Anton kovalkov chef personal life. Direct speech: Chef Anton Kovalkov on the thirst for knowledge and modern Russian cuisine
You are a romantic person?
Yes. I believe in pure love. It seems to me that it still exists. It's just that it's harder to remain a romantic in big cities. But I am like that, and I am pleased to do some romantic things for people.
When was the last time you read poetry?
Recently. Moreover, very romantic. Posted by Edward Estlin Cummings. The poem is called "I carry your heart in me." One girl told me and I really liked it. I even found the original in English. Not a single romance ...
How many times a day do you eat?
I definitely have breakfast. Basically, I cook porridge - oatmeal, rice, millet. I can add maple syrup or crumble cookies to the porridge. Then I eat at work and in the evening. On average, it turns out three times a day. Although at work - not always. When, for example, you need to come up with something, it is better to do it on an empty stomach. Thoughts like "now I would eat ..." arise when a person is hungry. I definitely cook at home on Saturday or Sunday. This is an integral part of the weekend.
Did you have to go on a diet?
I go to the gym and at some point, for the sake of interest, I wanted to go on a diet to dry out. I ate mostly protein foods. Until four o'clock, you could eat 50 grams of carbohydrates - that's just nothing. Because at seven o'clock your body so wants to eat, and you can only vegetables and proteins. I sat for a week even without salt. And, of course, he did not eat sweets. In general, I am a fan of sweet, good pastries. On weekends, I definitely go to a good bakery to eat a croissant. Therefore, this point was the biggest torture for me. But after two weeks of the diet, you put a piece of chocolate in your mouth, and this is how you feel it ... My friend, sous-chef pastry chef Artem, keeps urging me to go on a vegetarian diet. Why not? I don't usually fast. But this year I decided to fast for at least the last two weeks - just for myself, to see how the body reacts.
How do you feel about “health products” - fat-free, fortified, non-GMO?
I understand that there is a production policy, a huge industry that makes big money. But I believe in small farms. There are, of course, good industrial products. You have to choose. For example, if the milk I buy is stored for five to seven days, it means that it contains very few chemical components. But about the apples, which are so shiny that you can see your reflection in them, I doubt it. We are the generation of gloss, we see everything through TV, magazines and billboards embellished and exaggerated. But you need to understand that natural products have never been beautiful, as in the picture. I don’t remember that my grandmother had shiny apples in the garden. And the most delicious tangerines in Morocco - the ugliest. Not the ones we sell with black diamonds on the side. When it comes to the dangers of GMO foods, no one has evidence of their benefits or harms. And low-fat foods are simply diluted and, accordingly, less tasty.
Who would you like to feed?
Close and dear people. I rarely get the opportunity to feed my mom, but I always do it with joy. And my sister. Then it was a great joy and honor for me to feed Eneko Atha, the chef of the Azurmendi restaurant (three Michelin stars - ed.) In Bilbao, when he was on tour with us. Azurmendi is ranked 26th in the top 50 best restaurants in the world. And this person did not just eat what I cooked - he took pictures of the dishes and asked how what was cooked. Such a moment is worth 17 years of my work. And, of course, we are happy to feed all our guests every evening.
What would you like to try yourself?
I would try puffer fish. But I would not eat fried cockroaches, unlike ants. I can't, after all, eat everything. Although somehow my friends and I went to Hong Kong and agreed there for the sake of interest to try everything. But there, thank God, there were no nasty things. One of the weirdest things I've ever tried is hot sweet water in which is mixed a raw egg... This is eaten for breakfast. Recently, I am surprised not so much by the interpretations of the chefs as by the most traditional things. In Spain, I tried a classic Mexican appetizer - pork stew in a bun. Then an American friend told me that it was stewed pork, to which burnt bananas and a couple of pieces of chocolate were added. Essentially a traditional Mexican mole sauce. Another example is ceviche, which is popular with us now. This is a traditional South American appetizer.
What's your favorite dish?
When I was little, mom was on New Year made a pie with walnuts... And when I already became a cook, I asked her for a pie recipe. "What kind of cake?" - "Yours, with nuts" - "I never made a pie with nuts." I never remembered. And even now, if I close my eyes, I see a frying pan, and in it there is a pie with a crispy crust. He was lovely. I also always liked how my mother cooks kharcho. I would never refuse. Yes, in general, there is not a lot of food in the world that I will refuse. Although there is. The vinaigrette. I have not been able to digest it since kindergarten. Until the age of 22, I did not perceive boiled beets as food at all.
What is there always to eat at home?
Milk. Eggs. Porridge. Avocado. Lettuce leaves. Eggplant. But what it is impossible to live without is butter. I prefer the farm, but if there is no way to get to the market, I take Vologda. When I was training in America, we became friends with one chef, and then we went to rest with him and his girlfriend in Barcelona. He is a cook, I am a cook. All the talk about food and women. And we had such a joke: "Butter or ...". For example, "Butter or a girl?" That is, if you choose a girl, you can never use butter in the kitchen. Lots of alternatives.
And who won more often?
Always butter.
Five undeservedly forgotten foods
Quinoa- a pseudo-grain culture, when finished, resembling porridge. The first consumers - the Incas - called quinoa the "golden grain". The protein content of quinoa is 16.2%. This is more than in any cereal, and as much as in buckwheat. The Dalai Lama advocates the cultivation of quinoa in Tibet and the Himalayas, and scientists want to cultivate it everywhere. Most importantly, quinoa is a fruit.
Spelled- a special kind of wheat, from which a very unsuccessful flour is obtained, but an excellent cereal. Spelled contains a record amount of vegetable protein - up to 37%, 18 essential amino acids, B vitamins, and all this is remarkably absorbed.
