Page 44 - Exploring Taste Magazine N.2

EXPLORING TASTE—SANTA MARGHERITA GRUPPO VINICOLO

Photo e_chaya

and contemporary art collecting. This is a luxury that can also be seen in the new coolest menus, with a subsequent increase in burger bars, in line with the global
Moscow cuisine, which is increasingly open to welcoming the gourmet inventions fashions of the moment. In other words, the hashtag #foodporn is now anything
of international chefs, as in every great capital around the world. The border with but prohibited. It appears as if in this part of town, a new saying has been making
Europe is still drawn in indelible ink and imports are extremely restricted, therefore the rounds for some time, “Once people went to restaurants just to be seen, now
ingredients are predominately local, yet they are almost always right on the money. they go to eat.” That’s all it takes to conf rm the extent to which this trend has now
From the f sh to the meat and the precious, unique delicacies the earth provides, become practically unstoppable. The keywords are research, experimentation and
such as caviar, as well as the vegetables that they are able to grow (even in the cold openness to outside inf uence. Alongside all this innovation, however, the spirit of
of the Steppe), the carousel of ingredients is sure to make any brigade de cuisine the old lady of the international scene remains intact, of a city that in the nineteenth
happy. Natives and passing tourists alike respond in droves to the proliferation of century animated cultural debate and made the long arm of its inf uence felt as far
new places which have f ourished in recent years, rising to an amount that would as the drawing rooms of London and Paris. If the new spots need to put their twist
have been unthinkable just a short while ago. “Moscow is becoming one of the best on traditional specialties, the old restaurants of Moscow are institutions that resist
places to eat in the whole world,” say local food critics. Even they are amazed (and all fashions. Dinner in a temple of Russian cuisine is a must: white tablecloths, up-
a little amused) by the speed at which the city – once distinguished by a muddled holstered chairs, Art Deco glass or frescoed ceilings, inlaid wood or white tiles on
culinary hybridization – has gone on to become one of the “places to be” for con- the wall and thick curtains that conceal everything, leaving you with the feeling that
noisseurs arriving from all over the world. Already there is talk of a real revolution you are taking part in an exclusive ritual. This is also Moscow, with its multitude of
in the restaurants of Moscow. So many young, creative chefs have never been seen contradictions – ancient and modern, slow and fast, conservative and progressive,
before, inspired by a touch of Nouvelle Cuisine – modernized of course – together secretive and open, classic and surprising. At a time in which every f avor seems to
with some hipster f are, who are engaging an increasingly wider, millennial audi- have been legitimized, that old samovar is still there, boiling and rumbling in the
ence. To mention what is probably the most eloquent example: the hamburger, the corner of the room.
American dish par excellence, which was resolutely barred from the Russian col-
lective consciousness of the past, is today one of the main attractions on even the

Russian cuisine is one of the most eclectic in the world. At the crossroads
between Europe and Asia, it has been inf uenced by the numerous
cultures that once belonged to the Empire and the USSR

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