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.