Viktor Borisovich Belyaev has worked as a chef in the Kremlin for over 30 years, providing tasty and healthy food for the highest ranks of the Russian land. Belyaev is well aware of how receptions are arranged in the Kremlin and can tell a lot of interesting things about the gastronomic preferences of the mighty of this world.

Cooking is a job that is in demand and is often very, very well paid; what is much more important, on duty, cooks have to create for such people, whom ordinary mortals are often afraid to approach. Viktor Borisovich Belyaev has worked as a chef in the Kremlin for over 30 years, providing tasty and healthy food for the highest ranks of the Russian land. Belyaev is well aware of how receptions are arranged in the Kremlin and can tell a lot of interesting things about the gastronomic preferences of the mighty of this world.

Many are sincerely convinced that meals in the Kremlin are held in the style of a feast from "Ivan Vasilyevich Changes His Profession" - endless tables, expensive dishes, huge portions, barrels of overseas caviar ... In fact, there is not much truth in this.

Yes, quite large-scale receptions are often held in the Kremlin - for 1000-2000 people; Of course, there are also expensive dishes at these receptions. Often, however, they are served on the table and dishes are quite trivial - like the well-known herring under a fur coat or jellied meat. Local chefs also do not shy away from more complex recipes - like second courses of meat, fish or crab.

Organizing the New Year is not an easy task even for a family circle, where no more than a dozen people usually gather at the table; to receive more than 1000 guests is a task that is several orders of magnitude more serious. Of course, the Kremlin chefs do not postpone everything until the last day, and on December 30 they do not run to the supermarket to shop - in fact, the preparation process begins in September. For three months, the team manages to think over the menu in detail, work out the process of changing dishes (literally with a stopwatch in hand) and attend to other aspects of the protocol.

A menu for large-scale receptions is a rather unusual task. If a turkey or chicken "does not work" at home, you can always put it off

go to the refrigerator and finish eating after the holiday; if, after taking, 500 kilograms of fish remains unclaimed, there will be much more problems. That is why the main emphasis is placed not on large dishes (a la "meter-long pig with an apple in his mouth"), but on relatively small, individual-level snacks.

According to Viktor Belyaev, he did not have to endure any special whims from state leaders. Of course, there have always been subtleties; so, alcohol was contraindicated for Brezhnev in the second half of the 70s. Instead of brandy at receptions, the secretary general drank a special broth of wild rose with lemon juice - outwardly almost indistinguishable from brandy.

Our current rulers have no health problems yet, and no one forbids them to drink. Belyaev says that Vladimir Vladimirovich prefers good wines - mostly American, French, Chilean and South African. Wine in the Kremlin is generally relevant now - the days of whiskey and vodka are gradually receding into the past. The president (like the prime minister, by the way) prefers classic cuisine; during his career, he had the opportunity to travel around the world and get acquainted with a variety of national dishes.

Belyaev also cooked for foreign rulers - it just so happened that they were (and still are) in the Kremlin quite often. The guests were served mainly traditional Russian cuisine; many of the frequent guests of the Kremlin receptions even had their own favorites - for example, Fidel Castro had a weakness for tobacco chickens, Indira Gandhi loved Russian homemade noodles. Of course, at festive receptions there is too much time left for tasting the works of local chefs; however, this still does not mean that Kremlin chefs are allowed to be negligent in their work - who knows what a poorly fed politician is capable of

Yeltsin made sure everyone at the table drank to the bottom

Iktor Belyaev, who has worked as a chef in the Kremlin for about 30 years, spoke about the tastes of the mighty of this world:

- Viktor Borisovich, how did you get behind the Kremlin wall?

- Graduated with honors from the culinary school and was assigned to "Prague" - the main restaurant in Moscow. And then there was such a system: the best restaurants sent chefs, waiters, head waiter to the Kremlin to serve state receptions. So in 1975 I got there for the first time - to an event on the occasion of the 30th anniversary of Victory ... Over time, they looked at me closely, and from "Prague" I switched to the special kitchen of the Kremlin and the USSR Council of Ministers.

- Which of the greats did you feed?

- Indira Gandhi, Eric Honecker, Helmut Kohl. Once I was able to please Margaret Thatcher herself, who usually did not use our services, she was served by the chefs at the embassy. But on one of her visits, she went down to the dining room, when the whole delegation had already had breakfast. She was served a cup of tea, toast, jam, juice. And someone suddenly says: "Today, just wonderful pancakes - executioners!" She became interested. And they have already been eaten. I had to quickly bungle them from cottage cheese, bake and present six pieces to her. She ate all six. The next two days, when she went down to breakfast, I had the executioners ready for her. Then she came to the kitchen, thanked and, taking off her glove, personally shook my hand. In memory of Thatcher, I have a small booklet with the program of her visit to Moscow. One of the points there was the laying of flowers at the Lenin Mausoleum. She crossed out this item, put three exclamation marks and signed.

In the mid-1980s, American President Richard Nixon came to Moscow as a mediator in the negotiations between Gorbachev and Reagan on disarmament. I was very worried and thought for a long time what to cook. Nixon arrived, walked into the dining room, and forty minutes later the maitre d 'appeared: “You know, he hasn’t sat down at the table yet. He was poured Bordeaux, and he walks with his secretary Diana, photographs the dishes and repeats: “Delightful! Delightful! " And I understand him. The snack portion of that dinner consisted of about 15 courses. These are four types of fish snacks - salmon, stellate sturgeon, marinated pike perch, aspic. Then meat snacks - rolls, boiled pork, tenderloin in an egg. Three salads are a must, including natural vegetables. Everything was served on heraldic dishes. After dinner, Nixon shook my hand, hugged me and again: "Delightful, Victor!" And the next morning at 9 o'clock the car brought me to the residence and, so as not to wake the guests, dropped me off at the entrance gate. I was walking and suddenly I heard a whistle. I look up, Nixon is standing on the balcony in a dressing gown and whistling to me. I didn’t know then that the whistle of the Americans was an expression of delight. I waved back to him. He lived in Moscow for a week, we began to communicate. He turned out to be an avid fisherman and asked him to cook fish on a hot meal.

- The person at the desk is one hypostasis. The person at the set table is completely different. Has it ever happened that during a high feast, people opened up from a completely unexpected side?

- I rarely managed to be with the top officials at the same table. But, for example, Patriarch Alexy II always invited to the table, he was a very interesting storyteller, he loved to remember episodes from his childhood and youth. And in the process of communicating with him, you did not feel squeezed, but began to dissolve in his stories, easily kept up the conversation.

Evgeny Maksimovich Primakov was also a soul-man. Easily opened and entered any company. He could skillfully lead the table, like a toastmaster. Pavel Pavlovich Borodin is the same. Once at the table, he loved to tell jokes and at the same time he himself burst into laughter. When I found myself at the same table with Zhirinovsky, I saw in him the sweetest and kindest person. But with Boris Nikolayevich Yeltsin it was not easy, he strained, because he always made heavy toasts and every time he had to drink to the bottom, because he personally followed this. At the same time, I don’t remember a case of someone getting drunk at receptions. Some kind of inner discipline kept me going.

