Toast to the Golden Age of Spanish Gastronomy

The night began with the chords of that old Vainica Doble song that all Spaniards of a certain age have etched in their memory. 'Con las manos en la masa', in the voices of Rodrigo Cuevas and Mapi Quintana, referred to years when gastronomy began to be an important enough topic to make it into TV programming, thanks to Elena Santonja. The gala held last night at the Teatro Real commemorated 50 years of the National Gastronomy Awards, celebrating Spain's passionate journey over recent decades to amaze the world with its culinary talent.

This time there were no winners in any category. It was about paying tribute to a "collective effort" led by thousands of chefs, waiters, sommeliers, winemakers, producers, communicators, scientists, companies, and institutions—whether previously awarded or not—who over this half-century have contributed to forging this "Golden Age of Spanish gastronomy" mentioned by the president of the Royal Academy of Gastronomy, Luis Suárez de Lezo. More than 800 people packed the Madrid opera house in a ceremony presented by Juan Echanove that reviewed some milestones of this common history.

The first to receive the highest honor that a chef can receive in Spain was Juan Mari Arzak in 1974, but a few years earlier, the foundations for the country's gastronomic awakening were already being laid. A meal at Lhardy in 1972 led by the Count of Los Andes gave rise to the founding of the Brotherhood of Good Table and a year later saw the birth of the Academy itself. Initially an elite group aiming to place the sector at its deserved level due to tradition, pantry, and professionalism. They were responsible for creating the first gastronomic guides and conceiving the National Gastronomy Awards as a tool to promote excellence.

Since then, more than 350 professionals have received these annual awards—only interrupted by the pandemic and now by these golden weddings—whose categories have also evolved to reflect the sector's diversity. Reviewing the list of awardees traces our gastronomy's history in an unrepeatable era, from the dawn of New Basque Cuisine to Ferran Adrià's avant-garde boom or Spain's consolidation on the international scene. Today three of the world's top five restaurants are Spanish—Disfrutar, Asador Etxebarri, and DiverXo—something that would have seemed unthinkable to those pioneers of the 70s.

The gala featured some of our most prominent chefs but did not forget to mention the role played by a leading agri-food sector today or the catalytic function of gastronomic congresses, with Madrid Fusión at the forefront, in this rise over recent decades. The degree of excellence achieved by dining rooms, the prominence of a wine sector that has experienced a parallel revolution, or the explosion of gastronomic content in media are different aspects of one phenomenon—a social movement that Lezo rightly called 'Golden Age' and was celebrated last night with a warm toast.

Starting next year, the National Awards will embark on a new stage as for the first time, the award ceremony will be held outside Madrid. Although more details are yet to be revealed, it seems that the Royal Academy will opt for an itinerant ceremony format that also serves as a tourism promotion tool for the chosen venue. A study promoted by the institution will also be presented soon seeking to quantify gastronomy's impact on Spain's economy; "I can already tell you it will be a very significant figure," advanced its president. After Madrid Mayor José Luis Martínez Almeida's speech calling attendees to "seek refuge in bars" in these "difficult times," singer-songwriter Jorge Drexler closed the ceremony with an emotional performance of his hit 'Todo se transforma.'