Family cuisine: hereditary chefs talk about choosing a profession. Chef Alexander Mozharov: “Food should be tasty and delicious” Chef Alexander Belkovich with his wife and daughter
Member Name: Alexander Belkovich
Age (birthday): 22.11.1984
City: Severodvinsk, Arkhangelsk region
Job: Belka restaurant (St. Petersburg)
Family: married, have children
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Alexander Belkovich was born on November 22, 1984 in the small naval town of Severodvinsk in the Arkhangelsk region. From the age of six he was passionate about cooking.
Now an experienced brand chef of a large chain of restaurants in St. Petersburg, the owner of his own culinary school and the star of the STS TV channel, with a smile on his lips, recalls how, in his youth, he presented a homemade super sandwich with bread and sausages and made yogurt home cooking according to your own recipe.
When Sasha was in the 9th grade, he began to think about how to study to be a cook. He even came up with the idea of getting a job at McDonald's.
In 2000, he graduated from the Arkhangelsk cooperative technical school, after which he moved to live in the capital and began to think about getting a job in one of the kitchens of Moscow restaurants.
At the age of 26, the guy was able to become the curator of 7 restaurants that were considered the most fashionable in Russia: Plyushkin, Ginza Project, Volga-Volga, Terrassa, Moscow, Baranka, Mansarda, Ribay.
Alexander assures that not only culinary skills, but also the vein of a true businessman helped him achieve success. Thus, restaurants began to enjoy success with regular customers. At the age of 17, it was difficult to find a place in the capital, there were even cases when Sasha was left without work without paying benefits.
One day he was in the kitchen of Correa's, under the guidance of Puerto-American chef Isaac Correa, who taught him all the basics of work. This man became a teacher for Sasha and inspired him to new achievements. Together they collaborated for 5 years. Moscow allowed Sasha to discover his talent, and in 2006 the guy moved to St. Petersburg, where he began working as a chef in the Ginza Project network.
Alexander always gives himself to work, tries to give energy to his wards and inspire masterpieces, he does not sit still, moving around the kitchen. Despite the fact that success came to Sasha at a young age, he was not overtaken by star fever. He assures that snobbery has a detrimental effect on work, and therefore he does not have time for these nonsense.
Belkovich is not only a talented chef, but also in 2010 he published his cookbook called "Open Kitchen", where he presented to readers interesting dishes, which are based on simple products.
Belkovich calls his secret of success the ability to develop his flair and correctly understand the tastes of people visiting his restaurants. Thanks to the ability to feel the taste of many, special combinations, he was able to create dishes that appeal to all guests of the institution.
Alexander is ambitious, purposeful and hardworking, he devotes a lot of time to work and is always ready for new discoveries. In 2015, he became the host of the show “Masterchef. Children". Since 2017, she has been working as a host on the Just a Kitchen show, demonstrating that even from the available ingredients from modern stores, anyone can cook a restaurant dish.
In addition to cooking, Alexander enjoys snowboarding, boxing, playing basketball and traveling. Married to his wife Olga, together parents raise a sweet daughter named Isabella. In 2017, Alexander and Olga had a son.
Alexander's photo
The chef has an Instagram where you can see many personal photos from everyday life.
Chef at Varvara Restaurant and Winil Bar
Date of Birth: November 12, 1981
Place of Birth: Kolomna
In childhood I wanted to be an athlete or a rock star.
I studied in KSPU No. 6 with a degree in "cook", then in KSPI at the Faculty of Physical Education and Sports, in the Italian culinary school ICIF.
Career started from the position of a cook in a pioneer camp.
First work day didn't remember anything.
The hardest thing was Butchering a carcass with a dull knife at 17.
My interests- sports, motorsport, movies, books.
Favorite places- "Moscow-Delhi", Winil Wine Bar, Delicatessen.
Most memorable restaurant- Restorante Arnolfo in Italy.
I consider it good luck the beginning of work in the restaurant "Scandinavia".
Career turning point I will call the end of the work in "Scandinavia".
I'm inspired people, travel, books.
The most unusual dish which I tried - brains in the St. Petersburg "Tartarbar".
My main principle in work— You Must Create.
My most favorite dish- noodles.
I prefer drinks masala tea.
In development plans- Open your own restaurant.
Flight of my fantasy restrained only by the limits of decency.
My work day lasts 16 hours.
For happiness I do not have enough dogs.
