MADRID – With inventions such as Parmesan snow, chilled sauces that “boil” with dry ice and olive-shaped capsules of “spherified” juice, the avant-garde chefs of Spain have conquered the highest peaks of international culinary acclaim.

Delicate foams and gels have replaced gazpacho and paella as culinary hallmarks, and dozens of restaurants around the country boast stars from the revered Michelin guide.

Glossy gourmet magazines routinely feature Spanish chefs, who many critics believe have replaced their French counterparts at the vanguard of culinary innovation.

But after several years in the spotlight, Spain’s star cooks have turned their knives on one another.

Santi Santamaria, one of the country’s most prominent chefs, this month launched a bruising public attack on his cutting-edge counterparts, accusing them of producing pretentious food they would not eat themselves, and potentially poisoning diners with chemicals that he said had no place in the kitchen.

“We have to decide, as chefs, if we want to continue to use the fresh products of our Mediterranean diet or opt for using additives,” he said.

Santamaria, who currently boasts six Michelin stars among his various restaurants, fired his first salvo two weeks ago when he called on Spanish authorities to investigate the use of substances such as liquid nitrogen and methyl cellulose in restaurant kitchens.

“Some chefs are offering a media spectacle rather than concerning themselves with healthy eating,” he said as he accepted a prize for his new book, La Cocina Al Desnudo (The Kitchen Laid Bare).

In it, the burly, outspoken chef, who trumpets his own dedication to natural ingredients, assails the proliferation of junk food as well as the effete creations of the Spanish avant-garde kitchen.

He singled out Ferran Adria, godfather of modern Spanish cooking and the country’s most celebrated chef, for criticism. Despite his “enormous respect” for Adria, he said he felt “a huge divorce, both ethical and conceptual, with Ferran”.

Santamaria’s comments have unleashed a storm of recrimination from the Spanish fraternity of avant-garde chefs, whose startling creations use chemistry and technology to transform familiar ingredients.

Adria’s “olive” is made by immersing a spoonful of olive puree in alginic acid, a derivative of algae, so that it forms a small sphere that explodes on the tongue. The controversy has opened the door to debate about technology versus tradition on a culinary scene that has acquired baffling monikers like “deconstructivist” and “techno-emotional.”

These chefs have dismissed Santamaria’s claims as ridiculous, arguing that many of the products they use are natural, and those that are not are harmless.

A spokesman for the Spanish Food Safety Agency, who spoke on the condition of anonymity, said additives used by Spanish chefs met European Union standards.

This article was first published in The Sunday Times on June 1, 2008.