Avant garde cooking is as technical as ever, but it's less apparent

The French are maninly familiary with Spanish cuisine from the Basque Country and Catalonia. What products from Valencia province could shake things up?

The Denia gamba roja is amazing. I've created 26 prawn dishes over the course of my career. This variety of prawn has a characteristically red colour and unbeatable flavour due to its feed and habitat 600 meters under water, between Cape San Antonio and Ibiza. The crimson juice from the head is succulent all on its own. In this region rice is an essential ingredient: a few years ago I used to serve arroz socarrat, the crunchy rice that sticks to the bottom of the paella pan (the traditional pan used in Valencia province). This year, as part of my menu called 'Fronteras', I'm preparing unrefined Gleva rice: a rice dish served with dried herbs and rabbit liver.

Who inspires you?

Michel Guerard and Georges Blanc were the first two chefs whose books I bought.

But their cooking style is very different from yours!

I've never strayed from their philosophy, even if the care they take over presentation is light years from what you see in Spanish culinary culture. I was drawn by their relationship with nature: they hunt, fish. Twenty-eight years ago, when I was just starting out in this profession, I cooked to make ends meet. I had no great ambition of going professional. I originally came to Denia with dreams of becoming a DJ! At the time, this seaside town was a mini Ibiza. The restaurant is only 6km from the boats that sail to the Balearic Islands.

What similarities do you see between the two professions?

Transformation. In the kitchen, we create sensations from organic raw materials. Just like a DJ who transforms sounds and creates music from electronic instruments.

Your approach follows in the footsteps of "Techno-emotional" cuisine created by the father of molecular cuisine, Ferran Adria. Now, six years after the closure of El Bulli, What has become of the movement?

Cocina tecnoemocional was a term thought up by journalists around 2003-2004 to describe Spain's avant garde culinary movement. The problem is that by linking technique and emotion it reduces this style of cooking to just those two concepts. Nowadays in Spain the talk is of "post-avant garde". And why not? But who are the chefs that embody it? Some say technique has taken a back seat. But that's not true, it's just less apparent.

What would you say are the guiding rules of yourcooking?

I am a son of the French tradition, I participate in the Spanish avant garde and I feed on the Nordic approach. That being said, the three cuisines would have to be different to count. But the rules are the same: quality produce, perfect cooking, respect for nature. I haven't changed anything about how I cook for fifteen years. Between 65% and 80% of the produce comes from the region. It inspires and nourishes me intellectually.