Dabiz Muñoz and Gastón Acurio: Two Culinary Giants Face Off with Ceviche

"Here are the best in the world. We have a gastronomic circus with six arenas where wonderful things happen, and it's hard to choose," declared José Carlos Capel, the creator of Madrid Fusión Alimentos de España 2025, alongside its president, Benjamín Lana, as they kicked off the event. "Thirty years later, we will try to name the revolution that was born without a name," Capel proposed, opening a day filled with culinary geniuses, where the spotlight was on Dabiz Muñoz and Gastón Acurio. Two giants in an exciting and friendly face-off over ceviche.

Three decades after that revolutionary creative explosion, "cuisine breaks boundaries by working alongside science, physics, chemistry, and creativity," anticipated Lana. "The group that changed the culinary world is now legion. The dust of time falls quickly on things, and it must be removed," Lana added, reflecting on "a new generation of twenty-year-olds who never experienced it and may not fully grasp how transformative that knowledge was."

The ancient ceviche is an avant-garde dish in the restaurants of Acurio and Muñoz, each preparing three recipes. The Peruvian chef, who wants to "spread the flavors of Peru to the world," began with a classic ceviche that brought "the sea of Lima to the heart of Madrid Fusión." His leche de tigre is made with ají, ginger, garlic, cilantro, and red onion, choclo, squeezed limes, and salt. This mixture is the leche de tigre that cooks the fish in seconds. "A dish made in two minutes and consumed immediately," summarized its creator.

David Muñoz unleashes his imagination, inspired by Acurio's work in Peru and Japan, with a hamachi ceviche cured with sugar and an Andean mojo with akata and chincho, two Peruvian herbs, and a blend of Japanese spices. To the leche de tigre with passion fruit and bergamot, he adds two types of chili to create a mosaic of colors: "a ceviche with creamy textures that contrast with the sea urchin and fish," accompanied by plantain chips and vinegar powder.

Acurio countered with "the essence of Peru," in a simple ceviche of wild sea bass and artichoke with a passion fruit leche de tigre and artichoke puree enhanced with lime juice.

From RabioXo, Muñoz brought a hot steamed ceviche inspired "by chifa cuisine, speaking of Peru and China." It starts with a dumpling dough made from glutinous rice flour, wheat starch, and tapioca colored with cilantro and huacatay. He creates a sort of ravioli, a dumpling of red mullet stewed with agilimo. "The leche de tigre contains saffron, connecting it to a Mediterranean suquet," said Muñoz, who tops the dumpling with two pieces of sashimi, "mixing the creaminess of the red mullet and the dough with the crunchiness of the less noble parts of the fish," finishing it with Thai basil.

Acurio revisited in his third ceviche one with scallops and their coral and Galician sea urchins. In this case, the leche de tigre is made with the scallop coral and crushed sea urchin over a basic recipe. "It's a bomb of eroticism that maintains the traditional essence," said Acurio.

The third and final ceviche from Muñoz came from DiverXo and is inspired by Gastón's mastery. In this case, the leche de tigre is "oriental," with young coconut milk infused with lemongrass. Over steamed cockles, he adds two pieces of red shrimp and a sphere of kalamata olive. It is flavored with red jalapeño and a more potent and aggressive Thai chili, Chinese chive oil, kikos, cilantro, and a satay sauce with a corn flavor. It is served with kakigori, very subtle ice flakes used in Japan.

Ángel León, the sea gardener, previewed what he is preparing for his next menu at his restaurant A Poniente. His marine laboratory continues to function, creating carrot ice cream from the sea, kombu and vanilla, or sea asparagus.

He advanced the achievements of his marine sausage project, with red and yellow tuna to make sea ham, loin, chorizo, butifarra, black pudding, or sobrasada. "It's a project I've been working on for fifteen years, and we're going to fulfill a dream of bringing sausages to the whole world," he assured.

In an absolute exclusive, he announced that this year A Poniente will be in the Cadiz marshes in an open space. "Thanks to ecologists in action, we will be able to enjoy this space where we can listen to Paco de Lucía while eating shrimp, and you will see me cooking," said the microalgae wizard.

Albert Raurich, the chef of Dos Palillos, explored the most ancient concepts of Japanese gastronomy in water cuisine. "Japan is the country of water as well as the land of the rising sun. Water represents all life. Wasabi, beer, sake, are made with pure water. It is a country connected with water. The absence of oil and fats in general is crucial in Japanese cuisine," he said.

He reviewed all the ancient Japanese techniques that he has brought to our days, a chef capable of making garum with all kinds of anchovies treated with koji and is a master of haiboshi, a Japanese dehydration technique, and of dashis, the ancient Japanese broths.