The setting could not have been more appropriate – The Double Club, the bar/restaurant/club that Carsten Holler, the artist who put the slides into the Turbine Hall, has been running in Islington for the last few months. And the debate was lively, if somewhat eccentric.

Ferran Adria, the chef honoured for transforming gastronomy, was scathing of the notion that any chef could run several outposts of a restaurant without actually naming his British colleagues who do so. For him, a restaurant can’t even open for lunch, such is the energy required for a proper evening performance. And he had no doubt that "creativity" was at the heart of his success. Sadly, that means Adria absolutely ruled out opening a restaurant in London.

And the decision on whether cooking was an art form was left hanging as everyone – Antony Gormley, Nicholas Serota and all - returned to the wine and exquisite canapés.

Is cooking an art form? I don’t know. But you can have a very fine party trying to find out.