Ciao, Milano!

The city I never knew.

Basque Stage Finale

It all began with a simple pork chop…

crujiente

[surprisingly the best ever. And in Shanghai? Como?]

RobinFood Appreciation Dinner

I’m sad RobinFood filming is on hiatus for the next month, but this left us all the more reason to celebrate. And celebrate we did. Martín hosted us in his sociedad gastronómica, Zubi-Gain, in Parte Vieja of San Sebastián with the camera crew, RobinFood office team, neighbors (yes, we invited our neighbor Migueltxo, also the supplier of our hen-to-table-eggs), MB kitchen crew and more amigos. . A festive frenzy it was:

Garrote!

Sammic 50th Anniversary

Last week we catered the Sammic 50th Anniversary dinner for 30 people. We coordinated with Martín on a Basque menu, which unfortunately I have no photographic evidence of because I was busy cooking on the line…but I did manage to get a photo of the bubbly brindis (toast) at the end of the night:

burbujas

Narciso’s Backyard

This time our early monday morning visit to the Sammic factory in Azkoitia involved a pitstop to check out the locale for the Sammic 50th Anniversary dinner tuesday. To our delight, we were greeted with not only a Sammic-embellished kitchen in which to cook the following evening, but also with ponies!

caballito

Estoy en casa

For our Sammic videos, we always film in the service kitchen of Restaurante Martín Berasategui and for the personal plate dishes we film in la choza de David de Jorge on the set of Robin Food. This time I had the rare opportunity to film in the home kitchen of Martín Berasategui.

camera

Flexibility Test

One of the most important things you learn as a BasqueStage or any stage coming to Restaurante Martín Berasategui is to be flexible. I always talk about how every day here is an aventura (adventure) and it is, a challenging one for that matter. No matter how prepared I come with my moleskine notebook of ideas, schedules and plans, I am always thrown a curveball. Or a sinker. Or a change-up. Or a knuckleball. Just like in baseball, BasqueStage requires you to sharpen your reaction time, then translate it to Spanish.

For instance, for each Sammic filming day, Athena and I have one grabación (recording) in the kitchen of Restaurante Martín Berasategui where we demonstrate Sammic machines and the other grabación in Hagrid’s hut, also known as la choza de David de Jorge (literally a hop and a skip away on the premises of MB) where we film a personal dish.

Recipe Planning

Kokotxas al Pil-Pil

Kokotxas Sammic

Our Kokotxas de Bacalao al Pil-Pil videos are up!

Patatas con Chorizo

For our first ever Sammic videos, Athena and I showcased the potato peeler machine with the traditional Basque dish, patatas con chorizo. First we practiced the dish with Joseba, aka The General (note the artillery):

Txotx

A Week in Photos

Sometimes show is so much easier than tell. Check out snapshots of this week from the kitchen of Martín Berasatégui:

Part of Martín’s lunch:

jumbo