Parsnip- sweet, tasty, one of the most beloved vegetables in Europe. The root of the parsnip is called the white root. It is boiled, baked and put in a salad.
Root celery- the most useful part plants. Celery root is prepared in every possible way, including salting. But the most useful option- eat it raw, for example, in a salad with carrots and apples. Highly diet dish, if you fill it not with mayonnaise, but with vegetable oil.
Salsify also called "devil's beard". The most common species in cooking is the Goatbeard. This is also a root, also white, and in Europe it is also prepared in a variety of ways. It's time to learn from experience.
Recipe from Anton Kovalkov: caramelized brioche with lavender and black currant ice cream
For one dessert: 1 brioche, 60 g sugar, a pinch of lavender, 100 ml milk, 100 ml 35% cream, 1 egg, 45 g black currant ice cream.
For lavender mousse: 300 ml of milk, 300 ml of 35% cream, 40 g of sugar, 3 g of dry lavender.
Pickled cherries: 100 g fresh frozen cherries, 14 g sugar, 14 g water, 10 yuzu juice.
Cut the brioche to make a 3cm flat washer and soak in a mixture of milk, sugar, cream, lavender and egg overnight. If you are not going to fry, do not add an egg to the mixture. But if you want the brioche to be warm, fry it on both sides before serving. butter and then caramelize.
To make the mousse, pour milk and cream into a bowl, add lavender and sugar, heat, remove from heat, let stand for 20 minutes, pour into a cream siphon and let cool. Then fill the siphon with gas cylinders.
Heat the cherries slightly in water with sugar and yuzu juice and cool.
The last step is to sprinkle the brioche with sugar and caramelize. Place lavender mousse, cherries and ice cream on a plate nearby. Dessert is ready!
Every year more and more restaurants open in Moscow, and each of them, of course, needs a chef. The younger generation of line chefs and sous-chefs is not growing as fast as we would like; culinary schools still rarely produce those who feel like they’re ripped off. Therefore, restaurateurs often bring experienced foreigners to the capital - chefs from Italy, France, Malaysia, the USA and so on. The Village closely monitors the emerging industry and from time to time finds young up-and-coming chefs to share. Among the new high-profile names that are worth knowing, Russians come across much less often, but today we are talking about just that.
Anton Kovalkov
chef of the restaurant and bar "Favorite place 22.13"
So far, Anton Kovalkov is not particularly famous in Moscow. This is because before Global Point he worked in Nizhny Novgorod. And I wasted no time there. After college, he studied at the MAG in Moscow, where he worked for some time at the Cipollino restaurant. Returning to Novgorod, at the age of 21, he first became a chef. According to Anton, it was the best restaurant in the city, but the thirst for knowledge overcame, and he sent letters to hundreds of European restaurants asking about the possibility of an internship. Anton's first internship was at Hibiscus, a London restaurant with two Michelin stars. That was four years ago, and now Kovalkov's track record also includes the Chicago restaurant Alinea (three Michelin stars) and Noma (two Michelin stars).
In 2013 Anton Kovalkov gave a master class at the Omnivore festival in Moscow. The views of the modern cuisine of the chef, in his own words, completely coincide with the idea of a new young festival cuisine. Kovalkov stands for the use of Russian products, the search for new flavor combinations, for doing everything possible in his kitchen, using ready-made ingredients to a minimum.
Anton himself says that the current menu at "22.13" is just the beginning, "it will be more interesting further." By the fall, tasting sets will appear, about which the chef says: "This will be a reflection of what is really in my head."
Start
I decided to become a chef at the age of 15, but then the choice was not deliberate. I moved from the city of Sarov - there is such a small town in the Nizhny Novgorod region, named after a saint - to Nizhny Novgorod. I was 15 years old and needed to get some kind of profession. My sister went to college, and there was a college at the institute, there were acquaintances, and they asked me: "Will you go?" There were two options - a cook and an auto mechanic. I decided that digging in cars, in oil and being a grimy man is not my thing.
I studied for a profession, got an internship at a restaurant and after about six months began to enjoy what I do. There was a thirst for knowledge and interest in cuisine, I started buying books. Then I got to a restaurant where there was a very good Moscow chef. It got more and more interesting every year.
I became a chef at the age of 21, in Nizhny Novgorod. My first restaurant is somewhat reminiscent of "22.13" in the interior. This is one of the oldest restaurants in the city, now eight years old. And one of the most popular. Everything was not bad, but just one day I realized that this was not enough for me, I had to study further.
Internships
I have interned in many places. Without undue modesty, I am one of a small number of Russian chefs who have traveled all over the world. One of the most important places is perhaps Noma (Chef Rene Redzepi's restaurant, which has two Michelin stars, has been repeatedly recognized as the best in the world by various guides and magazines in recent years. - Ed.)... I am the first Russian who was there. Spent a month. Restaurants with three Michelin stars included Chicago's Alinea and New York's Eleven Madison Park. With two stars: Hibiscus (London), Frantzen (Stockholm), Chez Dominique (Helsinki), Corton (New York) and Atelier Crenn (San Francisco).
My first internship was in London, at Hibiscus. He was then included in the 50 best restaurants in the world. Now I am 28, and when I started traveling abroad, I was 24. I worked as a chef in Nizhny Novgorod. I worked and saved money: I had a goal. At first I saved up a certain amount, then I chose the restaurant I want to go to and thought about how to do it. It turned out in different ways, I often found the right people, I'm lucky.