- Did anyone know how to cook from the first persons?

- I saw how Alexei Nikolaevich Kosygin cooked kebabs. And judging by the pleasure with which he did it, it seemed to me that this was not the first time. And Yeltsin loved to teach how to cook fish soup, what fish and how much to put.

- Have you met fastidious or, say, gourmets?

- I met the leaders of the Soviet era at such an age when most of them were already deeply sick people. The doctors were careful to ensure that we gave them all that pureed, dietary. In the Brezhnev family, I worked three times in Zavidovo. The simplest requirements: porridge, omelet, sausage, cheese. No overseas products. I remember that in those years the doctors forced Leonid Ilyich to quit smoking, but he always had a pack of Novost cigarettes somewhere nearby. He sometimes smoked a Marlboro and sometimes asked his driver: "Volodya, light a cigarette." Volodya was a non-smoker, but he took a cigarette and lit it.

Kosygin was also very simple to eat. I loved buckwheat, cheese cakes. But once he struck me with his knowledge. There was a small reception, about twenty people, for the Korean delegation. Kosygin decided to check if the guests know our cuisine well. He took the menu and reads: "Borshchok with a pie." Koreans say: "Well, we know, beets, cabbage." “No,” says Kosygin, “borshchok is an old Russian dish. When you try, you will be stunned. " They ask him: "How do you know?" He says he read it in some book. And borshchok is a hazel grouse broth, combined with a strong broth of beets and seasoned with a spoonful of brandy. In the old days, they took him with them to hunt. The strong broth provided nutritional value, the beets peeled, and the cognac invigorated.

- Do you think Russian cuisine is known abroad?

- I think yes. Once at one of the congresses of the World Association of Communities of Chefs, delegations from different countries - about five hundred people - gathered for the final evening. Buffet. And on the tables there is only bread and butter. Half an hour passes. They carry nothing. But the Russians have everything with them. We got caviar, herring, black bread, vodka, bacon from the diplomats. All of Europe, then America, then Asia began to pull up to our table. Finally, the then president of the association, Bill Gallagher, steps onto the stage: "I have always said that while the Russians are drinking, they are invincible."

Roman Vologodtsev

Chapter:
Kremlin cuisine
2nd page

BOUILLONS and SOUPS

Kremlin chefs not only use culinary recipes from many sources, but also compose them themselves. Their exquisite dishes are truly works of art, and the chefs themselves are simply culinary artists.
The Kremlin kitchen provides both the organization of ceremonial banquet tables and the usual daily meals for employees, children's and individual dietary meals.
All the dishes on the Kremlin table are the fruit of long analysis, discussions and endless tastings of top-class chefs, sanitary doctors and nutritionists.

Kremlin chef talks about the menu of heads of state - Galkin

Presidential kitchen - Galkin

Chef Anatoly Galkin - working day

Kremlin chef: photo with worm is fake
Jerome Rigaud - Kremlin chef

The Kremlin is full! - Anatoly Galkin and Barack Obama (Galkin's story)

Master class from the Kremlin chef - Viktor Belyaev

Kremlin chef shared the secrets of the kitchen

Government kitchen! Victor Belyaev

Meat broth

Ingredients :
500 g of meat, 2.5-3 liters of water, salt to taste.

Preparation

Rinse the meat under running cold water, add to a saucepan, cover with cold water. Cover the pot with a lid and put on high heat so that the water boils faster, and then reduce it, not allowing it to boil violently.
Remove foam and fat that appear during boiling.
Add salt in 1-1.5 hours after the start of cooking. When the meat is ready (after 2.5-3 hours; the readiness of the meat is checked with a fork: if it pierces the meat freely, then it is ready), it must be removed from the broth and put into another dish, and the broth must be filtered.
Meat broth is used to prepare various soups, cabbage soup, borscht, etc.
The meat is served with soup or used to prepare various dishes.
The broth can be cooked with the roots: after the foam has been removed from it, put peeled and washed carrots, turnips, parsley and onions.

Fish broth

Ingredients :
500 g of fish, 1 onion, 1 parsley root, 1 bay leaf, 3-4 black peppercorns, salt to taste, 2-3 liters of water.

Preparation

A good fish broth is obtained from small fish (pike perch, perch), as well as from scap, mackerel, coal fish and catfish.
Peel the fish, cut the abdomen, remove the insides, rinse, cut into portions, remove the gills from the heads.
Put the fish prepared in this way in a saucepan, pour cold water, add salt, roots and onions. Then close the pan with a lid, bring to a boil, remove the foam and cook over low heat for 25-30 minutes.
After that, take out the pieces of fish, and continue to cook the head and fins for another 15-20 minutes.
When cooking fish with a specific smell and taste, you can add cucumber pickle (200-800 g per 1 liter of water), or the skin from pickled cucumbers, or vinegar.
Strain the finished fish broth and use for making soups and hodgepodge.

Mushroom broth

Ingredients :
50 g dry mushrooms, 2-3 liters of water, 1 onion, salt to taste.

Preparation

Rinse the dry mushrooms thoroughly in warm water, put them in a saucepan, add the peeled and cut onion in half, cover with cold water and cook at low boil for 2-2.5 hours.
Strain the finished broth.
Rinse the mushrooms with cold water, chop finely and put in the soup cooked in mushroom broth.

Hunting kulesh

Ingredients :
For 4 servings: 1 chicken, 100 g lard, 1 l of water, 1 onion, 10 tomatoes, 10 eggs, salt, 10 g parsley, 10 g dill, ground black pepper to taste.

Preparation

Cut the chicken into small pieces, stew. Finely chop the bacon and fry in a brazier, adding finely chopped onion there. Mix chicken pieces with bacon, onion and fry all this with constant stirring so as not to burn.
Then put in a saucepan with water (about 2 liters of water per chicken) and bring to a boil. When the water boils, throw a glass of already sorted out, washed rice there and cook for 15-20 minutes.
After that, rub 10 fresh tomatoes and add to the kale. Then take 10 eggs, beat and pour through a sieve into the same place. Let the dish simmer for 5 minutes and season with salt to taste.
Then finish off the greens in the kulesh. Do not boil, just cover the dish and let it brew.

Broth "Muscat"

Ingredients :
1 liter of chicken broth.
For dumplings: 100 g semolina, 1 egg, 1 egg yolk, 1 tablespoon of water, 2 tablespoons of olive oil, salt, nutmeg, 1 teaspoon of finely chopped parsley.

Preparation

Beat eggs, add water, olive oil, grated nutmeg, salt, semolina, herbs. Mix everything thoroughly, separate the oblong dumplings with a spoon, dip in slightly salted boiling water and cook over low heat until floating.
Remove the dumplings with a slotted spoon and place in prepared chicken broth.

