Thursday, October 28, 2010

The Basque country, and putting it all on the line.

It's coming down to the wire...

As some of you know, I applied for a chance to win a stage in the Basque region of Spain, under the chef Martin Berasategui, in his 3 Michelin star restaurant in Lasarte. I was told about the competition by my school's career advisor before the registration was open, and applied as soon as it was possible. Since then, I've checked the site every day, watching as other contestants signed up. Every time I think about it, my heart races a little.

I've always wanted to go to Spain, and it seemed like the contest was created just for me.

I bared my soul through my blog, put up pictures of my food, and kept working towards my ultimate goals by staging in 1 and 3 Michelin starred restaurants here in Las Vegas. I sent in my resume, and wrote an essay explaining why I wanted this opportunity. I told them about my experiences on the line in fine restaurants here in Las Vegas, about my love of cooking and food. I pulled together resources, and had a friend help me make a video since I didn't own the equipment myself. There wasn't much time to make the video, so I chose simple dishes that required little prep time.

The deadline for entries is the 31st of this month, then they will announce the winners on November 22nd. At this point, all I can do is wait, fingers crossed, to hear the results.

My only hope is that the people judging the contest will be able to see my intense passion for food and cooking. My goal in life is to someday open a restaurant, to someday have a Michelin star myself. Being able to do something as incredible as this would be a huge step in that direction, and I'm humbled by the chance to even apply for such an extraordinary opportunity. I'm not going to pretend that I have it in the bag, or that I'm better than anyone else, but in my heart I don't think that anyone out there could possibly want to win this more than I do.

If I don't win, I will be disappointed, but it won't be the end. I will apply again, I will keep knocking on doors, keep putting in 100% effort into everything I do, because this is so important to me, this is what I want to do, and nothing will stop me from trying to get there.

That's what passion is all about.

For now, I'm going to try to focus on everything I have going on here, and keep hoping for the best. Tomorrow morning I'm heading to L.A. to see my brother, so I'll be sure to blog and tweet about the fun I'm sure to have over the weekend. On Monday afternoon, we start filming, and we're doing 11 hour days in the kitchen for the next two weeks.

So to my friends, thanks for letting me put this out there, and for being as supportive as anyone could possibly be. For the people at Sammic and Martin Berasategui, thank you for the opportunity, and I really, really hope to meet you soon.

Deseame suerte.

Adios.

No comments:

Post a Comment