The language barrier. When I went to London, I spoke very bad English. My sister helped me - she is an English teacher. She wrote me a resume in English, helped me write letters to restaurants. Gave a template for how to do it. When they wrote to me: “Come in a month”, this month I simply surrounded myself with books, textbooks and began to teach. My sister helped here too. Human self-development is one of the most elementary things. A person should not stand still in any case, whoever he may be. Not only in terms of profession, but also in terms of all life - morally, spiritually, physically. These are the rules of life. This is normal for every person.
During internships, I was not looking for recipes, but looking for ideas and techniques. During my internships, I studied how chefs work with food, what techniques they use, how they come up with dishes. I got into Noma and Alinea. Very fond of Frantzen in Stockholm. This is generally one of the brightest places where I have been.
Omnivore Festival
Talking about a local product in Moscow is generally ridiculous, a local product does not exist here. And I focused on the new kitchen. I was a visitor in Moscow at the Omnivore. This whole idea of a new young kitchen is very close to me. Farm products, search for new techniques, new views on old products.
I showed a master class at this Omnivore in Moscow. I made liquid potatoes with mushrooms. It's like a siphon for coffee - we did the same thing, just poured potato broth inside, put it in a siphon different types mushrooms, dried. Heated - the potato broth rose, went down, and it turned out liquid potatoes with mushrooms. I also made hot okroshka - also one of the ideas for a soup made from kvass, only hot. We made homemade bresaola ourselves, the meat component - aged meat, smoked sour cream - a bunch of all sorts of problems. Were very good feedback... The editor of Gastronom, Marianna Orlinkova, Alexander Gavrilov, who was leading the master classes, came up. He said that in three years my performance was one of the brightest. And I say: "Lord, right?" I was so happy. I thought I would calmly show a couple of tricks, everyone would say, “Thank you for coming. They invited me for a reason. "
Contemporary Russian cuisine
It seems to me that a person should do what he has a soul for. Everyone must find their own path and follow it. I understood what I want to work with and why to do it: work with Russian products, because I am Russian. We make beef with adjika, for example. In fact, in almost all restaurants where I have worked, I have made beef with adjika - this is one of my favorite flavor combinations. We cook Adjika ourselves, serve it with Chinese black fermented garlic cream. I'm trying to keep a touch of Russian, but bring in something else.
I play Russian cuisine in a modern way. I believe that this is the only way it can be presented at the world level. Russian cuisine should now be something that you will not be ashamed to show to anyone. It may be completely different, but in my opinion as a chef, Russian cuisine should look like this.
Angus beef tartare with beet granite and fresh sorrel from the menu "22.13"
Farm chicken with malt bechamel sauce and three-hour carrot confit from the "22.13" menu
There is no need to stay only within the framework of Russian ideas and Russian tastes. You can take a Russian product and shade it with something. I like spices, Asian motives. You need to diversify tastes. I really love the dumplings in "Pushkin", but it seems to me that we must move on. What Volodya Mukhin does, for example, is just a super and excellent example. He makes food within the framework of Russian ideas, but he also takes southern cuisine and plays with their ideas in a very cool way. He has a concept, he has ideas. Shishkin is constantly looking for some kind of food, brings it, he made gingerbread from bird cherry flour, pasta from Borodino bread. Each of us presents his own idea, that's right.
There are so many restaurants in Moscow, and each menu has something "farm". And how many people simply flaunt this "we have a farm". In fact, they just take frozen. Or, for example, farmer, but not Russian - farmer French. We take farmer pike perch at LavkaLavka. We know for sure its origin, everything is transparent and can be traced at any stage.
We do a lot ourselves: we smoke fish ourselves, pickle vegetables, quail eggs. Despite the small menu, we have a lot of templates. Why buy smoked fish if you can smoke it yourself? Anyone in a professional kitchen can do everything on their own.
There is a boom in some products. Now there is a boom in bird cherry flour. Everyone is like, "Ah, bird cherry flour!" We thought, why not make it into a sauce for fish, for duck. On my tasting menu I will have duck in a sauce of bird cherry flour with the aroma of Amaretto. This is quite Russian and at the same time not quite standard use bird cherry flour. Trying to look for something and not stop there - this is one of the most correct approaches.
you can't build something
interesting and unusual,
not surrendering to it completely,
not investing entirely
We have a dessert with birch sap. Here again, about the locality - we found a person who collected 300 liters of juice for us and froze him. We found it on Avito.ru - funny and stupid. It turns out that Channel One was filming a program about this man. We have reserved this juice and are gradually buying it - he brings it to us every month.
Birch sap is very sweet and naturally fermented, fermentation. That is, it can be put, and it will ripen until it turns into vinegar. It will be very serious, we have already put it, in burnt wooden hemp, there is such a technique. Juice matures at a certain temperature. The vinegar will smell like birch sap and take on the scent of wood. But it will take time until it appears on the menu. For a while, experiments, clarity, and consistency are taken away.
I want to launch a tasting menu by autumn ... Seriously prepare for the dishes, serving, so that they are interesting ideas is what I want to show. To be a reflection of what's in my head. I just started making the first sketches. I want this to be an unforgettable experience for a person. For a person to come, eat and think: “Yes, this is something new for me. I won't try this anywhere else. "
Chef job
The restaurant inside is not the same as outside. Outside, everything is quiet and calm, while in the kitchen there can be outrageous screams, shouts, pushing. The only thing that I understood: you cannot build something interesting and unusual without giving in to it completely, without investing entirely. And I realized what I wanted to do.
You don't always have to show that you can make a frothing sauce or for something to pop out of the plate. The first thing to talk about is taste. You should be amazed by the taste or combination of flavors, and only then everything else.