Milk vegetable puree soup

Ingredients :
500 g lettuce or spinach, 50 g carrots, 2 glasses of milk, 2.5 glasses of water, 2 tablespoons of butter, 2 tablespoons of wheat flour, 2 yolks, salt to taste.

Preparation

Rinse lettuce and spinach in several waters, put it on a sieve, then chop, put in a saucepan, add chopped carrots, butter. Simmer everything in your own juice, covering the pan with a lid.
Then dilute lightly toasted wheat flour in milk, half diluted with water, and add vegetables to it. Boil them for 30 minutes, then rub through a sieve, salt to taste, steam them.
Before serving, add the yolks diluted with a small amount of warm soup to the prepared soup.

Borscht with trepangs

Ingredients :
150 g dried trepangs, 100 g beets, 80 g cabbage, 50 g carrots, 20 g parsley parsley, 50 g onions, 80 g potatoes, 25 g tomato paste, 20 g ghee, 20 g sour cream, 5 g sugar, 5 g vinegar 3%, bay leaf, black peppercorns, parsley, salt to taste.

Preparation

Rinse dried trepangs in warm water, fill with cold water for 24-30 hours to swell (change water 2-3 times). Then cut along the abdomen, remove the remnants of the entrails and cook for 2-3 hours. Cut the boiled trepangs into strips.
Cut the beets, carrots, parsley root, onions into strips, add tomato paste, ghee, a little water and simmer until tender.
After 20-30 minutes, add white cabbage and continue to simmer. In the boiling broth left over from cooking trepangs, put potatoes cut into cubes, 10-15 minutes until cooked - stewed vegetables, bay leaves, black peppercorns.
Season the borsch with salt, vinegar and sugar.
At the end of cooking, put boiled trepangs in the borscht.
When serving in a plate with borsch, add sour cream and finely chopped parsley.

Ukrainian borsch

Ingredients :
500 g of meat, 400 g of cabbage and potatoes, 250 g of beets, 1/2 cup of sour cream and tomato puree, 1 pc. roots, 1 onion, 20 g lard, 1 tablespoon butter, garlic, vinegar, bay leaf, allspice and hot pepper, salt to taste.

Preparation

Boil the broth and strain. Cut the peeled roots, onions and beets into strips. Lightly fry the chopped roots and onions in oil, mix with toasted flour, dilute with broth and bring to a boil. Simmer the beets for 20-30 minutes, adding fat, tomato puree, vinegar and broth (you can also pour in bread kvass).
In the broth prepared for borscht put potatoes, cut into large cubes, coarsely chopped cabbage, stewed beets, salt and cook for 10-15 minutes, then add the roots, bay leaves, allspice and hot peppers fried with flour, cook until the potatoes and the cabbage won't be ready.
Season the finished borsch with lard, pounded with garlic, add the tomatoes, cut into slices, quickly bring to a boil, then let the borscht brew for 10-15 minutes.
Pour borscht into bowls, add sour cream and sprinkle with finely chopped parsley.

Fresh cabbage soup

Ingredients :
500 g of meat, 500 g of fresh cabbage, 200 g of roots and onions, 2 tablespoons of butter, 200 g of tomatoes, 200 g of potatoes, 1 bay leaf, salt and pepper to taste.

Preparation

Put the meat broth to cook. After 1.5-2 hours, remove the meat, and strain the broth into a soup pot and add the cabbage. Bring to a boil, add the pre-fried roots, onions, then add the meat and cook for another 25-30 minutes.
5-10 minutes before the end of cooking, add peppercorns, bay leaves, salt to the cabbage soup.
During cooking, you can put potatoes, tomatoes in the cabbage soup. In this case, add the potatoes 15-20 minutes after putting the cabbage, and the sliced ​​tomatoes at the end of cooking, along with the seasonings.
Before serving, put a piece of meat, sour cream, finely chopped parsley and dill in each plate.

Pearl barley soup with mushrooms

Ingredients :
50 g of onions, 40 g of carrots, 20 g of parsley root, 40 g of vegetable oil, 200 g of potatoes, 50 g of pearl barley, 700 g of mushroom broth, 40 g of dried white mushrooms, salt and spices to taste.

Preparation

Cut onions, carrots into small cubes and sauté. Dice the potatoes and parsley.
Put prepared pearl barley, potatoes, browned vegetables in boiling mushroom broth and cook until tender.
5-10 minutes before the end of cooking, put boiled chopped mushrooms, salt, spices.

Okroshka meat

Ingredients :
For 4 servings: 100 g of beef, ham and tongue, 1 l of bread kvass, 3 cucumbers, 10-12 onions, 2 eggs, 100 g of sour cream, salt, sugar, mustard to taste, dill.

Preparation

Hard-boiled eggs and chill. Grind the yolks with salt, sugar, sour cream, mustard and dilute with cold bread kvass.
Dice the boiled beef, ham, tongue and fresh peeled cucumbers. Finely chop green onions and grind with salt. Chop the proteins.
Put prepared food in a saucepan with kvass.
When serving, sprinkle with finely chopped dill.

Pickle meat

Ingredients :
For 300 g of kidneys: 3 pickles, 1/2 cup cucumber pickle, 2-3 potatoes, 1 carrot, 1 onion, 2 tablespoons of pearl barley, 1 tablespoon of dill, 1 parsley (root and herbs), 1 celery (root and greens), 3 bay leaves, 6 black peppercorns, 2 allspice peas, 100 g sour cream.

Preparation

Kidney preparation. Cut off the kidneys from films and fat, soak in water for 6-8 hours, changing the water, boil for 20-30 minutes in boiling water, remove with a slotted spoon and cut into small slices ..
Preparation of cereals. Rinse the groats with cold water, pour boiling water in a saucepan and put to steam for 30-45 minutes, changing the boiling water.
Preparing cucumbers. Cut the skin off the cucumbers, pour 1-1.5 cups of boiling water over it and simmer for 10-15 minutes, then remove the boiled skin, and lower the flesh of the cucumbers, cut lengthwise into 4 parts, into the brine, and then across into small slices; simmer for another 10 minutes.
Cooking pickle. Dip the prepared kidneys in 1.5 liters of boiling water, cook for about 30 minutes, add the roots cut into strips (carrots, parsley, celery), prepared cereals, after 10-15 minutes - potatoes, finely chopped onions and cook until the potatoes are cooked over medium heat.
Then add the prepared cucumbers, try, if necessary, add brine or salt, add and continue to cook for another 10-15 minutes, then season with spicy herbs and cook for another 3 minutes.
Before serving, fill the pickle with sour cream.

Kharcho

Ingredients :
500 g of meat. 2 onions, 2-3 cloves of garlic, 2 tablespoons of tomato puree or 100 g fresh tomatoes, 1/2 cup rice, 1/2 cup sour plums, 1 tablespoon butter, cilantro, parsley, dill, salt and ground black pepper to taste.

