The three-day event titled “The Manila Galleon: East Meets West” took center stage on the second day of the Madrid Fusion Manila international gastronomy Congress. The main topic of this event is to explain the importance and the influence of history in food culture. For example, there would be no paella without Marco Polo or a Spanish omelette without the discovery of America; culinary fusion has involved a rich exchange of ingredients and led to the creation of recipes that have become countries ‘signature dishes and jewels of global gastronomy.
In this way, fusion cuisine stems from historical events such as expansion of the Roman Empire and the establishment of the Manila Galleon trade route in 1565. Fernando Perez Arellano, who recently have received a second Michelin star for his restaurant Zanranda in Mallocar, was the first to highlight this process, noting that the much-acclaimed Mediterranean diet “comes from the Phoenicians who pioneered the East-West encounter”