Salad with sturgeon, baked vegetables and pickled quail eggs from the menu "22.13"
Dessert with sorrel, salted white chocolate, birch juice and fennel from the menu "22.13"
Sometimes you meet chefs who want to show the techniques they know. They don't give a damn that the dishes are tasteful. They know how to make a froth, and they believe that it is modern kitchen and put these scum everywhere. They make snow, lay out a bunch of flowers. A bunch of flowers, cream, emulsions - they know how to make them, but the taste of vegetables is simply disgusting. Some are pickled, others are overcooked, no cabbage. You just eat them and think: "Lord, why are you putting them on a plate at all?" At the same time, they serve a tasting menu for, say, 95 euros. How does your conscience generally allow you to do this? There are such chefs not only in Europe, the world is full of them and, unfortunately, in Russia too.
Many people sketch dishes, I never do, because I understand that I cannot adequately transfer all this to paper. I can only make some sketches. I played the guitar, I still play for myself. This is a hobby that can distract me, otherwise I constantly drive thoughts about food in my head. You need a hobby that distracts you from these thoughts. You need to step back and empty your head for something new to come. This happens most often.
About Moscow colleagues
In Moscow, I have not had time to get to know everyone yet. Isaac Correa played the Omnivore after me. He is an energy man. I was with him yesterday at the Upside Down Cake Company and. I was actually a little upset. This often happens: he is alone and cannot burst into all his places. This is a problem of the network, a problem of large establishments. Shishkin visited Delicatessen some time ago. At first we wanted to go to "Gifts of Nature", but I finish work late. We are friends with Shishkin only in absentia - on Facebook. But I definitely want to improve relations with everyone. I also ate at White Rabbit - Mukhin is generally well done. He's one of the most advanced young chefs now, I think. One can only be glad for such people. These are the people who promote Russian cuisine.
I'd like to call Vanya Shishkin and just sit with him because this person is also phenomenal simply - thoughts, ideas. I would like to communicate with everyone, but at the same time I would like to first arrange everything here, at "22.13", and find my niche, my guests who will be interested in eating my food. I think I'll find it. My kitchen does not scare people away, even in spite of difficult things somewhere, if a person is open to something new.
I bow before
what is Zimin doing. He did a great job in order to
to raise the culture of food
I was in "Barbarians" when they first opened. It was great, very tasty. Anatoly Anatolyevich Komm is also super simple. This is the only chef who initially represented us on the world stage. He punched a hole in the wall, and we all began to use that hole. It doesn't matter what they say about him - he did a lot and, I think, is worthy of respect for that.
I would like to establish contact with all the chefs with whom it will be interesting to communicate. On the day of our performance at Omnivore, we arrived at 11 am to do all the preparations. The first to perform were Zimin and Shalev. We were not able to really communicate. I admire what Zimin is doing. He did a great job in order to raise the culture of food in Russia and in Moscow in particular. That Zimin gathered everyone in this way, that Akimov - only in terms of farmers.
It's strange that I always expect more from Ragout than they end up giving. When I went there for the first time, out of six dishes, four were mushroom mince... I don't understand why they put it all over the place. I'm not saying it tastes bad. I just don't get it. Either I am not mature enough, or something else. I never want to offend anyone and do not overestimate myself. It's not up to you to decide who is cooler than you, who is not cooler. You need to find your niche and do business, proving by actions, and not by talking. But I'm talking about my experience. I went and said: "I did not understand" or "I did not taste", "I did not understand, I will not order this dish." But carrot soup I'll eat there. And I can go to the grill bar too.
Photos: Olya Eichenbaum
ANTON KOVALKOV, CHEF OF THE RESTAURANT "BELUGA"
Anton Kovalkov - Chef of the Beluga restaurant
About myself. I was born in the city of Sarov, Nizhny Novgorod region, where I lived until I was 15 years old. In general, 15 years for me is a kind of starting point. Then it all started, and it still continues.
He entered the cooking college, study to be a pastry chef and graduated with honors. As one of the best students, I was sent to practice in a restaurant. This was my first real job. The day before going to work, I studied all my notes and cookery books in order to once again refresh my memory on what and how to cut and not to lose my face at the crucial moment. But as always happens, in the very first 5 minutes I cut my hand badly, so my work for the next two weeks excluded the use of piercing and cutting objects.
Of course, it was difficult at first to work in the kitchen. I didn’t have a clear idea of what a team was, I didn’t know how to start a conversation, how to behave correctly in the environment of people unfamiliar to me. In general, there were clearly problems with social qualities, but on the other hand, it helped not to be distracted from the learning process of cooking.
After a while, a restaurant opened in the city, owned by a Moscow group, most of our team from the restaurant moved there, and they called me along. There was a completely different level: the food was more difficult to prepare, the discipline was tougher, the products were of higher quality. After 2.5 years of work, I became a sous-chef.
The learning process is endless... If you want, you can hone your technique after work or cook new dishes at home, read literature related to gastronomy, there are many options, the main thing is to want. This is what I actually did in my free time. Then I still began to interest Italian food, and after a while I learned that an Italian restaurant was opening in the city and the chef was also Italian. Almost on the same day I went to them for an interview. Italian cuisine seemed to me to be something beautiful and refined, but in fact, Italian cuisine is rather chaotic. However, it was good experience... After the chef Angelo left, I stayed in the restaurant as a senior. I say “senior” because I was only nominally a chef. It was then that I realized that I wanted to move on, I was 21 years old. Having started earning other sums, I began to put aside about 60% of what I received for the future, and I went on an internship with them.
