martin berasategui

[ajay]

Cabrales, I do hope that you will elaborate on your meals at Azark--to do otherwise would be mean

Also, either here or elsewhere, I hope that you will provide me with some of your best guesses on what sorts of tastes and textural sensations I might hypothetically experience if I were to hypothetically take in a tweet tweet. Furthermore, it might be interesting to know (hypothetically of course) what sorts of wines would most enhance the (hypothetical) experience

[cabrales]

Apologies -- mistaken post.

Edited January 11, 2003 by cabrales (log)

[ginger chef]

i'm off to work at martin berasateguis for three months anybody got any info about him and his style and have you eaten there?

ginger chef ( new boy)

[Andy Lynes]

Welome Ginger Chef.

Did you get this stage via winning the Roux scholarship by any chance? (You don't have to answer that if you don't want to).

[CheGuevara]

the extent of my knowledge is: he's from san sebastian, in the cote basque. his food is greratly influenced by the region and he has 3 stars in the little red book - or he did at one point.

[Andy Lynes]

Here's a thread we made earlier (it wanders around a bit but it might help) : click this.

[ginger chef]

was it the 3month stage or the ginger chef bit that gave it away. yes i have been lucky enough to secure my stage in san sebastian and with the closure dates at berasatagui i get to eat at all the restaurants in and around san sebastian. which is a bonus with so many good establishments around and it is also good to break the mould and a scholar to go out of france and train. el bulli would not benefit my establishment and really probably not myself. berasatagui was chosen over arzak mainly due to the closure on a tuesday . leaving only my placement restaurant that i will have to work around to eat at.

has anybody worked in this restaurant as i am slightly worried about the language barrier, do the spanish use french for culinary terms like the brits.

regards g.c

[Bux]

We ate there about three years ago. I'm sorry we didn't take notes. I have the menu filed away somewhere. What I remember most is excellent food, that was far more satisfying than the descriptions of the dishes might lead one to expect. At the time it seemed very cutting edge. A reading of the tasting menu might have made one expect to find some shock effect, but that was hardly the case. Dishes were stunning, but tasted right. As he's part of the front line of the creative wave now influencing the current generation of Spanish chefs, it would be hard for me to guess if his food has continued to change and hard in any other way to define his style. I suspect this is going to be a rewarding three months. I hope you have internet access over there and that we may get to learn from you during these three months.

[mjmchef]

Hello gingerchef,

Congrats on your stage. You should feel good going to Berasategui's restaurant. I worked at El Bulli and Ferran Adria's main man in the kitchen hails from berasategui and told me of the time spent there. He feels that berasategui is the most influentila to him when it comes to cooking. He does have 3 stars and they spek catalan spanish also with a mixture of proper spanish and basque! It is a little difficult to understand at first but since you will probably be the only english speaking fellow their I am sure you will pick it up easy. If you are looking for an excellent place to eat when you get there besides El Bulli. there is a restaurant called El celar de con Raca. It was one of my top 3 dining experiences I have ever ate at. He is in Girona. Try and visit the twins at Jardin des seins in montpellier France. I hope I was of some help.

[Bux]

This has been covered before, but Catalan is not a dialect of Spanish. It is a distinct language and differs from Spanish as much as French differs from Spanish. In fact, I find it's often closer to French than Spanish. I've found that most Spaniards refer to Spanish as Castilian. I'm also surprised to learn that they speak Catalan in Berasategui's kitchen although it may be that he has so many cooks from Catalonia that it's a common language the way Spanish is in so many NYC restaurant kitchens. Catalan is a romance language. The Basque language is not.

El Bulli and El Celler de Can Roca are in Catalonia along with several other significant restaurants. El Raco de Can Fabes is formost among them. Barcelona and all its restaurants are in Catalonia. Catalonia is on the Mediterranean coast of northern Spain.

Martin Berasategui is in the Basque region on the Atlantic Ocean side of northern Spain just south of France. Donostia (San Sebastian) is the largest city. See the thread on Donostia for information about notable restaurants there. Arzak is probably the father of new Basque Cuisine. His daughter heads the kitchen now, although he's still active.