Preparation

Kharcho is prepared mainly from beef brisket, but you can replace it with lamb brisket.
Wash the meat, cut into small pieces at the rate of 3-4 pieces per serving, put in a saucepan, cover with cold water and cook. Remove foam that appears on the surface with a slotted spoon.
After 1.5-2 hours, add finely chopped onion, crushed garlic, rice, sour plums, salt, pepper and continue to cook for another 30 minutes.
Lightly fry the tomato puree or tomatoes in oil or fat removed from the broth, and add to the soup 5-10 minutes before the end of cooking.
Before serving, sprinkle the kharcho with finely chopped cilantro, parsley or dill.

Bazbash

Ingredients :
300 g peas, 200 g apples, 1 g tomato puree, 800 g boiled lamb, 1 paprika, salt, herbs to taste.

Preparation

Boil peas in broth, add apple slices, tomato puree, paprika, pieces of boiled lamb and cook for another 10 minutes.

Fish soup

Ingredients :
For 1.5 kg of fish or 1.25 kg of fillets (about 0.5 kg each of cod, halibut, sea bass): 1.75 liters of water, 2 onions, 1/2 carrots, 3 potatoes, 4 bay leaves, 10 12 black peppercorns, 1 leek, 1 parsley, 2 tablespoons of dill, 4-5 saffron stamens, 2 teaspoons of salt, 4 slices of lemon.

Preparation

In salted boiling water, put diced potatoes, carrots and parsley cut into strips, finely chopped onions, boil for 10-15 minutes over medium heat until the potatoes are half cooked, then add all the spices, except dill, and a little leek, and after 3 minutes - chopped into large pieces fish and continue to cook for another 8 minutes over moderate heat. Add salt if necessary.
A minute before the readiness to fall asleep dill, leek.
Let it brew and add lemon circles.

River fish soup

Ingredients :
For 1.5 kg of fish: 1.75 liters of water, 2 onions, 1/2 carrots (small), 1 parsley (root and herbs), 1 parsnip root, 2 potatoes, 1 tablespoon of dill, 3 bay leaves, 8 peas black pepper, 1 tablespoon of tarragon, 2 teaspoons of salt.

Preparation

Put potatoes cut into quarters, fish heads and tails, finely chopped onions, carrots and parsley cut into strips in salted boiling water and cook over low heat for 20 minutes, then remove the foam, strain if desired.
Then put the bay leaf and pepper, boil for another 5 minutes, increase the heat and lower the fish, peeled and cut into large pieces (4-5 cm wide) into the finished broth, which is cooked over moderate heat for 15-17 minutes, without letting it boil too much.
At the end, if necessary, add salt, add parsley, dill and tarragon, remove from heat, close the lid and let it brew for 7-8 minutes.

Eel soup

Ingredients :
500 g of eel meat, 1 onion, 1 clove of garlic, 2 pods of sweet pepper, 1/3 cup of vegetable oil, 2 teaspoons of tomato paste, 1/4 l of tart white wine, 1/4 l of water, 1 bunch of dill and parsley, 1 teaspoon salt, pepper.

Preparation

Peel and cut the eel into 5 cm pieces.
Finely chopped onions and chopped garlic, as well as sweet pepper pods, chopped into rings, simmer in vegetable oil. Add tomato paste, wine and a bunch of herbs.
Put chopped eel in the soup, season the soup with salt and pepper, simmer for 30 minutes over low heat.
Before serving, remove a bunch of greens from the soup, and cover the soup spilled on plates with fresh dill. Separately boil the remaining apricots in water, peel them off and dip in mashed potatoes. Add sugar, lemon juice, boil.
Serve hot or cold. You can add 1 tablespoon of boiled noodles to each plate.

Nut soup

Ingredients :
1 potato, 2 onions, 1 carrot, 1 parsley root, 300 g of cabbage, about 200 g of beets without white veins, 6 nuts of any kind, 1 teaspoon of lemon juice or 1 tablespoon of white wine.

Preparation

Peel the potatoes, chop the onion, cut the carrots and parsley into slices. Cut out coarse rods from cabbage leaves and boil them together with root vegetables. Cut a thin part of the leaf and put it in a saucepan after a few minutes.
Cook the soup until the potatoes are ready (about 5-6 minutes after laying). Remove from heat and insist under the lid.
Prepare nut crumbs, grate beets on a fine grater, season with lemon juice or wine, put in a saucepan and stir everything.

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Brezhnev's personal chef wants to open a haute cuisine academy in Kazan

Viktor Belyaev, president of the Russian culinary association, worked in the Kremlin kitchen from 1975 to 1990, and then for eight years served as general director of the Kremlin food factory of the Presidential Property Management Department. This summer he advised the Universiade, and now he wants to open a culinary academy in Kazan, in which the "Kremlin old men" will teach. Not those who cooked in the cauldron of politics, but people who knew the Kremlin cuisine from their duty: international-class chefs, the last bearers of the traditions of high Soviet cuisine and connoisseurs of novelties on culinary podiums.

Viktor Belyaev, president of the Russian Culinary Association, told the VK correspondent about what these chefs were preparing for the residents and guests of the Kremlin.

I have one pleasant story connected with Tatar cuisine, - says Viktor Belyaev. - I often made Tatar noodles: from only yolks, without adding protein. And Indira Gandhi liked this dish very much. I often had to feed her. And one day she came not only to thank me, but even wrote down the recipe.

- But when you consulted the cooks of the Universiade, you didn't even remember the noodles ...

You will be surprised, but at the Universiade, in addition to the sports, there was also a culinary rehearsal. For ordinary viewers, we have prepared echpochmaki-peremyachi. And for VIP-guests they tried to make as many dishes of molecular cuisine (this is when the product is broken into molecules and foams with different tastes are prepared from it). The fact is that the menu of the Universiade was not approved by us, but by the organizers of the ceremonies. They asked: "Surprise us, show everything you are capable of!" So we did our best. But, thank God, nobody wanted to eat the "foam"; Therefore, we made a new menu for the ceremony. For VIP guests, the dishes were simplified: they made a lot of fish and meat cuts. And the dishes for the audience, on the contrary, were made more complicated: they made special hamburgers and sushi. This is also one of the tendencies: the best chefs of the planet are now trying to prepare national dishes so that they correspond to the modern tastes of customers, fashion ...

- And what is fashionable on the culinary catwalks now?

Well, first of all, you need to make something traditional fashionable. Together with me, my colleague visited Kazan - an international judge of the Olympic Culinary Games and world cooking competitions, coach of the Italian national culinary team, host of culinary shows on the BBC Domenico Maggi. He said that in order to preserve the Tatar cuisine, we need to start thinking about how to translate it into semi-finished products. Otherwise, fast food will replace her forever.

Well, as you know, haute couture sometimes has excesses. About ten years ago, for example, at culinary competitions and competitions, everyone suddenly began to make pates and fill them with a huge amount of gelatin, they wanted to make the dishes beautiful, but they forgot about the taste. This outrage was stopped by the new head of the World Association of Culinary Experts, Bill Galahar - he is great! Once he said: "What are you doing - hats? Or food? Bring back the taste!"