The specifics of my work— in constant creativity.
Today, the competitive advantage of the restaurant lies in hard work.
Today guests appreciate individual approach.
Distinctive feature restaurant business in Russia, in my opinion, unprofitable.
Follow the trends- utopia.
Fashion is fading away to molecular cuisine.
The most difficult thing after opening a restaurant- keep the level.
Ideas for improving the service I draw from visiting other restaurants.
For professional development I read and go to internships.
At work, it still surprises me that she doesn't get bored.
I usually read books sites on the Internet. My last read was Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance.
The best holiday for me- leisure.
I specialize in cuisine of Italy, Sweden, Asia.
My most unusual dish- veal thymus gland.
My favorite product- eggs.
The most unusual ingredient which I used - probably the earth.
I don't like to work with sweet, confectionery.
Most of all I get tired from people.
I don't think it's banal no single culinary style or dish.
He goes on a journey, his path lies straight to the market. It is from him that he begins his acquaintance with any city. Arriving at the dacha to friends, the culinary specialist is ready to pluck half a bush of blackcurrant without a twinge of conscience. His first gastronomic experiments were a sandwich made from Darnitsa bread with sausages and homemade fruit yogurt, and today the 27-year-old chef knows how to prepare a dish that will become a hit.
“Cooking is no more difficult than tying your shoelaces,” Alexander assures in his book Open Kitchen. This simple philosophy, as well as youth, charm, pumped up biceps and a craving for gardening, make him related to the British Jamie Oliver, whose recipe for baked onions breaks all conceivable popularity records.
Belkovich's chicken cutlets with gooseberry sauce are the best in St. Petersburg.
Alexander told our St. Petersburg columnist Galina Stolyarova about how to perceive life through taste buds.
-What products do you have a particular fondness for?
Let my answer sound trite, but I will tell you the truth. I love lemon, honey and wild northern berries - cranberries, lingonberries, cloudberries, sea buckthorn. Lemon is a great flavor enhancer. Acid and sugar are the two ingredients that intensify and brighten the taste of almost any product. Cloudberry is my favorite berry. Not everyone knows her, but her taste is simply enchanting. With pleasure I add it to sauces, make cloudberry soup and sorbet. I remember how, as a child, I went to pick cloudberries in the forest. By the way, this is the heaviest berry by weight.
-Taste of childhood for you-is it fresh cloudberries?
Yes, definitely, but not only. Still salted milk mushrooms and potatoes, but not all, but the one that froze and became sweetish in taste. I grew up in the north, in Severodvinsk, we had our own house in the forest in the Arkhangelsk region and a garden. We usually dug up the potatoes in September and then put them in the cellar, where they happened to freeze and then turn yellowish. Mashed potatoes are just amazing.
Lingonberries and cranberries - all my childhood I drank fruit drinks, and made them myself, and treated my friends. I went in for sports, and carried juice with me to every training session and competition.
White Sea fish - a separate conversation. My father and I caught smelt, navaga, flounder, whitefish. Sig was considered a delicacy. We went to the White Sea in winter, where, in principle, it was forbidden to fish without a license.
-So you were poaching?
Two whitefish per bait - not poaching! I remember that they rubbed the fish with sugar and salt, seasoned with herbs, wrapped it in a towel and left it in the refrigerator for a couple of days. I have always enjoyed going for mushrooms. I made a special arrangement at school to go on summer holidays a week earlier - and into the forest for morels. To this day, morels are one of my favorite foods. Then I started visiting my grandmother in Adygea. She had a huge garden, and I saw with my own eyes how vegetables, herbs, berries grew, I was interested, I watered, weeded, spud. There was one problem: I was afraid of snakes, and bypassed the bushes where they were found.
-Do you have your own garden or vegetable garden now?
dreaming about country house but so far I don't have it. When I come to my friends' dachas, I really surprise them with the increased attention to what they grow in their beds. For example, in the summer I was at a friend's dacha, saw a blackcurrant bush, and rushed to him - give me, narva leaves. A friend said, of course, tear as much as you want, but he was somewhat taken aback by my impulse. And the fact is that my favorite tea is with the addition of a freshly picked blackcurrant leaf. Nothing compares to this fragrance.
The super-popular English culinary specialist Jamie Oliver said that he realized the makings of a cook at the moment when he was preparing a salmon sandwich for his friend, who was used to living on chips and crackers. And when did you realize that gastronomy would become your life's work?
