Lunch at the Basque Culinary Center

On Tuesday, we had lunch at the Basque Culinary Center, the local cooking school. The restaurant at the BCC is designed to give students a chance to test out dishes and experience cooking for actual customers, but also give them the experience of being waitstaff, wine stewards, etc. A six course lunch was only 24 Euros (about $29) a person.

For each course there were two choices, but we shared everything, so we got to try 12 things. Overall, the food was good, but not great. A couple of the dishes were really good and easily could be served in a high-end restaurant. Others definitely needed work.

A fish dish tasted better than it looked:

Squab was the best overall dish, and even included a bit of very good pate (on top of the squares of potatoes):

Dessert both tasted good and was well presented:

Service was a bit amateurish (of course, they are amateurs) but sincere. Many of the students did not seem extremely comfortable dealing with people. Although we did have a waiter from Austria who was great for us because he spoke Spanish slowly, as is normal for a non-native speaker, and was very easy for us to understand.

Overall, we had a really good time and definitely plan to go back and try more creations from our local culinary students.

Hasta luego,

Jeff and Shana