- Tell me, Viktor Borisovich, what was customary to serve to the guests and inhabitants of the Kremlin?

We called the tables that we set at the Kremlin receptions "ships". At least a thousand people gathered behind them. Erich Honecker came from the GDR, Janos Kadar came from Hungary, I fed Nicolae Ceausescu, Todor Zhivkov, Fidel Castro. Guests were treated to caviar. It was served in caviar dishes, which we made from ice. And it was a hell of a job. I had to cut out the outline of the Kremlin wall with a soldering iron, and the ice melted in my hands, and sometimes I had to start all over again. We immersed the prepared caviar in a decoction of beets to make it look like ruby ​​stars. Tea was served in crystal glasses on crystal saucers. When there was a lemon wedge on such a dish, it looked incredible! The dishes were stamped, not a single wrinkle was allowed on the table.

And the assortment of dishes was magnificent. In the middle of the table they set "fashion", huge, amazing dishes: meter-long sturgeon on cupronickel dishes. Snack pigs stuffed with pork, chicken and nuts - pine nuts or hazelnuts. To make the pig shine, it was filled with jellied meat. Black grouse and pheasants, which we decorated with feathers, were amazing.

- And there were forbidden products that were not allowed to be served to distinguished guests?

Of course. For example, forest mushrooms. We used only champignons grown in artificial conditions. They haven’t taken fish yet, so that no one chokes on their bones. Well, they did not forget about the health of the guests. For some, instead of brandy, they poured a rosehip drink into a bottle, into which lemon was added to shine. Instead of fried meat, to whom it was not shown, boiled meat was served. There were those who were offered broth in a bowl. But no one left unfed! And we also did not use the poppy filling in baked goods, because the grains could get stuck in the teeth of distinguished guests, and this was not very aesthetically pleasing.

- What did you drink outside the Kremlin walls?

For dessert, we served cakes, cranberry mousse, parfait, sambuc. Cognac was served before desserts because it burns fat very well. Champagne was served in front of the fruit. "Soviet", mostly brut. But I think it was impossible to find such champagne in stores. It seems to me that it was still produced in some special workshops from special grape varieties using special technologies. In general, there were only domestic products in the kitchen. Delicacies were brought from all over the USSR! Lampreys were delivered from the Baltic States, eels from the Tver region, fruits and cognac from Armenia, Borjomi and wine from Georgia, and homemade sausage from Ukraine.

Drinks were also plentiful. The Kremlin loved fruit drinks: cranberry, lingonberry and black currant. And from alcoholic - vodka and wine.

You want to open an academy of Kremlin chefs in Kazan. Will you tell the stories from the life of the Kremlin to students?

Well, maybe something. Well, for example, my teacher was Stalin's personal chef. Vitaly Alekseevich said that under Stalin, tables were laid more luxuriously than under Brezhnev. But here's what is striking: after the feasts, the remnants of untouched food were immediately thrown away. Even black caviar. Probably, so that the "servants" do not get used to the delicacies. And under Brezhnev, the remnants were treated to workers of various Kremlin services. And you know what else is curious: Stalin hated the smell of food being prepared. If she suddenly felt the smell of fried onions or stewed cabbage, a terrible scandal began. Maybe it's because his mom was a cook. In general, food was brought to Stalin in a dish covered with a lid, and on top - with a towel. By the way, at the dacha in Kuntsevo, which was built according to Stalin's project, the kitchen was located 200 meters from the residence.

You talked about your meeting with Indira Gandhi. And did you have to personally communicate with any of the greats on culinary topics?

Once, in the midst of the Cold War, a request flew through the Kremlin kitchen: Thatcher asks for tea, asks for tea! And I must say that no matter how much this iron lady came to Moscow, she never ate with the Russians. She ate only at her English embassy. And suddenly this unplanned request from her! Usually we served for breakfast to the first persons of the state cheeses, ham, toast, jam, "doctor's" sausage, which is not now. And that morning I had nothing to offer the Englishwoman for tea, except for the six executioners who remained after the rich Kremlin breakfast prepared for the other guests. And I gave her all six executioners with cottage cheese. The cottage cheese in them was rubbed with sugar and lemon zest. As for tea, then they drank only black tea, mixing Georgian and Indian varieties for taste. If coffee was brewed, then for the refinement of the taste, a little instant was added to it. A couple of minutes later, the plate was returned to me empty: Thatcher ate everything that was put to her! And they gave me a sign to go out to the lady. Thatcher stood at the entrance with gloves, preparing to leave. But when she saw me, she smiled, took off her glove and shook my hand.

That’s when I remembered with gratitude the etiquette lessons that we were given in an ordinary culinary college. After all, four times a week we, ordinary cooks, were told how to serve a dish, how to talk to a woman ... And recently I gave lectures at the Plekhanov Academy about the nutrition of top officials. And I heard a remark from the audience: "Viktor Borisovich, is it true that in the culinary colleges of the USSR they taught the primary processing of food?" What is being done with the personnel? Cooking training programs are so easy that future chefs are not even taught how to deboned meat! They say: "And why? After all, meat is now supplied to the cook in the form of a finished fillet - so why fence a vegetable garden? And teachers in the academies do not have enough such nuances to read." Optimization! But I’m thinking: what if he takes the fillet and doesn’t come to the cook’s kitchen. And if force majeure? What will this inept then do? So many disciplines have now been removed from modern programs for the preparation of cooks ... But in the end? There are no more diet canteens, we have lost the culture of canteens for workers, the system of hospital meals, meals for children. And we thoroughly read 16 diets!

- And what is being served on the table for Putin, say?

Tables-ships have sunk into oblivion. Now the round tables are being set. The serving of dishes has also become different. Sturgeons are no longer served, whole piglets. Now everything is done in portions: first, a cold fish appetizer, then a meat or salad, then a hot one, dessert with tea. They also abandoned the huge common fruit bowls. Instead, they are now served with personal two-story shelves with berries. And now they make miniature baked goods too.

- Viktor Borisovich, what gastronomic impressions will you take away from Kazan?

Amazing mutton is sold in your Kazan markets. In Moscow, you will not find this, I always buy mutton in Kazan.

In general, the taste of national cuisines is the wealth of Russia. With my eyes closed, I can cook azu and chak-chak. In 2014, the European Culinary Cup will be held, and in 2017 - the Culinary Olympiad. The main task there will be - to set the "average table" of your country, a typical one. Now, if we put cabbage soup and herring, then we will not surprise anyone. And if we set a table of such food, which is eaten in different parts of Russia: in Siberia, in the Urals, in Tatarstan - this will be an event ... National cuisines should know each other, which is why we want to open the Kazan Academy of Culinary Arts. We have already held meetings on this topic with your prime minister and the mayor of Kazan.

By the way, promoting the national cuisine means simultaneously affirming the principles of locavor, that is, trying to use not imported products, but local ones. Why do we need a Spanish tomato or a Chinese cucumber? Can't we grow them ourselves? We need to move from mass consumption to a higher quality one. In Yaroslavl, we have already begun such an experiment: we were instructed to develop a menu for school meals, and we have already found local farmers there ...