I love to eat. I just love this job. Of course, now I have completely different taste buds, but I have always loved to eat. With my brutal appetite, in general, it all started. Since childhood, I went to friends and relatives, no matter how ashamed to admit it, primarily in order to eat. That is, I was very glad to see them and talk with them, but all the way I was occupied with the thought of what they would treat in this house, what they would put on the table. Gradually, he began to cook.
I remember that my uncle brought fruit yogurt from abroad, and at that time you could buy only Snezhok, kefir and ryazhenka from us. And I thought it would be nice to learn how to make yogurt yourself. There were no blenders then, and I took a mixer with whisks, chopped bananas, frozen strawberries left in the refrigerator from the summer and made my own yogurt with pieces of fruit based on Snezhka. It was one of my first independent and meaningful culinary experiences.
Speaking of sandwiches. My closed sandwiches made from Darnitsa bread with sausages were famous in the swimming team. Some even tried to make friends with me, because they quickly figured out that I always had delicious homemade food with me. The father of one of my friends was a businessman, and he had a grocery store in Arkhangelsk next to our pool. This store sold a lot of sweets - rolls, muffins, Wagon Wheels bars ... I grew up in a poor family, and all this was practically inaccessible to me. And so I slapped my sandwiches at home, fed a friend, and then we went with him to the store to his father and reveled to the fullest!
At that time, the dream of my life was to participate in the Olympic Games. I so wanted to join the swimming team ... Unfortunately, I had to say goodbye to this dream. I got injured after jumping from a 10-meter tower into a quarry. The eardrum flew out, and healed for a very long time, I missed a lot of training, and could not catch up. He took comfort in the fact that he went to the karate section - and received a blue belt. In general, I was very serious about sports. When I studied at a technical school, I won the Arkhangelsk basketball championship, for example.
Famous "noses" of perfume houses travel the world in search of fragrances. Does your profession influence how you experience the world?
Certainly. My trips are, first of all, gastronomic travels. I get to know people through their kitchen and act like a taster. I will always go to the kitchen of the restaurant and chat with the chefs, 
if they are ready to let me go there, and I am equally attracted to gourmet restaurants and what is called eateries in the common people. And I will never refuse a trip to the market! It's like hunting for me. Like a real child of nature, I disconnect from all the attributes of civilization, I don’t even answer the phone, and absorb new experiences.
Often I bring a dish I like from travels, and already on the spot I adapt it to local tastes. Sometimes, however, I understand that a dish that completely shocked me either has no chance to take root in Russia - too unusual - or it will be impossible to cook due to the lack of fresh ingredients.
Once, in New York, the chef of the famous Asian restaurant Buddakan took me to the kitchen to show me how they make turtle soup. Only one breed of turtle is used and they are delivered alive. The soup is served with two glasses of alcohol: in one of them, rice vodka is mixed with turtle blood, in the other - with bile. This soup is an amazing delicacy, but the main ingredient is not available in Russia.
But I experienced the strongest gastronomic shock in Singapore. I was 21 and it was my first time abroad. Early in the morning we arrived at the seafood market. I saw almost everything that the ocean has to offer in huge aquariums, and almost went crazy with delight. There are more than two dozen species of oysters alone. We tasted everything we could. An avalanche of impressions fell upon me. Mussels, clams, a pool with sharks... On one of the aquariums, "Beware!" was written in large letters. I swam there poisonous fish fugue, which I had only read about before. It is impossible to buy fugu without a license, because its bile is almost as toxic as radioactive waste. And I still cannot forget the look of the giant king crab.
But the impression is not only something grandiose. It happens, a trifle, for example, some kind of mushrooms, and how it hurts.
Restaurants dominate in many countries national cuisine but Russia is not one of them. Why do you think?
In Russia, people in principle easily perceive the cuisine of other countries: both sushi and pasta are good here. On the one hand, foreign cuisine restaurants have become fashionable. It is obviously easier for marketers to advertise novelties than native Russian cuisine. It also matters that the dishes of Russian cuisine, where proteins and carbohydrates are often mixed, are heavy for digestion, and you won’t eat them every day. People who go to restaurants try to choose lighter meals, they monitor their weight and physical fitness.
Also, in Russia, most people don't have the money to go to restaurants more or less regularly. This culture is missing. It's one thing - megacities, but in the provinces, many people simply "sit" on pasta, stew, fried potatoes.