Internships. There were no problems with the choice of restaurants for an internship: I just opened the rating of The World's 50 Best Restaurants and started sending resumes for an internship to each of them. In general, nothing should stop you on the way to your goal. What will someone else's opinion be? The main thing is the result that you will get. At that time I did not know of English language, so I asked my sister to help me write the cover letter correctly. So I sent letters every week, and if the restaurant did not respond in any way to my request, then after a while I received another letter.
In the end, they answered me from New York (Gramercy Tavern), London (Hibiscus) and someone else from Australia, but since the ratings of the first two were higher, I chose one of them.
As a result, I chose Hibiscus, at that time they were ranked 48th among the best restaurants in the world, had Michelin stars, and the chef of the restaurant Claude Bozi was a student of Alain Ducasse.
After my internship was approved, I took a week off and sat down to textbooks. You cannot survive without knowing the language in the kitchen, especially if you want not only to watch how others cook, but also to learn something. Therefore, I learned the names of almost all kitchen utensils, products and memorized the sound of the most common phrases that I could hear. Of course, it was a different world, I didn't even fully understand where I was going. Nobody needs you there. You are in the way, so be grateful just for being allowed to be here. Until you show yourself, you are an empty place. It has its own laws, its own micro-world. The working day began at 06:45 am and ended at about 1 am. The loads were colossal. This whole process can be compared to a train. A locomotive that rushes forward, and you are trying with all your might to stay on it.
Noma. Omnivore... Then, I went for an internship at Noma, then - the best restaurant in the world. The most important thing that I gained on this trip is an understanding of the philosophy of gastronomy. What is the highest goal, why are we doing this all at all. In addition, I began to look at the product in a completely different way. The stereotypes that, for example, a cucumber is cut only into a salad have been destroyed, the realization came that you can make a dessert out of it, etc. The boundaries of the familiar disappeared, I saw how deeply people understand food.
I was like a sponge absorbing information and the more it became, the more I wanted to receive it.
Then I found out about the Omnivore festival and sent my application for participation to the organizer Natalya Palacios - she was exactly the person who brought this festival to Russia. As always, I took this matter seriously and spent a fair amount of time working out the dishes. I prepared "liquid potatoes with mushrooms" and also dessert "Spring boat", which was based on my childhood memory: when I came to my grandmother, we launched paper boats on the first streams. In this dish, the boat was from white chocolate, other ingredients were birch sap, baked cottage cheese, chocolate ganache.
Moscow... Initially, I didn't like Moscow as a city at all. It seemed that it was great to come here for a weekend or to visit friends, but to live in such a rhythm - no, thanks! At the same time, I really liked the Moscow gastronomy, the opportunities that were opening up here. A large number of talented chefs, completely different formats. There was so much of it all, and everything was gathered in one place. You have breakfast in "Paris", dine in "China", but in general, you yourself are Russian and in Moscow you are just passing through. Such international and affordable cuisine. This was not the case in my city. In Moscow, I worked in different restaurants, the main ones - Maison Dellos (a group of Dellos restaurants), the Fahrenheit restaurant, which we built from scratch. This place gave me a lot of experience and knowledge in building working relationships with people. I always remember with warmth the years of work spent there.
Beluga. I've always loved Russian cuisine, and this restaurant also focuses on local specialties and delicacies. We often do not see what is in front of our eyes and all the time we try to look for something new outside our country. This, of course, is all right, but we must not forget about what we can be proud of. These flavors can and should be shared with guests: smoked sterlet, caviar, Yuzhno-Sakhalin oysters, scallops, porcini mushrooms ... In my work it is important to emphasize the product, highlight it among others, and at the same time preserve the gastronomic character of the dish. After all, the “Russian delicacies” format is much broader than we used to think. We try to preserve the classics of Russian cuisine, because the guests of our restaurant expect to see these items on the menu, but this is a classic in a modern interpretation - the way I see it. It turns out delicious!
The chef recommends. What should you try at Beluga? The most popular dishes in the restaurant: scallop carpaccio with pickled apple and cherry (670 rubles), Olivier 2018 with stewed sturgeon, baked vegetables and herbal mayonnaise (860 rubles), warm rye brioche with black caviar (1200 rubles .), duck fillet with baked young carrots, peaches and sorrel (1100 rubles), beef tenderloin with baked cabbage and wild garlic (1200 rubles), strawberries with baked cottage cheese, tarragon ice cream and milk mousse (570 rubles).
How did a man from a closed city decide to become a chef?
The man from the closed city did not think about it. I didn't think much of anything. Not about the future. I realized that I needed to look for a profession only when I moved to Nizhny Novgorod. My sister entered the university, I followed her, there was a technical school, there were such professions in the technical school: accountant, auto mechanic, cook. I associated an auto mechanic with a man who looked like a Trudovik in a blue coat, with smeared hands, a greasy rag. I thought the most respectable of it all was the chef. The first time was not interesting, although I was one of the best on the stream and generally studied well. And six months later I got an internship, later I got a job at the same place - and I became interested, began to delve into it. Off we go. I already went to a more serious restaurant where there was a chef from Moscow. It became more and more intriguing for me, I started buying books about gastronomy. The desire for development was pushed by the thirst for new knowledge, I always wanted forward-forward-forward.
And what did you dream of in Sarov?
About the new guitar. About the motorcycle. An even better biker jacket. What else can you dream of at the age of 14? Everything was pretty material. About music - then I played the guitar in a band.
What kind of music was it?
Like what?