Dinner is served!

Former Kremlin chef Viktor BELYAEV: “Stalin’s chef taught me how to make raspberry parfait, chop greens with two knives and butcher herring without a knife”

The President of the National Association of Culinary Practitioners of Russia told the Internet publication GORDON why the Kremlin chef's working day began at five in the morning, how during his work he managed to get three service apartments, how many people cook for the president, and why, with the arrival of Putin, the Kremlin imposed a taboo on strong drinks

Viktor Belyaev is one of the most famous Kremlin chefs. For more than 30 years, this man cooked for the top officials of the state. Belyaev's specialties were tasted by the entire Soviet elite - Leonid Brezhnev, Vladimir Shcherbitsky, as well as the presidents of America and France, Indian Prime Minister Indira Gandhi, and Leonid Kuchma himself came to the kitchen to shake hands.

Born into a family of bricklayers and milling cutters, he never dreamed of a big career. After graduating from the culinary school, he was assigned to the best Moscow restaurant in the Soviet Union, Prague, and from there to the Kremlin kitchen, where he went from being an errand chef to the general director of the Kremlin food factory. But in 2012, at 55, due to denunciations and intrigues, he retired of his own accord: colleagues brought him to a heart attack and he did not risk his health.

"TODAY, EVEN IN THE KREMLIN, THERE IS A SHORTAGE OF REAL PRODUCTS."

- Viktor Borisovich, you have worked in the government kitchen in the Kremlin for over 30 years. What time did your working day start and when did it end?

- Started at five in the morning and ended at one in the morning. In the morning a car came for me and took me to work. And how many separate calls there were - you can't count! They could call at any time of the day or night. The discipline is serious: every day is like a knife's edge ... The responsibility is great, God forbid someone gets poisoned!

The only perk that the cook had was that we arrived at work early, at half past four, and were still asleep. If it was summer, then I made myself good coffee, brought fresh bread, I cut off a piece of hot smoked stellate sturgeon, made myself a sandwich, sat on the balcony and listened to the nightingales sing. And then he took a good Philip Morris cigarette from a plastic pack (now there are none) and lit it. Blissed out! There was a certain bonus in this, but then it was impossible to tell.

- And what, there were such cases when some of the top officials poisoned themselves in the Kremlin kitchen?

- Thank God, no, but in order to avoid them, everyone understood perfectly how to select people and build a management system so that there was strict discipline and understanding of where they work. This required a lot of commitment.

- All Kremlin chefs are now signing a non-disclosure document. What secrets are implied by this in the document?

- This is a "secret", it exists not only for chefs and not only in our country - wherever people are associated with the work of top officials. This is a document stating that you agree not to tell what and how is happening in these units. All the personnel who worked for the protected person - cooks, guards - all people liable for military service, questioned, checked. I myself did not sign such a paper. As the head of the food plant, I also had a "secret", but it was associated with other articles.

- The quality of products for senior officials, who were fed in a special kitchen, was always carefully monitored. In what era were the products of higher quality?

- Today, even in the Kremlin, there is a shortage of real food. Before the sanctions, Russia had a large number of foreign cheeses, fish, meat gastronomy, and after the sanctions they disappeared. It’s probably even better, let our manufacturers start working on their own. It's easier to buy abroad and do nothing, but it's shameful when Russia buys garlic from China.

Previously, food was supplied to the Kremlin's table from subsidiary farms in the Moscow region, there were farms where calves were raised, there was our own milk, vegetables, fruits, berries - raspberries, currants, gooseberries, we always made large preparations for the winter. And today there are almost no subsidiary farms, there are only a few left, but they work for themselves, they supply few products.

- I always thought that such people eat, if not the food of the gods, then definitely the best ...

- Of course, there is a special service that checks the quality of the products that come to government receptions, it was, is and will be. They take tests, check for heavy metals and other harmful substances. If this product does not meet the standards, it is removed. But even if it passes the test, there is still no meat, fish, dairy products that were before.

- Do modern politicians differ from Soviet secretaries general in their gastronomic preferences?

- Our old men, as we called them, did not get anything in their young years - the Stalinist regime, then the war ... Naturally, you cannot travel abroad: if you went somewhere, then on official visits. And the new generation of leaders differs from the previous one in that they traveled around Europe, Asia, tried different cuisines: shrimp, arugula, foie gras ... But in my memory, it never happened that in the Kremlin kitchen some special recipes.

- And what is being fed now?

- Russian cuisine is always present. Especially when foreign representatives come. Jellied meat, herring under a fur coat ... Pizza was never made, but there was a rack of lamb. Fish dishes: the sea bass is coming now, and we used our sturgeon.

Gone are the days when a stretching tongue, a piglet, vases of fruit ... Imagine: there is a large vase, and there are apples, pears, grapes, plums, tangerines ... You can still eat a tangerine, but how to overcome a whole apple at the reception? Naturally, they were not eaten, they were taken away in the pockets. And now we switched to small individual two-story fruit trays, where they put different berries on skewers. They began to serve everything individually to each guest. A man sits down at the table, and he has a cold fish appetizer in his plate, then the waiter takes and brings meat dishes, after that - hot, dessert.

“I RUN INTO THE BUFFET, ASK THE HEAD:“ HOW DOING? ”. I HAVE NOT EVEN SEEN PUTIN, SUDDENLY HE ANSWERS: "YES, EVERYTHING IS NORMAL"

- What did you prepare for the current President of the Russian Federation Putin? There are legends that he loves some of your famous red soup ...

- Yes, he liked my cold soup. We prepared it at the 2006 Sochi summit. We looked with the technologists, with the management, agreed with the protocol. Why soup? The heat was about 35 degrees outside. In the evening it was necessary to serve something tasty, but cool. And we made tomato soup. After the meeting ended, Putin called the people who were working on the protocol and asked them to thank him and said that it was very tasty. It was a holiday for us. As a rule, everyone ate, talked and went on to work; in this bustle, gratitude to the cooks is rarely heard.

- Have you ever crossed paths with Putin?

- He has repeatedly come up to similar events in other cities. My first acquaintance with Putin was six months after my work in the Kremlin. He was sitting in a buffet drinking coffee, and I ran in and asked the manager: "How are you?" I didn't even see Putin, suddenly he replies: "Yes, everything is fine." I turn around, and he drinks coffee. He always knew everything about the main persons who serve him.

- Do the current president of Russia have any other food preferences?

- He loves ice cream very much. And the usual: ice cream or fruit. We always tried, when receptions were arranged, to put at least a scoop of ice cream in any dessert.

- Once you admitted that with the arrival of Putin, the level of alcohol in the Kremlin dropped. Have you started drinking less? Or do they drink, but already other drinks?