These two areas (Basque & Catalonia) have been the home to the driving forces in the current avant garde of Spanish cuisine.

[Andy Lynes]

was it the 3month stage or the ginger chef bit that gave it away.

A bit of both! Congratulations on your success and good luck with the stage.

[mjmchef]

Thank you for the geography lesson Bux, but to clarify that while living in Spain and speaking spanish fluently I must tell you that the Spaniards classify the countries language into 3 categories as I mentioned 1. Is the spanish that you regard to that we speak in N.Y but with a lighter lisp on certain words. 2. Catalan spoken by the castilians. When Ferran spoke we understood but when he involved words of catalan you got confused.3. as far as the french part I observed that basque had alot of french influence in the words they spoke and had no understanding to me in spanish tongue.

gingerchef! I suggest you get a spanish dictionary as well as a cataln dictionary translated to english, because at least if you are housed with others from work you can learn much quicker as they will want to learn English just the same.

[tighe]

Sorry mjm, Bux is right and you're mistaken. Castillian is classical Spanish and Catalan is a distinct, though also 'romance', language. If they are speaking Catalan in a restaurant in San Sebastian, I'd be shocked. I wouldn't even comment, but I've spent some time Catalunya, and if you suggested that their language was 'Castillian', most of them would probably slit your throat.

This page gives a good run-down of the different laguages spoken is Spain:

Languages Spoken in Spain

Edited May 13, 2003 by tighe (log)

[Bux]

I'm not a speaker of Spanish, although I have some insight into it as my wife is a native speaker of Spanish, albeit a Latin American variety. Tighe, thanks for that web site. I've run across many dealing with the languages of Iberia and of southern France, but this one handled the subject of the languages of Spain very succinctly and managed to add to my store of information. I had heard before that Catalan was spoken in a part of Sardinia or Sicily, I see it's Sardinia. I think this may have been touched on here at eGullet in a discussion covering the use of pasta in Catalan cooking. Euskera is famous for it's lack of relation to any other language. Although it shares a lot of modern words with Spanish. it is basically unintelligible to either French or Spanish speakers as well as the rest of the non Euskera speaking world. I was surprised to learn how unique Gallego (Galician) is when we went to Galicia several years ago. It sounds a lot like Portuguese. I had never heard of Bable until a month or so ago and was amused by that term. There's a web site for Arenys de Mar that offers a version in multiple languages. Quite a few of them are spoken on the Iberian peninsula. The names are listed in Catalan, but I can guess most of them.

I've not worked or lived in either the Basque or Catalan regions, but I'm a little confused by mjmchef's last post. Ginger chef raises an interesting issue and one I've never thought about. Do professional kitchens in Spain use French terms as much as they do in the UK and the US? I also wouldn't be surprised to find cooks from France and the US staging in Berasategui's kitchens.

[ginger chef]

cheers guys i will look forward to going out there even though i am more confused than ever on the language now. i will keep you all informed on whats going on and where i have eaten. off to boyers in champagne now for a munch.

regards g c

[seanw]

I visited MB & Arzak last year. MB does speak french & his cuisine is very much aligned with contemporary french, he has worked in a number of top french kitchen's (Troisgros i think) & every year he sends a brigade member to Michel Bras to stage. The french connection makes sense considering the close proximity of the border, when i dined their the majority of diners were french. So ginger if you are well versed in kitchen french or spanish you will have no problem. I understand your choice of MB over el bulli, MB is more transferable to the general UK kitchen & MB has got some really interesting ideas, which could very well have been influenced by the whole el bulli movement(Arzak has a stronger link to el bulli which can be seen in it's lab, ask to see it ,Igor will show you all the gadgets. ) but is translated along far more classic lines. I'm sure you will want to rotate around the departments but work garde manger & fish, I was not wowed by the meat or pastry but it was a year ago so things may have changed.Good luck.

