseppe Iannotti, (crucis**, Telese Terme), who represents one of the freest and most personal voices of the new Italian cuisine. Former engineering student turned self-taught chef, has built a unique project on the old family farm in the heart of Campania, where it combines territory, contemporary technique and creativity without borders. His kitchen explores fermentations, local ripenings and root products, but always reinterpreted with a bold and experimental look. Krèsios is not just a restaurant: is a gastronomic ecosystem that includes bistro, bottega and hospitality spaces, reflection of a philosophy that defends total freedom of expression and absolute respect for the product.
From Asia, representation will also be powerful. A Hong Kong, Vicky Cheng, Wing chef and stall 11 in the world at The50Best Restaurants, as well as chef at Vea*, has created a cuisine that rewrites Chinese culinary heritage from a contemporary perspective. Canadian training, French in technique and deeply Chinese in soul, Cheng has reinterpreted the eight great traditional cuisines from the elegance of haute cuisine. Their dry-aged Cantonese chicken, its sea cucumber presented as bacon and its smoked pigeon with sugar cane are already icons of a gastronomy that unites memory, technique and narrative.
The Japanese Tomohiko Kuchiwa He is the cook behind the Kuchiiwa Soba bar, a small restaurant in Toyama where soba is elevated to a fine dining experience. Work a humble grain like buckwheat (buckwheat) with almost ceremonial precision: grind the grain daily, adjust calibers and textures and build menus in which each pass interprets the soba from a different angle. In its bar with only eight seats, Kuchiiwa offers intimate cuisine, minimalist and deeply artisanal, that revalues a humble ingredient and turns it into a symbol of identity, Japanese technique and sensitivity.
The chef Mano Thevar, in front of Thevar** (Singapore), He is one of the most powerful figures of new contemporary Indian cuisine.. With Tamil roots and training in European techniques, Thevar creates a signature style that combines South Indian spices with modern execution, precise and elegant. Dishes like their Chettinad chicken, Lobster curry beurre blanc or its reinterpretation of Malay classics show a cuisine that is explosive in flavor but refined in form.. In a humble place converted into a gastronomic destination, Mano Thevar has managed to redefine Indian identity in a modern way, becoming an essential reference in Asia.
Complete this Asian map the Cantabrian Chell González, who from Manila has brought the Philippines to the international stage. His restaurant Gallery by Chele** is a pioneer in contemporary Filipino haute cuisine. With a solid training in the Spanish avant-garde (Arzak, elBulli, Mugaritz), Chele has embraced the local product, culinary anthropology and sustainability to build a gastronomy with soul, fruit of direct work with farmers, fishermen and indigenous communities. Your cooking is research, memory and future.
Tribute to the sea
The Portuguese Atlantic coast will be expressed in Madrid through Gil Fernandes, chef from Fortaleza do Guincho* (Cascais), a chef-biologist who goes out every day to collect seaweed between rocks with a knife in his hand. Its cuisine is an absolute tribute to the sea: own fermented, broths made with all parts of the fish, wild coastal grasses and a deep understanding of natural cycles. From a 17th century fortress, Fernandes has transformed the territory into a menu that breathes sustainability and scientific knowledge.
Latin America also displays its best cuisine in Madrid Fusion Foods from Spain with Pia Lefromn, one of the most prominent figures in global gastronomy named Best Female Chef in the World in 2021 and number 9 in the world at The50Best Restaurants led by Kjolle (Lima, Peru). Creative, rigorous, connected to the land and deeply committed to research. Kjolle is, in essence, a celebration of Peru: of its diversity, of its miscegenation and that universe of ingredients that Pía transforms into a luminous kitchen, free and deeply contemporary. His cuisine comes from Mater, the ecosystem research center that he directs together with Virgilio and Malena Martínez, and is fed with the most diverse ingredients from Peru: tubers, roots, amazon plants, grain, flowers and sea fruits. Kjolle is a free look, colorful and poetic of the country, a celebration of the territory as a living kaleidoscope.
Santiago Muñoz He is the chef at the head of Maizajo (Mexico City), a project that is based on respect for corn-root and the reinterpretation of popular Mexican cuisine with technical rigor and contemporary vision. To his 32 years, pays tribute to native corn—especially “maizajo”, a variety of ancestral corn—and reinterpreted Mexican flavors. Santiago Muñoz represents a new generation of Mexican chefs who combine roots, local product, technical refinement and a clear desire to project Mexican cuisine to the world.
