Spanish celebrity chef Sergio Fernández, has been invited to South Africa by the South African Chefs Association in order to demonstrate the innovative and exciting trends of Spanish Cuisine (Nueva Cocina). He will be demonstrating foams, dehydration, sferification and cold world (nitrogen and pacoject) on the 16th of July at the Infochef conference taking place in Johannesburg. The confirmation of Sergio Fernández is the cherry on top of what promises to be an exciting Infochef conference. The conference is sponsored by Nestlé Professional and the programme is packed full of informative talks from local and international speakers, aimed at chefs.
La Nueva Cocina (the New Kitchen), also known as molecular gastronomy or avant-garde cooking, is the exploration of new techniques and technologies, resulting in dishes that break conventional ideas. Dishes might look like one thing, but taste completely different - mixing up tastes, textures and temperature. Think of olive oil spaghetti, hot ice cream, carrot juice noodles and crunchy mango purée.
Spanish cuisine has been in the spotlight since 2003 when the New York Times focused its attention on Ferrán Adriá and the effervescence of Spanish cuisine. Many other chefs in Spain came after him and the ranks the Nueva Cocina Española grew larger. Some names are now well known worldwide and are already associated to the World top restaurants. In April 2008, Ferran Adriá´s restaurant, El Bulli, was named the world’s best for the third consecutive year. The ranking published by the Restaurant Magazine included two other Spanish restaurants among the top 10 (Andoni Aduriz’s Mugaritz and Arzak’s). There are also four more Spanish restaurants among the top 50 list (El Celler de Can Roca, chef Joan Roca; Martin Berasategui's; Can Fabes, chef-patron Santi Santamaria; Asador Etxebarri, chef Victor Arguinzoniz).
Despite his youth and thanks to his ample gastronomic education, curiosity and creativity, Sergio Fernández has become an important figure on the Spanish culinary scene. In 1988, after graduation from the Escuela Superior de Hostelería y Turismo de Madrid as hostelry and tourism technical specialist, Sergio started his career as assistant chef at the Spanish Congress restaurant and later at the legendary Zalacain. Eventually he became assistant executive chef at other first class restaurants in Madrid, like Lúculo, Principe de Viana and the Casino, before leaving the Spanish capital for 11 years to work in France, Germany and finally back to Barcelona.
Since 2002 he has been teaching Technology and Practice of Cooking at his former school in Madrid, and he manages to combine his educational activity with many others such as gastronomic consultant to FIAB (Spanish Food and Drink Manufacturers Federation) and to the Corte Inglés restaurant chain. Since 2007, Sergio has been involved in an assortment of gastronomic shows on Spanish TV and he regularly contributes to cooking shows and demonstrations to promote Spanish foods abroad
Spanish celebrity chef Sergio Fernández, has been invited to South Africa by the South African Chefs Association in order to demonstrate the innovative and exciting trends of Spanish Cuisine (Nueva Cocina). He will be demonstrating foams, dehydration, sferification and cold world (nitrogen and pacoject) on the 16th of July at the Infochef conference taking place in Johannesburg. The confirmation of Sergio Fernández is the cherry on top of what promises to be an exciting Infochef conference. The conference is sponsored by Nestlé Professional and the programme is packed full of informative talks from local and international speakers, aimed at chefs.