And yet, I will say using the example of our restaurants: craving for Russian cuisine is in our blood. Among the most popular dishes we have are borsch, Olivier salad, dumplings with cherries, vinaigrette, chicken cutlets with mashed potatoes. Because a Russian person cannot eat sushi or carpaccio every day. In the end, it will pull on something native - our receptors are more attuned to pies and fish cakes than to New York cupcakes.
-You have published the book "Open Kitchen", you teach cooking classes at the restaurant "Terrassa”, run a culinary blog on your website. Why did you decide to "go to the people"?
Of course, natural inclinations in gastronomic matters are as important as natural ear for music for a person who dreams of becoming a singer. However, human taste buds tend to change, and the best thing you can do to develop your palate is to constantly expand your range, to be enthusiastic about trying new foods, even if they seem very strange to you. It happens that the taste of some new product opens before me only for the third or fourth time.
In Russia, compared, for example, with the UK, the choice of products is very limited, and this does not contribute to interest in gastronomy. What to talk about if bacon can be found, at best, in every tenth store.
When a person cooks, he understands the process better, and this develops his flair. Therefore, if there is an interest in the process, then the culinary school will be useful to everyone, from a child to a successful chef. I am sure that even an adult, completely far from cooking, may well learn to cook from scratch. That is why I have included in the book several recipes for fantastically delicious dishes that are prepared in just minutes. This is inspiring!
I constantly develop my flair and try to perceive the tastes of people who come to my restaurants. It seems to me that I was successful precisely because I was able to feel the "taste of the majority" - those combinations that almost any guest will like.
In February 2011, you received Russian President Dmitry Medvedev and King Juan Carlos I of Spain at the Mansarda restaurant. In what mode does the restaurant work if the head of state is expected there?
When Dmitry Medvedev and the King of Spain dined with us, we did not close access to ordinary visitors. It was free to go to the restaurant and have lunch. In fact, everything is very simple. No supernatural security measures. I will say more, sometimes the security service of some deputy "puts everyone on the ears" by several orders of magnitude stronger than the protection of the president of the country. Of course, the menu was approved in advance. We formulated our proposals, the presidential representative corrected them a bit - for example, mussels were replaced with shrimps. On the day of lunch, a man came into the kitchen - a normal, cheerful guy - asked how things were, who the chef was, gave a bottle of vodka, then noticed that it probably wouldn’t be enough, since the kitchen is large, and asked to take another one from the bar and wipe tables, cutting boards, knives, forks. And then he says: “Guys, everything that you bring to the hall now, I must first try, so do the same for me, but in advance and a little bit.”
Alexander Filin was born in Moscow. Alexander began his career in the food industry in 1970. At first, Filin worked as a cook in the Yaroslavl and Vostok restaurants. Having shown his skills well, Alexander was awarded the position of assistant chef at the Vostok restaurant and the Intourist hotel restaurant. After that he worked as a chef in the restaurants of the hotels Cosmos, Savoy, Metropol, ArtSportHotel, and the Caramel restaurant.
From 1998 to 2005, he served as chef at the Red Square, Dom 1 restaurant, which received the Golden Crane national award under his leadership.
In 2010, Alexander Nikolayevich Filin opened the Grusha gastronomic atelier.
Filin Alexander Nikolayevich heads the National Guild of Chefs - a professional union of chefs and pastry chefs, founded in 2003. Member of the Moscow Culinary Association, the French National Academy of Gastronomy, the Italian Federation of Chefs.
He is an honorary member of the Israel Culinary Association. He was awarded the highest award of the Moscow Culinary Association - "a sign of recognition". He was awarded a medal and an honorary diploma from the French Gastronomy Academy. Knight of the Order of Who is who.
Head of the Department of "Practical Hospitality" of the Institute of Hospitality and Nutrition at the Russian International Academy of Tourism, and also manages practices and internships of the Institute of Hospitality and Nutrition, reads a course of lectures "Introduction to the specialty" for students of the Faculty of Technology.
He is a permanent member of the jury of culinary competitions and championships. He was awarded 6 acknowledgments from the Minister of Foreign Affairs for his work as a cook at the USSR embassies in the Netherlands (1978-1982, 1984-1988), Switzerland (1989), and the USA (1990-1994).
