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Walking into Pavilion 14 at IFEMA during Madrid Fusión feels like stepping into culinary overdrive. The air hums with burners flaring, cameras flashing, chefs rushing between stages, and crowds pressing closer to watch what might become the next breakout name in Spanish dining. From January 26 to 28, the congress once again turned the Spanish capital into a global meeting point for cooks, pastry chefs, sommeliers, producers, journalists, and hungry onlookers tracking what’s next.
This year’s theme, The Customer Takes the Lead, framed conversations about freedom at the table, authenticity, and how diners are reshaping restaurants from the inside out. Auditoriums were packed with talks and demonstrations focused on the future of hospitality and highly specific culinary techniques, alongside debates about sustainability, staffing, service models, and the changing expectations of today’s guests.
Alberto Palomino took first prize in the XVI Negrini Creative Cuisine Competition. Photo courtesy of Madrid Fusion.
But if there’s one thing that grows louder every year at Madrid Fusión, it’s the championships and the awards.
Because while talks unfold upstairs, down on the competition stages the stakes feel immediate. Timers start ticking. Plates hit the pass. Judges whisper. Contestants, many of them running Michelin-starred kitchens back home, look suddenly human under the spotlights. These are the moments that make people stop mid-espresso to watch. Victories here don’t just come with trophies; they can change reservation books overnight.
Fire, Smoke, and a Negrini WinOne of the week’s earliest buzz-makers came from Smoked Room Madrid, where chef and supervisor Alberto Palomino took first prize in the XVI Negrini Creative Cuisine Competition.
The challenge centered on smoked guanciale, and Palomino leaned into depth and finesse with a dish built around dashi made from cured pork belly, mortadella-stuffed gnocchi, green shiso pesto, and lacto-fermented apple. A glass of Barbaresco Riserva Ovello 2019 sealed the deal.
Watching from the sidelines, you could feel the crowd clocking the significance. Judges praised the balance between technical control and gastronomic instinct, while competitors from restaurants like ABaC and Atrio hovered nearby, sizing up plates they knew could tilt the room.
It was another milestone for Smoked Room’s fire-driven universe, intimate and obsessively precise, and one more reminder that the project keeps building momentum beyond the dining room.
Toni Romero defending the restaurant’s now-legendary tartar with bone marrow and soufflé potatoes. Photo courtesy of Madrid Fusion.
Steak Tartar – Done Tableside and Under Pressure
A very different tension played out during the National Steak Tartar Tableside Championship, where knives flashed and bowls clinked as finalists prepared their dishes live in front of diners and judges.
Barcelona’s Suculent arrived as the city’s sole finalist, with chef Toni Romero defending the restaurant’s now-legendary tartar with bone marrow and soufflé potatoes, a dish first created back in 2013 that helped shape a whole generation of Spanish tartars. Watching him work was part theater, part masterclass: seasoning adjusted on the fly, marrow warming just enough to melt into the beef, potatoes cracking loudly as garnish.
Around him, chefs from Marbella Club, La Barra de la Tasquería, Restaurante España in Lugo, and Madrid’s Varra fought for the same crown.
When Varra ultimately took the title, the applause was generous all around, and honestly, that’s part of the charm here. Winning matters, but simply reaching these finals puts restaurants squarely on the radar of thousands of diners already scrolling for reservations before the plates even cool.
Alejandro Cano of Salino (Madrid) won the XII Iberian Ham Croquette Championship. Photo courtesy of Madrid Fusion.
From Ham Croquettes to Flan Glory
Wandering between stages, I started to realize how wide the competition map really was this year. One minute it was all about the perfect everyday bite, the next about deep, slow-built sauces or seafood cooked with surgical focus.
At the croquette stand, the crowd swelled as Alejandro Cano of Salino (Madrid) took the XII Iberian Ham Croquette Championship, proving once again that Spain’s most humble bar snack can still stop people in their tracks. Nearby, pastry cases drew just as much attention: Eric Ortuño of L’Atelier (Barcelona) claimed the inaugural Gourmet Smoked Salmon Croissant contest, while Martín Martínez Villamor of Villaroy’s (Madrid) lifted the trophy for Best Torrija, and La Leña de Cobo (Fuenlabrada) walked away with the Best Flan in the World title, with Arantxa Fuentes front and center in the coverage.
Savory cooks had their own hero moments. Diego Sanz of Caleña (Ávila) impressed the jury in the National Pickling Championship, and up north, Alalunga in Gijón scored big when its tapa won the Official Tapas and Pinchos Championship. Madrid had another reason to celebrate when Corral de la Morería triumphed in the Madrid Products Competition.
And just when you thought you had seen every category possible, the seafood crowd pulled me in again. Cooking Almadraba (Conil de la Frontera) took top honors in the Cooking the Sea and Our Rivers contest, a reminder that at this congress, a single dish, timed just right, can turn a quiet stand into the busiest corner of the pavilion.
Alalunga won the Official Tapas and Pinchos Championship. Photo courtesy of Madrid Fusion.
One Trophy, A Whole New Chapter
By the time the final day rolled around, Madrid Fusión felt like a roll call of new names to watch. It is traditionally the most revealing moment of the congress, when the breakthrough prizes land and you can almost hear journalists, chefs, and restaurateurs updating their lists.
The Breakthrough Chef Award went to Javier Ochoa and Garikoitz Arruabarrena of Masta Taberna (Zarautz, Gipuzkoa). The Breakthrough Front-of-House Award was claimed by Adrián Fernández of Lera (Castroverde de Campos, Zamora).
Madrid took the spotlight too, with Miguel Yeste of Obrar winning the Breakthrough Pastry Chef Award, and Raúl Sánchez Aguirre of Tramo receiving the seventh Breakthrough Sustainability Award.
Beyond the breakthrough titles, Albert Adrià was named Best Chef of the Year in Europe, while José Gordón of Bodega El Capricho (Jiménez de Jamuz, León) received the Madrid Fusión Award for the Defense of Product.
Albert Adrià was named The Best Chef of the Year in Europe and dedicated the award to his son. Photo courtesy of Madrid Fusión.Spending few days at Madrid Fusión isn’t about ticking off every lecture. It’s about drifting between stands, catching fragments of conversations, watching judges deliberate in real time, and sensing which restaurants people keep whispering about in corridors.
Awards here feel less ceremonial than combustible. You see the nerves. You hear the cheers. You watch chefs breathe out when a score lands. And you know some of these kitchens will be booked solid by next week.
Three days, thousands of visitors, dozens of competitions, and a congress that somehow manages to feel both hyper-technical and wildly emotional at the same time.
And in the middle of all that noise and brilliance, the message lands clearly. Madrid Fusión 2026 didn’t just talk about where Spanish gastronomy is headed. It also showed how a single trophy can transform a kitchen’s trajectory.
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