Six weeks in
Me and Guillermo at dinner tonight, 2/16
I’m six weeks into the BasqueStage at Martin Berasategui, and I’m starting to get used to the kitchen.
I’ve scribbled down dozens of recipes while a sous chef barks ingredients at me. I’ve gotten pretty good at using the sheeter to roll out paper thin laminas of dough to make crackers. My hands are dry and split from washing dishes countless times a day. I’ve learned how to cook seaweed, how to break down beef tongue, how to shave pig tail and how to poach kokotxas– tender pieces of hake fish throat- in olive oil. I’ve been sent to scrub the bathroom, then only to be offered half a roasted chicken and corn bread for lunch when I return. It’s been an interesting six weeks, as these aforementioned experiences attest.
My Lunch Crew
No restaurant is perfect, and surely neither am I. And I’d be lying if I said it hasn’t been tough. However, there is one thing I can say with total certainty and no hesitation: that the people I have met while working here are awesome. Those with whom I spend my day- like Guillermo from Madrid, Alberto from Mexico D.F., Francisco and Cesar from Argentina, Diego from Bilbao, and of course Elisha, my amazing roommate– are constant positives. I laugh with these boys, I share meals with them, I complain to them, and I learn from them.
Elisha takes flight
So this one’s for my homies. Thanks for sharing the knowledge, for bringing me lunch, for laughing at my jokes, and for making me smile.