We played this kind of black metal, melodic death metal. Well, there were also dreams of playing somewhere, performing at a concert. I never thought that I would go to cook something. But at the same time, I was always drawn to the stove: if I stayed at home alone, it was not difficult for me to cook something for myself. Although, I know, some men are generally afraid to approach the stove.
Why did you move to Nizhny?
Well, my mother influenced me. My sister studied at the pedagogical institute in Arzamas, then transferred to Nizhny Novgorod, and my mother said: come on, we must also take ourselves away from Sarov. She pushed me, I am grateful to her for that, because it all led to where I am now. Maybe, if I hadn't gone anywhere, I would have stayed in Sarov.
What was the very first impetus when you realized that the kitchen is interesting? First practice?
Maybe yes. When you study a profession at a school, you have no idea what it is, this world. And suddenly you find yourself in the kitchen - and this is a whole world with its own rules. I liked it right away - this movement is constant, when there are many guests, it enchants.
And when did you become interested in cooking not just good borscht, but something that no one else had cooked?
Probably when I got carte blanche. For the first time I became a chef at the Bezukhov restaurant. There was no basic concept, you just had to cook deliciously. It was so long ago, ten years ago. Then connoisseurs of taste extolled "Caesar", to which they added Lithuanian parmesan, and carbonara, which, in my opinion, did not even look like carbonara. And I had the opportunity to experiment. Then something appeared. Not even ambition to cook something new, but rather a frantic interest: what will happen if you do this? And what if that's the case? This is probably the most powerful incentive - when you ask yourself questions: what will happen if I do something differently? When you experiment, you find some interesting note, then you think: cool, you need to think about it some more. The ability to create is great, but then I began to realize that sometimes you need to restrain yourself. It seems to you that it is cool, innovative, interesting - but it can be tasteless.
And when and how did you get to Cipollino (a restaurant in which Adrian Ketglas was the chef. - Approx. ed.)?
This was after Bezukhov. I took a short break and left. I wanted to work in Moscow. It was not as long as I would like, by coincidence I had to return to Nizhny Novgorod. But my share interesting experience I got it, it was great. Again, I understood what Moscow and world chefs are: this was the first Ketglas establishment, and he showed such things that I had not seen anywhere else. And after Moscow, after a while it dawned on me: I want to see how it is there, abroad. And there the world turned out to be even more wonderful. For me, who was 24-25 years old, it was something incredible.
And how was it? Here you are, the boss, saving up money and going on an internship on vacation.
Yes, I was just taking a vacation.
For a long time?
When for a month, when for two weeks. London, the first trip, was only for two weeks. Then I already worked in Milo, a club-cafe in the expensive shopping center "Etazhi" in the center of Nizhny.
A shot taken almost immediately after the opening of Fahrenheit: the restaurant team led by Anton and Bryce Schumann, the chef of the Betony restaurant, who came on tour. This is a New York project by Andrei Dellos, which has already received a Michelin star.
How did you choose where to go?
I just opened the list of "50 best restaurants in the world". I thought - why waste time on trifles? If you go, then go to something good. I picked it up and looked: cool photos, names that don't tell you anything at all. That is, I did not understand the seriousness of what lay ahead. Seriousness appears only there when you come and find yourself in a frantic rhythm in which people work there. You get up at 6 in the morning to be at work at 6.45, and at 1 am you go home to wake up at 6. Work is not for everyone. But it is in such conditions that you learn how much you love your profession. There is a saying: if you don’t know whether you love your job or not, imagine: will you stay on it if you get a million dollars? If you stay, then you love. And so, let's say you find yourself in the rhythm of such a restaurant, you work for a month, two, three, you understand that you are tired, you don't get enough sleep, you have no time for yourself, you are in constant stress, something constantly puts pressure on you, you earn a pittance and you live in a slum. And if, with all these factors, you stay at work and enjoy it, then you have chosen the right profession. You are in your place.
The first was Hibiscus(London restaurant by French chef Claude Bosie, two Michelin stars - Approx. ed.)?
Yes. This is a very small restaurant, three times smaller than Fahrenheit. He works for two services, lunch and evening. It was then that I first got acquainted with this system: that there is a break between lunch and dinner. During this time we managed to do everything, get ready, and it was possible for another hour and a half to stagger around the center of London or sit somewhere to drink coffee. Restaurant with two stars, 49th in the world at the time (listed The World's 50 Best Restaurants.- Approx. ed.). Then, having already worked with Ketglas, I realized that I knew nothing: there was a completely different level - how everything is prepared, served, served. The things I was just experimenting with were already in full swing there. And, of course, it was great that the people who went to Hibiscus understood it all: every lunch and every evening the restaurant is packed. And also products that I have never seen: there for the first time in my life I met fresh almonds, a Berkshire pig, and other incredible things. I didn't even realize the value of how cool it was to have such products back then. Unknown world! And combinations: smoked mackerel broth, white chocolate with green peas- I tried similar things there. And for me it was a revelation: how are we lagging behind in Russia, how these restaurants differ from what we have. I realized that there is much to strive for.
What were you doing there? Did you butcher the pork? Did you cut the potatoes?
Everything. At first, we were busy with blanks, from seven in the morning until half past eleven. They brought fresh chanterelles - choose the perfect ones, put them in portions. They brought in black chanterelles - you cleaned them, also put them in portions. You make onion puree, you split almonds, you make polenta. Some such things that I have never encountered. And then, when the service was already starting, I already helped, stood on two side dishes. For example, the chef makes a side dish, tells me: heat the puree; I warmed it up, I give it for distribution, the chef serves it. We were allowed to try some things. Then I went to another station, to a meat station, where I helped, made a moussaka. Over time, when you achieve some kind of authority, they trust you, of course, to do some more difficult things, but to immediately trust you - no. The responsibility there was very high: two Michelin stars, at stake every dinner, every evening. Everything is very serious there.