He was invited to the United States for the inauguration of President George W. Bush to prepare Russian dishes, and also held "Russian dinners" at the US National Watercress Club, the Metropolitan Club, the University Club, and the Russian Cultural Center. Participated in the opening of the Moscow restaurant in the city of Amsterdam, the gastronomic festival of Russian cuisine in the city of Dordrecht, in holding a Russian dinner for the laureates Nobel Prize, as well as Russian events for the political and business elite of the Netherlands in hotels, clubs and restaurants.
Alexander Nikolaevich Head of Corporate and Catering LLC "GAZPROM TORGSERVIS". In February 2016, he was invited to the position of the concept chef of the restaurant of the Central House of Writers ("C.D.L.") in the count's mansion on Povarskaya.
On the eve of the premiere of the film "Chef Adam Jones", our gastronomic columnist Vladimir Gridin asked the leading chefs of Russia about the biggest successes in their careers and failures that later turned into success.
Adrian Ketglas
Grand Cru, AQ Kitchen, AQ Chicken
The biggest success in my career, I consider coming to Moscow. Despite everything. Here I discovered new tastes, new combinations of products.
Andrey Shmakov
My greatest success is that my first chef told me so beautifully about the cuisine, ingredients and recipes that I decided to become a chef. And my next success met me in St. Petersburg in the person of Igor Pisarsky, who invited me to work in Moscow. Here am I made new friends met with outstanding and slightly crazy guys from TV and othersinteresting and exciting people.
Anatoly Komm
Anatoly Komm for Raff House
In 2009, I arrived on tour in Paris at the Hotel de Crillon almost two days later, when the legendary chef Jean-Francois Piège left the Les Ambassadeurs restaurant, having obtained two Michelin stars for him. The restaurant staff resembled the crew of a ship rushing about in a storm with lowered sails. Young Christopher Asch, newly appointed "Captain", was clearly at a loss.
For all questions about underdelivered products, the absence of necessary and pre-ordered kitchen gadgets, I received the same answer: “Monsieur Piège took everything with him when he left.”
As a result, my patience snapped. On general fee I made a speech in the best traditions of Hollywood films: that it’s too early to give up, the captain’s departure does not mean the death of the ship, and if everyone finds the strength to rally around the new boss, and also accept me not as an enemy, but as their colleague, then victory will be ours . Answers " Monsieur Piège took everything” are no longer accepted, because I hope that he could not take away their brains, souls and professional pride. My impassioned speech drew grateful glances from Christopher and most of the chefs. Alas, not all.
Some still expressed doubts about the professional suitability of the young chef and the expediency of submitting to "some Russian", ranting about the indisputable priority of the French on the culinary front. Realizing that there was nowhere else to wait for help, I quickly figured out the leader and, according to the old Russian tradition, invited him to "go out and talk." After short, but very toughly argued Russian-French negotiations, a working atmosphere finally reigned in the kitchen. This was followed by a long search for the necessary utensils and equipment, which allegedly “carried away with Piège”, and the first sincere interest of local chefs in what we are going to cook.
Andrey Korobyak
The biggest success in my career is my personal acquaintance with chef Rasmus Kofoed and an invitation to the kitchen of the Geranium restaurant (Copenhagen, Denmark). It was Rasmus who taught me the right attitude towards my team and my profession. And, most importantly, by personal example, he showed the way and the possibilities of achieving the goal. After all, no one in the world has even two statuettes of the most prestigious gastronomic competition Bocuse d "Or, and Chef Kofoed has three of them.
Anton Kovalkov
"Fahrenheit"
The biggest fortune in my life is the opportunity to do internships with the best chefs in the world. I recently met the Roca brothers, whose restaurant is now number one in the world. It is important for me to hear their opinions and ideas about my dishes. I believe that it was traveling the world and communicating with outstanding chefs that influenced my professional growth. Failures are projects that I had to leave for one reason or another. If the project is closed, for me it is always, first of all, my personal failure, I overlooked something somewhere. But it is thanks to the ups and downs that I am where I am.
Nino Graziano
Semifreddo Mulinazzo, La Bottega Siciliana, TrattoriaSiciliana
My biggest blessing is that after 45 years in the kitchen I have not lost my passion and love to cook for my friends/guests. And my luck or success in the "journalistic" sense - that I was lucky to be the first in Sicily to get 2 Michelin stars.
