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: |
Category : BasqueStage, Winners
Category : BasqueStage, Winners
Marco Bahena
Hometown: Vernon Hills, IL Current Job: Teaching Assistant at Kendall College The Lowdown: Marco Bahena is a recent graduate of Kendall College in Chicago, Illinois, where he pursued a Culinary Bachelor of Arts. Over the course of his studies, he learned on the job at The Peninsula Hotel Chicago, where he had a six-month stage. Marco is also an active participant in competition cooking, winning contests at Chicago’s Greenmarket and regional awards in the San Pellegrino Almost Famous Chef competition regionals. He was also chosen as a U.S. representative for the International Student Tapas competition in Valladolid. Favorite Meal. Ever: Hands down, the tasting menu at WD-50. The menu was innovative, playful and of course delicious. The passion fruit filled foie gras with celery was my favorite course of that dinner. Every bite brought an almost giggling smile to my face, I loved it. First Thing He’ll Eat in Basque Country: Jamón ibérico. Love it, miss it, can’t wait to eat it. More Marco: |
Category : Winners
We’ve got the lowdown on the winners of the II Sammic Scholarship by BasqueStage coming your way soon. To whet your appetites until then, we present the videos the winning candidates, Marco Bahena and Cameron Rolka, that helped them garner the prestigious scholarship. They will be joining the team at Martín Berasategui in July, and you’ll be able to follow their every dice, slice and chop. For now, though, check out these awesome videos!
marco bahena:::
cameron rolka:::
Category : BasqueStage, Sammic Scholarship, Winners
Congratulations, to already announced winner Marco Bahena and our latest winner, Cameron Rolka!
Due to a scheduling conflict with our previously announced winner, Jane Tran, we had the pleasure of nominating Cameron Rolka for the next Sammic scholarship with the BasqueStage project.
Cameron Rolka is finishing his culinary studies at the Art Institute of Portland. He has taken the initiative in putting his education to action– in addition to creating the first student employee position, he assists with cooking classes and moonlighted as a baker, making award-winning baguettes in Ann Arbor, Michigan.
You can get a sneak peek into Cameron’s cooking sensibility at his blog. Marco’s blog, Journeys in Food, can be read here.
BasqueStage Team is working hard to welcome Athena Thickstun and Tracy Chang, the winners of I Sammic Scholarship.
The flat they will share is located within a walking distance to Martin Berasategui Restaurant in Lasarte. The 2 bedroom, 2 bathroom flat has two big terraces and is located close to the train station, making it very easy for the Scholars to move around San Sebastian area.
Right now, we are getting documents ready so that both Scholars will get their visa in time to be here by mid-January. We are preparing the blogs so that they can start telling their experience from the fist moment. And much more.
At the same time, we are already discussing about the next editions of Sammic Scholarships, which will be launched in February and the winners would spend the second semester 2011 in Lasarte.
Yesterday was a big day. Chef Martín Berasategui gave a great speech at San Sebastian Gastronomika, which we tweeted live and at the end of which the names of the winners of I Sammic Scholarship were announced.
The organizers are proud of each one of the candidates and the demanding jury studied the best of them. But only 2 had to be the Winners, and at last we heard their names:
We are getting everything ready to welcome them. At the same time, BasqueStage team is already planning the next edition of Sammic Scholarships. If you did not win this time or did not manage to apply for the first edition, stay alert for 2nd Sammic Scholarship contest!