[vserna]

i'm off to work at martin berasateguis for three months anybody got any info about him and his style and have you eaten there?

ginger chef ( new boy)

French will get you by.

They'll work you to death. Be ready for it. It will be very instructive but harsh. That's the consensus amongst young cooks I know who've done stints at Martín's place - tougher than most any other place in Spain.

[el nino]

my son did a stage there a thew month ago an he really liked it,the only thing he was concerned about ,was the chef"s attitude.in his kitchen you will be expected to communicate only in spanish ,have no facial hair of any kind ,no tatoo,and nearly no break!!they gave my son such a hard time because of his little goatie!now,i dont know anything about work in a kitchen ,but this is ridiculous!

[Bux]

El nino, welcome to eGullet. I think we'd all understand a possible reluctance to share any problems he had with the chef's attitude, but is there any chance you could get your son to post some of his thoughts about his stage at Berasategui? Has he worked in any other kitchens in Spain or France? Generally speaking, a cook's life is hard and hardest yet on the bottom of the ladder. We've had discussions elsewhere on eGullet about kitchen practices that would not be gotten away with in any other profession. and that's here in the US. In Europe an apprentice may be treated much worse. The business about the beard is a bit surprising because I know several French chefs in NYC who have had goatees, but I've also met cooks who think joining the Marines would be good preparation for life in the kitchen.

When you say your son liked his stage, I assume that means he thought he got a lot out of it, rather than that he had a good time although I suppose there's some reward with working with the best and having co-workers with the same passion.

[ginger chef]

YES PLEASE COULD YOU FIND MORE INFORMATION ABOUT MB FOR ME I WANT TO BE AS PREPARED AS POSSIBLE AND FIRST IMPRESSIONS GO A LONG WAY. WHAT HOURS DID HE WORK (THE HOURS DONT CONCERN ME BUT IT WOULD BE NICE TO HAVE AN IDEA) AND DAYS OFF , HE IS LISTED AS SUNDAY NIGHT AND ALL DAY MONDAY TUESDAY IS THIS THE SAME DAYS THAT THE CHEFS HAVE OFF, AS I WAS HOPING TUESDAY WOULD BE MY EAT OUT DAY AS EVERYWHERE ELSE IS CLOSED SUN/MON. I DONT HAVE ANY SPANISH KNOWLEDGE BUT I AM SLOWLY READING MY WAY THROUGH PHRASE BOOKS BUT WE ALL KNOW READING IS ALOT DIFFERENT TO ACTUALLY BEING BAWLED AT ACROSS THE KITCHEN. ANYTHING THAT CAN HELP ME WOULD BE GREATLY APPRECIATED.

KIND REGARDS

GC

[Andy Lynes]

Easy on the capitals there big guy!

If you don't mind talking about it, how do your current employers feel about losing you for 3 months solid?

[Basildog]

Welcome to Egullet Ginger Chef.

What are the chances of you posting about your stage? Members would really enjoy it. Cheers

[ginger chef]

sorry about the capitals , at work at present and quickly sent the mail out, the boss is being very supportive of the stage but obviously i will have to commit myself to the establishment for a while on my return. i have no problem reporting on my stage whilst i am out there and if i can get the info from el nino i will know alot more on my eating habits. realy looking forward to it though.

gc

[Bux]

In a recent Spanish Elle magazine, Carmen Ruscalleda, a two star Catalan chef, spoke about the willingness of Spanish chefs to share their secrets and how it's contributing to the dynamic changes in Spanish restaurant cooking today. I don't know if this is applicable to Martin Berasategui and since I don't read Spanish, my interpretation of the article is rather dependant on the snippets thrown out by my wife as she was reading it. Nevertheless, it's probably an exciting time to be working in a top Spanish kitchen and a great opportunity.

Working for a chef in his kitchen is certainly going to show you a different side of him than eating in his restaurant and socializing with him, but a sous chef from a top NY restaurant in which Martin had eaten when he visited NY, found him quite hospitable and generous with his time and information when said sous was in Martin's restaurant for a meal.