1 /5
Pictures from Kovalkov's internship trips. This one is from the Balinese restaurant Mozaic
Chez Dominique in Helsinki
Bo Innovation in Hong Kong
Atelier Crenn in San Francisco
Anton and Rene Redzepi, Chief of Noma, Copenhagen
And so you returned to Nizhny. How did you feel? Inspiration?
Partly enthusiasm, partly, of course, regret. For a very long time I wanted to go back to this. After such restaurants - those chefs who have been in similar ones will not let you lie - when you come back, you feel like watching a movie in slow motion: everything is so slow in our kitchens.
Have you started to change something for yourself?
Oh sure. It was unrealistic to start doing what I saw there, of course. But in the organization of work, in the systematization, I already understood where what could be corrected, corrected. Some even elementary things: something can be hung in a different way, and it will be much more convenient that way. I have been doing this throughout my career: I learned something, saw something, and I try to adapt it to my kitchen as much as possible, so that the guys would be comfortable working and the system would be understandable. Now the chefs understand that there is a certain system, the rules of which cannot be broken, and they do exactly the right thing: because they do not break the rules, everything is in order. But, probably, the main thing after coming from somewhere is that you want to experiment. You've seen restaurants in which people book a table for a certain time, and for them this is not something very important: they have visited one restaurant, then they go to another for a new experience in understanding food. But in Nizhny Novgorod then hardly anyone went directly to the experience: people came to eat delicious food in a good interior. Unfortunately, this is still the case here. In the same America, in many restaurants, people do not come to look at the interior, not to see if some stars are eating at the next table - they go to world-famous restaurants for the experience that food gives, for new combinations, new products. Well, it's not ours yet. But over time it will come.
A year later, I went to Noma (the Copenhagen restaurant of chef Rene Redzepi - Approx. ed.). It happened just when they moved from second place to first (in the same list of the 50 best restaurants in the world. - Approx. ed.). A completely different experience! Europe is Europe, but everything is completely different. The scale in the first place was a shock to me. Two huge floors, twenty interns from all over the world in one kitchen. Trips to the forest, searching and collecting different things, a separate laboratory for people. A restaurant of this level.
And they show the trainees everything?
Well, yes. The main mistake of many young and middle-aged chefs who have never had any experience of working in Europe is that they judge these restaurants by their beautiful YouTube clips. But there is a locomotive. And no one is waiting for you there. You come and you are like a splinter in the ocean. If you are not in the mood to work and understand, no one will babysit you. Don't know the language? Your problems. Can't work fast? Your problems. All problems there are yours. Nowhere to live, no money - your problems. If you want to do an internship, then you need to tune yourself up and constantly be in good shape. And then, if you work at a good speed, then you will have time to see everything, get interesting ideas. Yes, so everywhere, in any normal kitchen: everything depends on you, you make your choice every day. Whether to stand on the sidelines and lay out rose petals, 6 leaves on one parchment, you need to make 100 of these - you do, and no one will come up to you. Or you can manage to do your own thing and poke your nose everywhere, ask there, ask at another site. I always tell my guys too: how you will work today is your choice, not mine; I didn't bring you here, you work here not because I want to, but because you want to. Over time, people understand. People who are not interested in who came here as to a factory - to sharpen the details and leave - there are no such people here anymore, they are eliminated at the first stage. Those who come just to beat their thumbs - they can't stand me.
What were you doing in the forest?
Then it was the season of bear garlic, these little buds, which were then salted for six weeks, washed - instead of capers - and we had to collect a huge amount of these buds. Specifically, I went three times. Picking herbs is one of the trainees' duties, and they leave with the chef de parti. Someone collected one, someone else.
Is it before work or instead of?
This is part of the job.
That is, on the same day and work in the kitchen?
Yes, we left in the morning, then we come, we help to finish something on the blanks, and in the evening several interns go to the service to help. Noma operates two services. But I often worked in the evening, we did a lot of preparations, and in the evening we helped to give away the dishes. There prep-kitchen (the kitchen where the preparations are made. - Approx. ed.) and front-kitchen (main kitchen. - Approx. ed.), on which everything was directly prepared and released into the hall. That was when I got to know one of the most inspiring things in our profession: when the chefs bring their own food. In Noma, it is so customary - plates are brought to guests not only by the waiters, but also by the guys who prepared the dish. This is a very important psychological thing: how much the chef should value what he collects, how responsible he should be for his food, if he carries it himself. I was the first Russian trainee who got to Redzepi, and one evening there was a couple, I don’t remember where, but Russian-speaking, and I was lucky to take out a dish for them and talk about it in Russian. Imagine the responsibility: Noma was very different from El Bulli, which until then was in the first place, there was such a flow of tourists that their servers where the reservation was processed collapsed.
And in Nizhniy you were still given carte blanche?
When I went to Noma, I was already in another establishment, Kitchen.
Was it made specifically for you?
Well, not really, I guess. Not really for me. As a result, everything spilled over and became under me, but I will not go into the nuances, everything was not entirely smooth. Yes, it was Kitchen by Anton Kovalkov, but many things didn't stick together there. And at the same time, on the menu that I made there, I almost had carte blanche, I experimented. But all the same, a competent chef eventually realizes that a person is needed whose opinion will be absolutely authoritative. Such a director. Because chefs are still a little one-sided - we look at many things, at innovations, and so on from the kitchen side. Guests perceive all this a little differently: not every time a person is tuned in to something difficult, not every time something should pop out or smoke on the plate. Often times, people just want well-prepared, quality food. The cook needs to understand this. There should be modern technologies, but it is not necessary to bring them to the fore - here, look, I cooked fish for 150 hours, this is how cool it is. Kitchen lasted a year, in my opinion. After that, I ended my career with that company and quit with a plan to move to the States.
