The fifth Meeting of the Seas congress could not have got off to a better start than with the Sea Chef, a vocational fisherman who skilfully heads up the kitchen at leading Cádiz restaurants Aponiente and Alevante.

With his four Michelin stars, Angel León has made history by taking sea produce to another dimension, driven by his passion for the sea and for fishing, thanks to his extensive knowledge of the enormous potential of a sector he masterfully projects in his kitchen.

A habitual speaker at congresses and prestigious institutions such as Harvard University or The Culinary Institute of America, León began his presentation with the amusing fragment of a meal among the crew in the film "Twenty thousand leagues under the sea", full of imaginary recipes from sea produce. “And so we imagine that land doesn't exist, and we can only eat what we get from the sea", explained the Cádiz chef.

León believes that "the sea needed a Congress like the Meeting of the Seas, where we as chefs are less important than fishermen and scientists, marvellous links in the chain, without whom there would be nothing else". His talk discussed Aponiente's work lately, based on the utilisation of marine waste, with which they have created a line of surprising and delicious desserts. “We decided to stop throwing out items such as fish skin, scales and eyes, and we use them in recipes that reduce or remove the taste of the sea", he said.

And, to explain their work, he touched on some of the surprising creations, such as fish skin butter and caramel flutes as an accompaniment for coffee, moray eel skin wafer biscuits, fish scale crunch with dried fruits, marine Black Forest cake made from fish collagen and fat, flat tart and fritters with a filling of roe creme caramel from crab leftovers, or the surprising "sea popcorn" ice cream fashioned from the whites of fish eyeballs. Other similar delicacies are seaweed "tatin" tart and sea gummies, "all of which were well thought out to create the ultimate departure that Aponiente's food needed", he said.

The sea chef has promised some new features for the next season, to be presented at Madrid Fusión, in relation to the discovery of new ingredients, a project which commenced with his already famous sea cereals. “I'm now enjoying my life hugely, and what's most important to me now is to enjoy discovering new things that will open up another avenue at Aponiente, which is more than a restaurant - it's like Jules Verne’s Nautilus. The new season will be so magical, and so we go on dreaming and go on sailing", he concluded.