Rasmus Munk took the stage at Madrid Fusión Alimentos de España  to wow us with cuisine that does not just involve gastronomy, but also many other factors: art, design, social commitment, protest etc. This young Danish chef stirs up consciences with recipes that "convey messages and set out to create memories in our diners". This is how Munk uses food to address today's social problems such as plastic in the sea, use of social media, awareness of certain illnesses etc. 

At a large space in Copenhagen's old shipyards, Rasmus Munk works alongside a multidisciplinary team including professionals working in the world of design and special effects, and industrial engineers to create experiences "that take us to the very edge, out of our comfort zone". This means that presentation of meals is extremely important in Munk's work, a presentation that often outstrips the food itself because "gastronomy has many features that can limit the idea you want to convey - tastes and textures etc.; and therefore the artistic side of presentation is so important because art helps us create the dish beyond the food itself." That is how you get to experiences such as eating a chicken recipe against a backdrop simulating an intensive chicken-breeding farm, an immersive, impacting way of helping diners to realise what it means to eat this animal. 

Alchemist's social and artistic standpoint goes hand in hand with gastronomic research, using innovative techniques and projects such as the search for new sources of protein, or butterflies, or the use of worms' silk as a substitute for egg whites. 

Rasmus Munk believes that "step by step, all of us can change the world through gastronomy", a philosophy he links to recipes seeking to involve us in real problems such as, for example, bringing in more blood donors, "an idea which arose during the pandemic, when the hospitals had blood shortages", and this led to a blood-base dessert and an online project to register as a blood donor. Or large-scale projects such as his work with the new paediatric hospital in Denmark, where they will use holistic cuisine to assist with the appetites of sick children. 

Cuisine with an impact, occasionally to the point of revulsion, but seeking a balance with delicious food, Munk is opening up new horizons with a type of gastronomy that goes beyond the plate and has an effect on everyone.