- It's age-related! In Soviet times, except for Alexei Kosygin (he was not only a teetotaler, but also a nonsmoker), everyone in the Kremlin drank. Brezhnev loved vodka. If Leonid Ilyich had not been forbidden by doctors after a stroke, perhaps he would have drank a glass of it, and so abstained. Nikita Khrushchev, according to the stories of the chefs, was also partial to strong drinks.

With the arrival of Vladimir Putin in 2000, the strength of alcohol has changed. If, for example, in Soviet times, vodka was 60 percent, and wines - 40 percent, then with the advent of Vladimir Vladimirovich good wines came in - French, Chilean, Spanish, South African. From Russian brands - "Abrau-Durso". I remember when we agreed with the protocol department of the Kremlin menu, we even invited a good sommelier, who presented this or that wine at receptions. Until now, good wines prevail in the Kremlin. True, now they also put Crimean ones on the tables. Although Russia is not worth it with its space and opportunities to do this, after all, we had wonderful wines that won the Grand Prix at various exhibitions.

- I wonder how much alcohol per person was allowed to drink at major Kremlin events?

- At state receptions, 70 grams of vodka, 50 grams of brandy and 150 grams of white and red wine were per person. Everything was calculated, multiplied by the number of guests, but, of course, a small supply was also taken in case someone ran out of drinks. At executive receptions, alcohol is never served. There is also such a form of service - "a glass of champagne": when the first person of the state congratulates and rewards distinguished persons, a glass of champagne is served there. Or the signing of some important documents. But this is a protocol turnover. As for lunches and dinners, personal chefs work for them, they have their own calculations. But, I think, they also have a box of good wine in stock - you never know, guests will come - a common thing.

“BREZHNEV HAVE WORKED FOUR PERSONAL COOKS. I THINK PUTIN HAS NO MORE "

- How many cooks are there for Putin?

- I do not know this. Leonid Ilyich had four people. I think Putin has no more either. I have never worked with so-called personalities. We knew them, talked. But they were on a subscription and tried not to light up once again. It was a taboo, we passed such people so as not to light up ourselves, and not to light them up. Of the current chefs who feed the top officials, I do not know anyone. And he talked with the Brezhnevskys. These were the most ordinary people from the people who accidentally got there.

- Didn't they try to lure you into personal cooks for some of the rulers over the years?

- I was first called from a special kitchen to a special kitchen, I worked there for six years, and then they called me to the KGB, they say, would you like to work with top officials? But I refused - I knew what kind of work it was. More stress. I already had two children then, and I didn't want to, I was afraid.

- Is it true that not only the furniture has changed in the Kremlin, but also the dishes?

- It happened back in 2000, when the tablecloths and tables were changed, then - glass and porcelain. Previously, only on the official utensils of the USSR they ate at receptions. Under Yeltsin, the coat of arms of Russia was made, it was even on the glass. Then we moved away from this, began to use it very rarely. Since that time, crystal has remained, we exhibited it only on New Year's Eve. It looks much more beautiful and richer than any glass.

- Was there a monthly budget in the Kremlin kitchen that you could spend a month?

- I worked in a special kitchen, which provided food for the Council of Ministers of the USSR and the entire apparatus of ministers, in that kitchen for each deputy chairman a certain estimate was drawn up for lunch on the day for entertainment expenses, we worked precisely according to this calculation. If lunch was supposed to be in the region of 1 rub. or 1 rub. 50 kopecks, then they invested in this amount, did not go for it. This was very strict. I remember how at the end of the month it turned out that someone didn’t collect the amount and it went to the next month, and someone went through it - maybe he was buying cigarettes or a bottle of cognac. If, for example, a person had business meetings, then even on them it was written down how many glasses of tea with lemon, dryers and sandwiches were spent. This 1967 decree seems to be in effect today.

- I have always wondered where the surplus of food that remains after receptions goes to ...

- Today every guest is counted on, so there is practically nothing left. In Soviet times, there was a lot left, and after the receptions were over, we carefully removed everything that was not touched from the plates, set a separate table and fed the cadets and soldiers. Receptions are served by many services. People have always been grateful. Of course, unscrupulous people could wrap them in their pockets, not without it. Now this is out of the question.

“THE WAITERS WERE NOT GIVING TIP, BUT MAKE GIFTS. FROM INDIRA GANDI WOMEN GAVE CUTTINGS ON DRESSES, MEN - WATCHES "

- Didn't you eat from the master's table?

- Waiters and cooks were fed in the working canteen one hour before the start of the reception. By the way, all the chefs were assigned to a separate clinic and underwent a medical examination every three months. And before the start of government receptions, doctors went into the kitchen, examined the nails and fingers of all staff, so that there were no pustular diseases.

The waiters were forced to work with gloves. Firstly, it is beautiful, and secondly, girls, of course, have manicure, while guys' nails can be different, someone does a manicure, someone does not.

- And the cooks?

- For me, for example, cutting was very difficult for me to do with gloves, my hand sweats, the knife slips, so the gastronomic part was done without gloves, and everything related to raw materials was done with gloves.

- For every waiter, less often for a cook, a tip is a good help. Is there such a way to reward employees in the Kremlin?

- No, they never gave money. The only thing that foreign delegations who came, gave souvenirs. For example, from Indira Gandhi, women were given cuts for dresses, men - watches. Others passed a bottle of whiskey to the peasants, and the small things to the women.

- You have prepared for many politicians. Whom do you remember with special respect?

- I spoke with Brezhnev twice. Once, when there was a meeting with the then French President Valerie Giscard d'Estaing, I cooked fish soup for them on the island - in the Moscow region there was a separate island where they fished. After lunch, Brezhnev and Giscard d'Estaing came to thank me personally.

I remember serving the ex-President of the United States, Richard Nixon. He came to Moscow for two weeks, before the meeting between Gorbachev and Reagan, these were serious negotiations on arms reduction. He was like an intermediary, he lived in a mansion on Leninskiye Gorki. I fed him for two weeks. We talked a lot, one evening - almost an hour. He was interested in everything: where I studied, who the parents were, how was life. He gave me a photo of himself in the White House, then we took a picture with him on the steps of the mansion and he signed the photo: "From President Nixon to a real Russian boss." When he left, something turned over in my head: it seemed that we were doing something wrong, after all, I was a Soviet person, a member of the Party, I was brought up at that time ...

- Some of the Ukrainian rulers were fed in the Kremlin?

- Leonid Kuchma is well remembered from individual meetings in the mansion and evening receptions. I really liked that he came to the kitchen and began to thank everyone. After all, he could have said to the assistant: "Go, tell from me." But no, he came, he shook hands with the cooks, the hostess sister. I remember the first secretary of the Central Committee of the Communist Party of Ukraine Volodymyr Shcherbytsky. When there were joint receptions, he often visited Moscow, always available, without any ostentatious poses. Just like the deceased first secretary of the Central Committee of the Communist Party of Belarus, Pyotr Masherov. They were somehow real.

- You came to work in the Kremlin as a very boy. Really without patronage? In general, without cronyism, can you get to such a bread place?