Konstantin Ivlev
Yesenin
Lucky I took my father's advice. Many years ago I was a swindler, a bomber, a party-goer. My father, a KGB officer, said: stop doing nonsense, do one thing and become a pro in it. And I began to delve into the world of food. The second turning point was the cuisine of the great Nobu Matsuhisa. I studied French classics, but at the beginning of the 2000s I went to America, where I came across a book by Nobu. I liked the photos of serving dishes so much that I began to mix "pan-Asia" and classics. I still follow this direction, but there are no such dishes on the Yesenin menu yet.
Dmitry Zotov
Wing or Leg, Zotman Pizza Pie, Haggis, Madame Wong
I consider the Wing or Leg pub to be the biggest success in my career. The fact that my wife and I had the guts to take the risk and how it all turned out.
Roman Shubin
"Voronezh"
Such a success for me was the amazing similarity of my taste with the taste of Alexander Rappoport, as well as the fact that I was able to demonstrate this at the right time. I remember the day we met like it was yesterday. I was asked to cook something for the founder, who was due to show up any minute. I didn’t know for whom I was cooking, what and how I should do it, but I decided to listen to my intuition and cook a couple of dishes from what happened in the kitchen. It was beef stroganoff and fried chicken with teriyaki sauce. After the tasting, Alexander Leonidovich had one question: “Why teriyaki?”. I replied that I wanted to surprise, because I realized from the products that the restaurant had already cooked chicken with a creamy garlic sauce. The degree of saltiness of the dishes, the degree of dryness of the chicken, the combination of teriyaki sweetness, the consistency of beef stroganoff - everything played in my favor during our acquaintance. So they hired me.
Dmitry Shurshakov
"Ducks and waffles", "Muesli", "We're not going anywhere"
Probably the most an important event that changed me as a person is my work at the International Trade Center in the International Hotel. I got there right after the cooking school and was the youngest member of the team. I can say that during the year of work, my brains were so “corrected” that at some point I realized that I had nothing to talk about with my peers. People put completely different values into my head than to sit on a bench in the yard and drink. But this year was really very difficult and very important. It became the starting point from which I began to shape my approach to work and to life in general.
Ivan Berezutsky
I was fantastically lucky to have the opportunity to intern at the best restaurant in the world at that time El Bulli at Ferran Adria. The fact that Sergey (Ivan's twin brother and second chef of the Twins restaurant. — Note. ed.) won the San Pellegrino Cooking Cup 2014, is, like any victory in the competition, also partly luck, although mostly, of course, hard work. In life, luck does not fall from the sky, you first need to work hard.
Nikolai Bakunov
Duran Bar
I consider my job at the Simple Pleasures restaurant to be the biggest success in my career. It was a difficult project: on the one hand, cosmic debts to companies, on the other, unbearable working conditions, in the kitchen the temperature reached 80 degrees. No one saw the wrong side and problems, but everyone appreciated the success: queues at the entrance and full seating in the hall. It was interesting and driving, albeit a survival game. Almost ten years have passed, and my guests, my friends, come to my new restaurants. When something is difficult for you to get, you appreciate it more.
Maxim Tarusin
"Grand Cafe Dr. Zhivago"
Once upon a time, on the site of "Dr. Zhivago" was the restaurant "Maxim". I liked it, and besides, it bore my name, so I wanted to work in it. I was drawn to this place. I didn't make it to Maxim, but I didn't miss the chance to come to Zhivago. It was a balanced decision, the first time I chose a place, not me. And then came a difficult period when I did not know how things would turn out. There was fatigue, there were many thoughts. The stars aligned so that it was at that moment that a friend of mine, with whom we do not communicate so often, called me. And she confidently told me: “Be patient, Maxim. It will be best solution your life." And I took her advice. Now every time I remember this story, I think how right she was. This phone call was truly life-changing.
Sergey Eroshenko
"Honest cuisine", "Fedya, game!"
In 1992, when I was just starting my career, I had to go to one important, as it seemed to me, interview. It so happened that I overslept him and, being several hours late, could not get the job I wanted. Returning, I quite spontaneously went to the "Radisson Slavyanskaya" and left my resume there. And two weeks later they called me and said that my candidacy was suitable. It was a huge stroke of luck. There I got a lot of professional experience, I was able to work in the same kitchen with famous foreign chefs. It was a good start for my professional path.