Spanish chefs
Among the Spanish chefs who will be at this edition of Madrid Fusion Foods from Spain are already confirmed, Oriol Castro, Eduard Xatruch y Mateu Casañas (Enjoy***), And the Daciansfacing (Quique Dacosta Restaurant***), Coco Montes (Pabu*), Albert Adrià (Enigma*), Borja Marrero (Muxgo*) o John Viú (Mare).
Madrid Fusion Pastry
In the coming weeks, more names from the long list of participants in Madrid Fusion Foods of Spain will be announced., which will also host the fourth edition of Madrid Fusion Pastry, the great pastry forum, Bakery, Chocolate and Coffee. A forum that will feature the presence of great figures in sweet cuisine such as Albert Adrià, Jordi Roca, Alexis Garcwas going, Diego Pagán, Fran Segura, FonTima Gismero, Noelia Tomosighe, Mireia Riba, Ifand Rolejudgment (best baker in the world 2025 by the International Union of Bakers), Paco Torreblanca, Pablo y Jacobo Moreno, Ricardo Vandspeed, Jordi Butrfromn y Aaraon Melero or the chocolatiers Oriol Balaguer y Rowl Bernal.
It will also be the fifth edition of The Wine Edition – Wines from Spain, the Madrid wine congress Fusion Foods of Spain, that this year will have important news that will be known in the coming weeks. As well as the third edition of Dreams #SPAINFOODTECHNATION, the scenario in which the future of food is discussed and in which science, health, technology or the agrifood and agrotech worlds share experiences in their relationship with gastronomy. Madrid Fusión Dreams will also announce its programming in the coming days.
Madrid Fusion Experience
As a great novelty, a new scenario emerges, Madrid Fusion Experience, that transforms what until now has been the multipurpose stage and represents an evolution of this space, redefining its function within the congress by becoming a dynamic meeting point where interaction takes center stage..
Experience will continue to be the setting for the official Madrid Fusión competitions, one of the most recognizable hallmarks of the event, but it expands its offer by incorporating cooking presentations with live tasting, accessible to all people who are currently sitting in this auditorium. Thus, The public will not only be able to observe the development of the presentation, but also to test on the spot what is being developed on stage. Madrid Fusión Experience was born with the desire to improve the experience of visitors and offer a more open and participatory gastronomic experience..
In Madrid Fusion 2026 The Revelation Awards will be awarded again to the best chef, pastry chef and restaurant manager and the Spanish Food Award in Product Defense. The Best Chef of the Year in Europe award also returns in this edition. Along with the traditional culinary competitions that recognize the best ham croquette, the best pickle, the best creative cuisine with Italian ingredients or the best bite with cheese, follow the most recent, like the best hotel breakfast, the contest for the best steak tartare in the room or the best empanada in Galicia. Y, besides, new championships are added such as, the I Championship of the Best Flan in the World, Best Torrija in the World and Best Smoked Salmon with Best Croissant.
And in the news chapter, also highlight that Rio de Janeiro will be the International Guest City of this edition of Madrid Fusion Foods from Spain, a recognition that underlines its vibrant culinary scene and its ability to combine tradition, cultural mix and creativity. The city of Rio de Janeiro will land in Madrid Fusión with some of its best chefs, bearers of a gastronomy marked by Brazilian biodiversity, Afro-indigenous flavors, neighborhood culture and a new generation of chefs who are redefining what it means to cook in Rio de Janeiro today. In parallel, Aragon will be the RegiGuest, a territory that claims the quality of its local product, its agricultural wealth, its extreme landscapes and a cuisine that moves naturally between the rural, the innovative and the deeply identity. So that, two different geographies, Rio de Janeiro and Aragon, will converge in Madrid to show how the territory continues to be the spark that ignites the best of cuisine.
Tickets for Madrid Fusion Foods from Spain 2026 are now available and can be purchased both for in-person assistance and for online monitoring, allowing professionals from any part of the world to experience the congress to their liking. The complete three-day pass, which gives access to all the presentations, program activities and content, has a price of 250 euros. This modality offers the most complete experience of the event, allowing you to closely follow the work of the chefs, access the main auditorium, learn about trends and participate in the most influential gastronomic summit on the international scene.