- I came to the Kremlin for the first time in 1975, on the 30th anniversary of the Victory, I was sent from the Prague restaurant, where I worked then. I was 18 years old. Even before the army. The chef of this restaurant sent young employees there for practice, thought: let the young learn. And I ended up in the special kitchen. The boss looked at me: "Would you like to work with us?" “I'm going to the army,” I say. "Well, after the army you come and see you." When I returned, I went to Prague again, and I was again sent to the Kremlin, and the chief again came up with the same proposal. "Okay, I'll think about it, I'll call." - “What to call? Here's your phone, go to the personnel department, talk. " Just at this time, we had a meeting with graduates of the culinary school, my culinary teacher Zinaida Vasilievna was still alive. “Victor, I heard you got married? Maybe you should go to the Kremlin to work? My uncle is the director of the Kremlin food group. "

I went to Anatoly Kabanov, the then director of catering, the chef of the Kremlin kitchen was already sitting there, he gives my questionnaire and says that this guy was already in the personnel department. And he: "I have my own personnel department, my niece called me, she taught him." So I got there, one might say, I entered from both sides (laughs)... And so ... on the fence they don't write that the Kremlin needs chefs - the line will be lined up. Naturally, they get through an acquaintance, although they periodically go to restaurants, look, take away, but this is already a rarity. Mostly people move from each other.

"WHO STANDED ON THE CHICKENS, CARRYING THE CHICKEN HOME, WHO ON THE MEAT - A PIECE OF MEAT"

- Your teacher was Stalin's cook. What lessons have come in handy in life?

- I will always remember Vitaly Alekseevich. He taught me how to make raspberry parfait, chop greens with two knives, butcher herring without a knife.

- Is that possible?

- Easy! First, you need to remove the skin from the fish, then tear off the head (he did it so masterly that all the insides went away with it), and then you lift one fillet with two fingers to the tail, the bones remain right on the ridge. And do the same with the second fillet. I still know how to do it.

I didn't like messing around with the dough. Once we were ordered to make yeast pancakes, I honestly said: “Vitaly Alekseevich, I can't! I’m afraid of this test: it doesn’t suit me, then it turns sour ”. And he: "Do you like to sing songs?" - "Of course I do, my mother is a songstress." - "So let's start singing and start kneading, and I will cut the appetizer." He always said that a good mood is necessary for the test, and I was convinced many times that it feels the aura of a person. In general, if the chef is angry and not in the mood, it is better not to cook any product, otherwise you will oversalt, undersalt or overcook.

- There was no temptation to bring home something from work?

- There is always a temptation ... Although when we worked in government mansions, no one really checked us, everyone was in front of our eyes. As a rule, there were 12 people, if 120, there would be more food, maybe someone would be tempted. And when 12, what will you take? Eat a piece, not without it ...

There were people who stole, but I was somehow shy and afraid, I was ashamed to do it. When I worked in the Prague restaurant, I had a case when the chef threw tenderloin, chicken, butter into my bag ... He was a bit crooked and said: “Do you have a family?”. All the time I wondered why I didn’t take it. Although they carried it there, it was impossible to live otherwise.

Those who stood on the chickens carried the chicken home, those on the meat - a piece of meat. In the 70s, when it was really bad with this product, one comrade worked part-time in Prague ... He took out the trash. He throws five kilograms of meat into the trash can, and on top he sprinkles potatoes from the vegetable shop and takes it, and then other people took it and went to trade on the Arbat, a whole gang worked. But this man was quickly caught, fired, and he could not get a job. Now they also steal, but not meat, but billions. The then politicians, even in a nightmare, could not dream of this.

- Are today's Kremlin chefs mostly young?

- Yes. The entire senior staff left, only the youth remained. There was a French chef, but he had already left, he was working on the exchange of experience.

"DURING WORK IN THE BOARD OF MINISTERS FROM CHEF TO CHEF, I GOT THREE APARTMENTS"

- You said that in Soviet times, you received a salary of 130 rubles at the Kremlin kitchen. And how did you pay for your work in our time?

- As a director of a food processing plant, my salary was 60 thousand rubles. ( at the rate before the sanctions - about two thousand dollars. — "GORDON"). But there were also bonuses for good work. For example, the summit was successfully held - the president thanked him, a diploma was presented, and a monetary prize of 15-20 thousand rubles was also presented to it.

Enough or not? The question is rhetorical. But there was an opportunity to get an apartment. During my work in the Council of Ministers, from cook to chef, I received three apartments. The system was as follows: after working for three years, you could write a statement. If you had poor living conditions or had children, you could get another apartment. Whoever was smarter, went to the trick: he registered his mother, aunt in his apartment ...

It so happened that we lived with my mother, and then a son was born, there was not enough space, and for two years I was given an apartment, first on Leninsky Prospekt. After a while, a daughter was born - they gave another. And then, for the 50th anniversary, already in our time, they gave an apartment on Prospekt Mira. Plus, the benefits were good. Now this is not the case, but then we had our own ateliers, where we could make inexpensive winter boots or a muskrat hat, it was a big shortage. Those who were richer would queue up to buy a domestic car. And there were also subordinate kindergartens, where you could enroll without queues. At that time there were about 40 rest houses and a sanatorium, we were given two-day vouchers. On Friday evening, they took the children, got on the bus, came on Saturday, rested until Sunday. There was a full three meals a day, and everything for three cost six to eight rubles.

- They don't leave such places themselves. You said that you decided to take this step because your colleagues intrigued and brought you to a heart attack. Does that flourish in these circles?

- Yes. What do you think I was surrounded by some bosses from the movies? (Laughs)... I beg you ... Of course, there were intrigues, they wrote and were afraid that I would take their place, they tried to belittle them. I drank so much, a three-volume edition is not enough to write ...

When I arrived at the Kremlin Palace of Congresses, there were many buffets on the sixth floor. Employees carried their own sausage, alcohol ... They earned themselves, and the food factory received shish. There were no cash registers in any of the buffets. I started to put things in order, I wanted to change and destroy this system. We can say that he tore people away from their daily bread. As a result, they began to write letters to me. When I left, they did not invite me back, but even if this happened, I would not go myself - after all, I worked for 32 years, my heart is not right. Neither health nor morale allows to work in the same mode. The social-organizational work, which I am now doing as the president of the Association of Russian Culinary Experts, is enough for me to go on vacation with my wife, to feed my family, and most importantly, the time has come to give my experience and knowledge.

- But you have no nostalgia for that time? Do you regret deep down?

- Nothing to regret. There is always nostalgia, but to regret and think about returning, there is no. What was done was done honestly and with dedication. I am not ashamed of those years. I did not expect that I would be able to grow from a chef to a CEO, communicate with such people, and work in such a high position. And all the bad I try to forget, I must remember the good and the present. The rest is to clean up. Then you will remain a kind and sympathetic person. Now there is full of evil, it is so offensive when I see how society has changed! But I hope that it will get better, at least I am still able and will try to do my bit.

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