India, Oct. 9 -- Heston Blumenthal is probably the most influential chef in the world to still run a restaurant. The only other chef who could be mentioned in the same sentence, Ferran Adria, gave up on El Bulli, the restaurant that made his reputation, 14 years ago. Only Blumenthal is still at it, changing the rules and transforming the way we think about food.

I thought of Blumenthal for two reasons this week. The first is that he was honoured at San Sebastian's prestigious Gastronomika conference for his enormous contribution to food.

This is a huge deal by any standards. But as foodies will tell you, in chef terms, it is almost unparalleled because the Spanish, who replaced the French as the leaders of global cuisine (and now have t...