Overview

Our Basque cooking immersion (as featured in as featured in London’s Evening Standard, March 2011) is the perfect way to gain an intimate understanding for Basque cuisine from inside a real-life restaurant kitchen with expert tuition by chef Alex Barcenilla and his team. 

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Getting to the cooking school

Each day, guests will be taken by private transport then a small short boat crossing to the village of San Juan, a picture-perfect fishing village on the water’s edge. The classes take place in the corner of the village square in a real-life restaurant kitchen, just ten minutes from San Sebastian’s old town.

Our chef and real-life restaurant cooking school

Alex Barcenilla is the head chef and has over 20 years experience with two years working at Akelarre***, the 3 Michelin star restaurant in San Sebastián as well as experience working at Arzak*** (rated No. 8 in the world). His knowledge of traditional Basque cuisine coupled with experience at top level gastronomy makes him an excellent teacher and his enjoyment of sharing his passion is evident from the minute you enter his professional kitchen.

Ingredients

The quality of ingredients is fundamental to Basque cuisine. The ingredients used in the classes will be local, seasonal and of the highest quality with time taken to explain the significance and origins of all produce. For example, our squid is line caught by Juanito, a 72-year-old retired fisherman. He will come into the kitchen with his catch and explain to us how it is caught in his ‘Txipironera’.