The countdown to the end of the first-ever Sammic Scholarship for BasqueStage is now at a week! We know Tracy and Athena have put their blood, sweat and tears into their six-month stages here in the kitchen of Restaurant Martín Berasategui. So we were wondering, what are some of the moments, food, and memories that they will look back fondly on from the kitchen? Here’s what they told us:
Tracy’s favorite memory:
The every day surprises. spontaneous combustion? check. 4 ft long corvina? check. Pierre Hermé? check.
Her favorite dish:
If I only had one favorite dish, I wouldn’t be working here. Top three in no specific order: Salmonete con escamas comestibles: crispy, edible scales? Porfa! Or Pichon. No one makes it this tender, not Mugaritz, not Café Boulud, not Robuchon. Or Ensalada Tibia. No salad has ever made a wowing impression on me until this one.
Athena’s favorite dish:
It’s hard to choose a favorite, because the food’s all really good, but I have a soft spot for the pigeon dish. I spent a lot of time working on it, all the components are fabulous, the plate is beautiful, and the pigeon itself is the best I’ve ever tried.
Her favorite memory:
There’s so many! I’m hard pressed to choose one, but… okay, two. “Go Team Pigeon!”, an invention by myself, my friend Luis from Mexico, and Gustavo from Argentina, when we were all in charge of plating the pigeon. We worked really well together, had perfect communication, and were all really dedicated to food. We would make little post-it note signs, hide them in our pockets, and then every once in a while, the person holding the “Go” card would catch “Team”’s gaze, then “Pigeon!” would join the fun from across the partida. It was light-hearted and fun. I miss those guys.
The second favorite memory is probably all the time spent making squid ink raviolis with Gonzalo, our shared sarcasm and dark sense of humor. So many hours folding, so many faux conflicts, good times. If you’re going to be spending 17 hours folding cephalapod skin over frozen ink cubes, you might as well spend that time with someone you can converse with intelligently.
Category : BasqueStage
Today we spent the afternoon filming with Tracy Chang in the studio behind Martín Berasategui. She prepared a dish part “Martín” and part “Tracy”: red mullet with ratatouille. The part she took from the restaurant was the salmonete, the red mullet, which is prepared simply yet exquisitely. The scales are left on the fish, and scathing hot oil is poured over the fish. The scales curl up as the fish cooks, resulting in a perfectly cooked fish and an impressive presentation.
Then, the “Tracy” part came in: ratatouille with ground porcini. The porcini mushroom, or boletus edulis, is a favorite mushroom here in Basque Country.
It appears in spring and fall, and can be found in nearly every vegetable market, a far cry from its scarcity in markets like the US. The typical preparation is in a revuelto, scrambled eggs, or grilled. Tracy used the flavor of the boleto to enrich her ratatouille, resulting in a delicious platter tasting of both earth and sea. Yum! Video coming soon.
Category : Videos
Sammic scholar for BasqueStage Tracy Chang presents a coconut bizcocho that would be right at home on the dessert menu of Restaurant Martín Berasategui. Using the coconut ice cream from the actual dessert menu, she incorporates it into one of Spain’s most popular desserts, the bizcocho (or cake). She adds her own nostalgic flavors, like star anise and ginger, and also manages to incorporate one of her favorite snacks from here, “potato” chips, made from yam. Buen provecho!
Category : BasqueStage
While we were busy talking up the next round of BasqueStage (applications close one week from now!), Tracy and Athena had a full week on their plate.
During their short hospitality industry weekend they managed to squeeze in more activity than we believed possible. Tracy kicked it chef style with Martín Berasategui at the annual culinary conference in Vitoria. The conference united more than 23 Michelin stars under one roof, including Rene Redzepi, the chef at the world’s number one restaurant, NOMA. Tracy shadowed Martín, snapping photos and rubbing shoulders with the likes of Pedro Subijana, Joan Roca, and Denis Martin. Talk about the perks of being a Sammic BasqueStage….
Athena, meanwhile, took a few days off to travel around Spain and France with her family. We suspect, however, that she was just doing some serious food and wine research…dinner at Arzak, a trip to Segovia to eat some roasted suckling pig, you get the picture. Be on the lookout for a great post on her blog about the tempranillo wines of Ribera del Duero, a region that only recently began to grab the attention it deserves as a spot for great wines.
