Eneko AtxaMichelin Stars: Eneko Atxa is one of the brightest stars in the younger generation of Basque chefs. His restaurant, Azurmendi, was the first in Biscay to win two Michelin stars. He has won several awards, including “Chef of the Future” and has appeared in countless media, all the way to Gourmet magazine. More info: |
Category : Selection Process, Star Chefs
Category : Selection Process, Star Chefs
David de JorgeMichelin Stars: none yet, but he’s a TV star David de Jorge is the right hand of Martín Berasategui and a genuine media beast. He tries to claim a natural and -in his words- “no-bullshit” cooking style for everyday’s life. He also hosts one of the most promising spanish cooking TV show these days, from behind Restaurant Martín Berasategui. More info: |
Hilario ArbelaitzMichelin Stars: At the Zuberoa Restaurant, Hilario Arbelaitz offers a flavoursome, imaginative cuisine with strong contrasts, using the finest local products. Hilario sets out to woo diners with his exquisite creamy dishes and his cuisine might be considered to mark the highest level of gastronomic craftsmanship. More info: |
Category : Selection Process, Star Chefs
Pedro SubijanaMichelin Stars: Student of the renowned master of chefs Luis Irizar, has managed to highlight his restaurant Akelarre with highest honors at prestigious gastronomic guides. His role as culinary master has been equally prolific in both European and American institutions and on television where he has recorded more than 1400 shows since 1992. More info: |
Category : BasqueStage, Selection Process, Star Chefs
Over the next week, we’d like to introduce you to the people who make up the jury for BasqueStage. They are distinguished chefs, and in previous rounds have included such notables as Thomas Keller and Juan Mari Arzak. They are tastemakers not just in the Basque Country culinary scene, but also on the worldwide stage.
Today, we will introduce you to the president of this year’s jury and the chef who currently hosts BasqueStages, Martín Berasategui. Over the following days we will present the remainder of the jury, so stay tuned for a roster of some of the region’s most talented cooks.
Martin BerasateguiSammic Scholarship Jury PresidentMichelin Stars: After a lifetime dedicated to restoration, seasoned with awards and international recognition, Martin is one of the cornerstones for understanding contemporary cuisine. As Sponsor of BasqueStage, he has been entrusted to lead the jury in the task of assessing the candidacies and selecting two young chefs that will be awarded with Sammic Scholarships. More info: |
If you follow BasqueStage via Twitter, Facebook, or our blog, you know that our current stages, Marco and Cameron, are working hard and playing hard in the kitchen of Martín Berasategui.
You may also know they have a privileged position, learning as stages in a three-star restaurant but with all their expenses paid, as special Sammic scholars.
But do you know that it’s almost time to begin the III Sammic Scholarship for BasqueStage application process? And that you, or an aspiring chef you know, has the chance to do the same?
The BasqueStage Scholarship is a collaboration between Sammic, a European company that manufactures equipment for professional kitchens, and Martin Berasategui, one of the most renowned chefs in the world with over a dozen Michelin stars to his name.
It’s a program that carries on the tradition of nurturing young chefs, which is one of the peculiar characteristics of the culinary community of Basque Country, and one of the principal reasons it is home to more Michelin stars per person than anywhere else in the world. The stages work at Berasategui’s three-star restaurant in Lasarte, Spain, just outside of San Sebastián in the Basque Region of Spain. The jury that chooses the two winners is packed with culinary luminaries, such as Daniel Bouloud, Thomas Keller, and Pedro Subijana. BasqueStage winners receive a 6-month, all-expense-paid stage and have an instant platform to share their experiences with other chefs and lovers of food, through blog, video and social media.
Tracy Chang and Athena Thickstun were the winners of the first round of BasqueStage, which took place from January 2011 to June 2011. Their rich experience here, immersed in the kitchen life at Martín Berasategui as well as the enchanting community of Basque Country, has been chronicled for you to enjoy. You can read about their past adventures, and what they’ve gotten up to since then, on their blogs: tracyfearless.com and athenathickstun.com). Or if you’re wondering what advice they would leave to their successors, on the BasqueStage blog they left two letters of advice for all future stages.
Our II Sammic Scholars, the promising young cooks Marco Bahena and Cameron Rolka, are still in their honeymoon period at the restaurant. Follow them by the minute on the adventure of a lifetime!
Do you want to be the next Sammic Scholar for BasqueStage? As we’ve mentioned, for the third round of BasqueStage, we are opening the scholarship up to all nationalities! While the previous grants were limited to the USA, the amount of interest from other countries has prompted us to open the playing field to young cooks everywhere. We are in the process of contacting schools, restaurants, media and others about BasqueStage. If you need more information, all you have to do is contact us at info@basquestage.com.
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Category : Winners
Athena Thickstun, I Sammic Scholar for BasqueStage, left us a note for our new stages, Marco Bahena and Cameron Rolka. Read on for some hard-earned words of kitchen wisdom:
Category : Sammic Scholarship, Winners
The team at Sammic, the manufacturer of fine foodservice equipment and sponsor of BasqueStage, is proud to confer the title of Sammic Ambassador to Athena Thickstun and Tracy Chang. As the first to complete the BasqueStage in Restaurant Martín Berasategui, the two women are also the first Ambassadors to be named. They will maintain a link with the company and put their extensive knowledge of the Sammic machines they used in Martín Berasategui and in the filming of their videos to use in the real world.
Sammic is one of Europe’s leading designers and manufacturers of Foodservice Equipment, specializing in Food Preparation, Food Preservation, and Hot Temp Ware Washing. Longtime technological partner of chef Martín Berasategui and based only 30 kilometers away from his restaurant, this 50-year-old company has just started operations in the US.
Category : BasqueStage, Winners
Cameron Rolka
Hometown: Saint Johns, Michigan Current Job: Teaching assistant at Sur La Table by day, stage at Castagna by night. The Lowdown: Cameron Rolka is a recent graduate of The Art Institute of Portland, where he majored in culinary arts. His interest in a culinary career began with baking and pastry classes at a local community college in Michigan, and continued into the professional kitchen in Ann Arbor. In Portland, he assisted with culinary classes while he completed his schooling, also creating his position as the first student worker, running the storeroom and organizing the behind-the-scenes. He has worked with some of Portland’s notable chefs, including Cory Schreiber and Vitaley Paley. Favorite Meal. Ever: Aside from growing up with a big garden and eating buckets of fresh berries every spring, I would have to say Paley’s Place in Northwest Portland would be my favorite meal. Every step of the meal had great attention to detail, from the charcuterie plate—testarossa, chicken & black truffle galantine, and coppa? Yes please. Crispy Sweetbreads? yup. Spanish peanut custard, concord grape, speck chip, and salted ice cream? Of course! First Thing He’ll Eat in Basque Country: I would definitely hope it’s either something from a local favorite lunch spot, or a home cooked meal by a Basque grandmother. More Cameron: |