Christian Lorenzini
Christian, Buono
The biggest success in my career, probably, can be considered the day when in London I met a Russian oligarch, who invited me to work in Moscow. But I can’t say that I believe in the concept of luck as an accident, I think that luck is always the result of your own actions, luck comes when you take it to heart and put your soul into your work, and indeed into everything that you doing.
Anton Abrezov
"Dreamers" (St. Petersburg)
The biggest fortune in life is my team of chefs. I met many different chefs, but not everyone wanted to learn something new, to create, not to repeat. Many simply did what they were told, without delving into the details and essence of the process. I managed to assemble a team of different, dissimilar people. A team that, like me, burns with love for its work and constantly supplements the kitchen with new ideas. We've been through a lot, but we've always been honest with each other.
Mikhail Gerashchenko
Les Artists
The greatest success in my career and life - it's people's faith in me. Where I started as a cook, only people's belief in my potential helped me stay and learn a lot, because I didn't even know how to cook broth.
Alexei Kozyritsky believed in me, he made me understand what it means to be a chef and make decisions like a chef. But the biggest success for me was the faith of William Lamberti and the offer to become a chef in his restaurant. William revealed my potential to the end and made it clear what needed and how to cook, taught me to feel the product and the guest, shaped my style. And for that I am grateful to him. And if they say that I am a student of William Lamberti, I will answer: yes, I am. And perhaps the best of them all.
Regis Trigel
"Brasserie Bridge", "Arrow"
In 2005 I moved from France to Russia. It was a big step, but I didn't know it then. I thought I was coming here for two or three months. At first I worked in Zhukovka. Another step towards where I am today was when I started working at The Most Café in 2010. In 2013, the restaurant changed its format and became known as Brasserie Most. In 2014, I became the brand chef of the Strelka bar. So I came to success in Russia.
Alexander Belkovich
Belka (St. Petersburg), Ginza Project Brand Chef
Luck is that I do what I love, and I am successful in this. At the same time, work is more a lifestyle than a duty. And my main achievement is my family. My wife and daughter are my main stimulus and my main critics!
Vladimir Mukhin
White Rabbit Family
In 2008, I sold my silver "nine" and went to France to the restaurant Christian Etienne (*Michelin). Christian invited me to cook a Russian Christmas dinner together. There I realized that foreigners are not ready to eat borsch stupidly: they are disgusted when cabbage hangs from a spoon, although they really like the taste. When I cooked the borscht, the French strained it. Christian helped make the sauce for my veal, the evaporated beet juice jelly for the borscht, the ciabatta pampushka, the clubbing porridge with brains, and the veal under the croissant dough. It turned out that by combining Russian taste with the elegance and subtlety of the French presentation, by adapting traditional recipes to new gastronomic trends, Russian cuisine can be made elegant and modern. The following year, Christian Etienne himself invited me to cook Christmas dinner - the money he paid me for my work, I spent on master classes with those chefs whom he introduced me to. I came back with a nuclear briefcase - with the idea of blowing everything up. He began looking for Russian products, copying plates and servings from French magazines. Then I began to draw - I went to art school for a year to learn how to combine colors, sculpt from clay. From that moment on, everything turned upside down in my head.
Elena Nikiforova
"Shinok"
The biggest success in my career, I consider the choice of profession and of course the fact that Maison Dellos chose me. We are chosen, we choose. It matched for me. I prepared for the senior officers of the General Staff, for employees of GUM, for future diplomats and their mentors at MGIMO, for scientists at Moscow State University. I came to the Shinok restaurant as a sous chef in 2000. Now I have several dozen chefs under my supervision. I am sure that stopping and being satisfied with myself is a mistake that I do not want to make, and therefore I continue to learn from the best chefs in Russia and Europe.
Mirko Dzago
"Cheese"
My career in Russia began with a failure in my homeland - for some time I worked at the Villa del Quar restaurant in Verona, and as soon as I left it, the restaurant was awarded a Michelin star. After that, negotiations were held for six months about working in New York, and in parallel I was invited to Russia. An important criterion for me was the opportunity to create, to create something of my own. I don’t know why, but intuitively I chose Russia— came to Moscow and did a tasting for Arkady Novikov at the Biscuit Restaurant (later Meat Club). Then the Syr restaurant appeared, where I have been working for 15 years.
By the way, I am very close to the character of the movie "Chef", played by Bradley Cooper. The cook is partly an artist. A real chef must have a passion for his profession and a love for the products. Plus, I have the same difficult character as the main character - those who work with me know about it.
