Sammic, coinciding with their milestone of 50 years in business, wanted to do something special to give back to its global community and mark such an occasion. BasqueStage is driven by Sammic’s desire to contribute something unique and truly valuable for the new generation of cooks and chefs.
Sammic was founded in, and is still based out of Europe’s culinary epicenters: the Basque Country of Spain, which has more Michelin stars per capita than anywhere else in the world. Sammic’s equipment happens to be used by most of these Basque star restaurateurs.
An idea is born: create a grant/scholarship to allow young international chefs to boost their professional career by teaming with Chef Martín Berasategui , whose restaurant in Lasarte has maintained its three-star rating from Michelin since 2001, and has garnered a host of other accolades over the years.
This is where things start getting really interesting. This scholarship is not an ordinary one. We are looking for highly motivated, young, talented and creative Chefs. Aside from becoming a part of Berasategui’s international team they also need to share their experience with the rest of the world. That’s why we are also looking for good communicators.
And why only the USA in this first edition? First of all, the potential dimension that a project like this could acquire is unknown, so we decided to focus all our organization efforts in a specific geographical area and work together with its main culinary schools to promote it. Secondly, it needs to be a region in which Sammic had its own presence. Finally, we knew that a stage of this kind would be very attractive to any ambitious US chef. There are only 6 three-Michelin stars in the whole United States, where in San Sebastian we have three.
We will be presenting Basque Stage to the public at the Star Chefs International Chefs Congress that takes place in New York City between September 20th and 22nd. Two months later, at the San Sebastian Gastronomika Congress (that coincidentally this year is dedicated to the New York City), we will be announcing the two winners for this first edition.
We have all the right ingredients for a successful Basque Stage. We are carefully preparing this recipe for success and we hope you enjoy it with us!
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How can I apply to this stage?
Thanks for your question. You can already apply for the stage registering here. We recommend you to follow us on Facebook and Twitter and to visit our blog regularly, as more information could be published in the next days.