A busy, long, and action-packed weekend for our stages, followed by a long but fulfilling week in the kitchen. You know, this could be you in July…get the details here.
Tracy and Athena bring another video to you highlighting a very popular Basque dish, kokotxas al pil-pil. This dish is often made with little more than olive oil, garlic, and kokotxas, the meat from the area around the codfish’s throath. Yet an incredible rich sauce is formed as the juices from the fish emulsify with the oil.
The keys are in the details: temperature control, handling of the fish, and a few magical flicks of the wrist. Watch the BasqueStages prepare the dish and you can pick up some helpful hints if you want to try this one at home. Which, by the way, we fully recommend. It isn’t legendary for nothing!
Category : Videos
The first BasqueStage video is officially here! Watch as chef Martín Berasategui teaches two yankees how to make one of the most traditional dishes of the region: patatas con chorizo. Garrote!
You can see Athena in another video featuring Sammic’s line of products here.
It’s been a whirlwind first week at Martin Berasategui for the Sammic Basque stages. Tracy and Athena started Wednesday, arriving bright and early (9 am!) to the kitchen, chef whites ironed and knives sharpened. The stages have the unique position of being able to pick the station where they want to begin working, and Athena made a beeline for meats while Tracy chose to man the fish station. The stages were pleasantly surprised at all they were encouraged to see and do, as Athena describes in her blog:
Chef Martin spent the first half of the week at Madrid Fusion , an annual gastronomic conference. He returned to the kitchen at the end of the week, as Tracy recounts us in her blog: “Having looked only at squid ink raviolis for the extent of my evening, it was nice to look up from the dishes at the end of service and see Chef Martin smiling and waving to me. He gave me a big thumbs up and said “Sammic!” Then we talked about Japanese knives for a while. It’s humbling to see a chef shake his stages’ hands at the end of the night and chat like buddies. Here’s to many more nights.”
The widely accepted motto of kitchen life is ‘work hard, eat hard.’ So Tracy and Athena headed into San Sebastián on their nights off to take in a little more of the pintxo food culture….
Pintxos, for the uninitiated, are a trademark of Basque Country and the equivalent to the Spanish tapa. They are typically a little larger, and you pay for each pintxo individually, unlike tapas, which are often included in the price of your drink. The best way to enjoy pintxos is by hopping from bar to bar, also known as the poteo, getting a drink and a pintxo at each place.
San Sebastián is known for its pintxos…stay tuned as Tracy and Athena attempt to try every single one. At the rate they’re going, they may just succeed.
Basque Stage, Day 1. The stage has officially begun! Tracy Chang and Athena Thickstun, the winners of the first Sammic Basque Stage scholarship, entered the kitchen at Martin Berasategui Restaurant yesterday. The restaurant, which has three Michelin stars, is located in Lasarte, where the girls share the BasqueStage apartment. The much-anticipated first day saw Tracy head to the fish station and Athena to meats. Athena and Tracy each will be chronicling their experience on their blogs, and the lowdown on the first day is coming soon!
It hasn’t even been a week since they arrived, but the girls have already had a whirlwind intro to the best that Basque Country has to offer.
They arrived on the eve of San Sebastián’s biggest festival, the Tamborrada, after 24 hours of traveling. Determined to see the famous festival firsthand, they grabbed coffee and drumsticks before hitting the streets to watch the gastronomic societies of Donosti parading all night long. Like true donostiarras, Tracy and Athena donned their very own drums.
They used their last weekend before the stage to savor some of the area’s finest offerings—its pintxos, its views, and, of course, its ham. Jamón ibérico de bellota, of course.
A trip to Azkoitia, about fifteen minutes outside of San Sebastián and Lasarte, marked the girls’ first time in the Sammic factory. Everyone was thrilled to meet the Sammic scholarship winners. There they watched aluminum being poured and mixers being fashioned in the foundry, as well as the crafting of Sammic’s very first product, the potato peeler. Check out their reactions here and here.
After a tour of the showroom, everyone headed off to enjoy some sidra, or Basque cider, in a typical cider house. There they feasted on steak, omelettes, pimentos del piquillo, bacalao (salt cod), and, of course, cider.
Off to a good start. But now the heat’s on, in the kitchen at Martin Berasategui. Good luck, girls!