Work or internship?
I left to work. I left for three months, although I didn't really think about how long I was going. I thought that I could afford to travel, travel. I had a plan to get into several American restaurants. For example, I went to New York and understood that I wanted to 11 M adison Park and Corton. Alinea in Chicago - there was a plan to stay there for at least a month. Then San Francisco - I chose Benu and Atelier Crenn. I spent three months working in such restaurants, I don't regret it a bit, it was an amazing experience, in terms of the system, in terms of food, in terms of techniques. An exceptional experience, honestly.
Returned and set their sights on Moscow? Or how?
In fact, I returned back to Nizhny Novgorod with the understanding that something more was needed. I got a job at the Romanov entertainment complex, where there were VIP cinemas on the first floor, and a restaurant on the second floor. He worked there for almost a year, and then moved to Moscow.
And you named the restaurant in Romanov that way - Per Se?
No, not me. This was already the case when I started working there. Yes, it was called like Thomas Keller's restaurant. As a result, I realized that I needed to move on. Even when I was in the States, I wrote to Natalya Palacios, who was the organizer of the Moscow Omnivore festival, that I want to participate. I sent photos of my works. Natalya kindly agreed to take me without testing, said: "Yes, come." It was my first "Omnivor" - and many people came up to me after the show, there were a lot of flattering reviews. I understood that I was doing experimental things, but then I became convinced that I was on the right path, that there was a place for them, they were relevant and could be dealt with. And a month before "Omnivor" I passed a tasting at "22.13".
So it was before the festival?
Yes, that was before. Many people mistakenly think that it was after. And I just announced at Omnivor that I would have a project.
So. And why exactly "22.13"?
I can't say exactly why. It was just a new project in Moscow. This company (Global Point. - Approx. ed.) launched a new project in Moscow, I was also new to Moscow. This is how the cards were formed, this is how the threads of fate intertwined. Also, I can't say why "22.13" closed; probably it should have happened. Each failure is an opportunity to give a person to think, to draw conclusions. Only a fool does not draw any conclusions from failure. A smart person will always do them. Right or wrong, but it will.
Was what you did in "22.13" much different from what you did in Nizhny?
Different, yes. For me it was a new stage, I wanted to climb another step. Something, perhaps, was even too experimental. But there were also simple things on the menu - bruschetta, for example, a burger. There was everything. Each person could find his own. It so happened that I left "22.13" at the end of the year. And I made a promise to myself that I would find the place in which I would feel comfortable, I would understand what I was doing there. I drew certain conclusions and moved on. Finding a place took me five months, from January to May. The point is not that there were no proposals - there were proposals. They started to appear even before I left "22.13", a week before. But I didn't feel that it was mine. I did tastings in a couple of new places. Almost got on a train with Moscow's F our Seasons, but ended up in Fahrenheit in May 2015.
Did they call you?
Yes. From old memory I talked with a girl who worked here in the personnel department, and somehow asked if there was anything for me. And somehow it all came together like that: she came to the second Omnivor for me, we talked with her, shot a video. And in the end I met with the manager of the company (Maison Dellos. - Approx. ed.) Alexander Vyacheslavovich Zaitsev. We talked, I did a tasting, he told about the project. In the end, I came here when there was still nothing, only walls, pipes and sand.
And did you make the kitchen for yourself?
I completely designed the kitchen myself. I was doing the studies, the kitchen was being built in parallel, and I could always go down to check how what was being built.
What was required in it?
Again, it somehow grew together - everything that we had in mind for the kitchen, it all happened. I wanted to have a charcoal grill - put on a josper. The entire hot line had to be near the wall, ordinary stoves mixed with induction - as they wanted, they did it. All sorts of gadgets are also there - shock freeze, "Anti-grill", packojet; everything worked out great. Andrei Konstantinovich Dellos chose the color of the tile - in principle, this color had to play, and I also liked it right away.
Do the people who run your kitchen strongly influence your kitchen?
Well, there are a lot of moments when you need to listen to the opinion - this is what I already told you about. And here in the company I felt that there was a director.
Alexander Zaitsev?
Yes. And the bottom line is that he is not the kind of director who tells you: go straight along this road - and there will be a good shot (as they say in many places). No, he says: think about which road to go. Here no one dictates, here they just try to open up and help to open up. Asking the right questions. And if in "22.13" I thought: what kind of tasting, I know everything, then it is not here. And it's good that there is an opinion of authoritative people. Or when observers come, critics, including anonymous ones, such as Insider (a group of anonymous critics who write for the site Insider.moscow. - Approx. ed. ) or Boris (Boris Kritik, an anonymous critic from St. Petersburg. - Approx. ed.), - their opinion is also important. Not a single chef will say: the opinion of people is not important to me at all, I will cook what I want. Not a single normal chef will say this, because there are objectively tasty things and objectively tasteless ones. Ugly - this is already very subjective.
What are the right questions for Zaitsev? How does he say that something will work and something will not?
But there is no such thing. There were moments when he said: a delicious dish, but probably won't work. And time passed, and the dish took the top position. And here it is very important that if he understands that he was wrong, then he admits it - this is the lot of the strong. What are the questions? Well, for example, at the last tasting, he simply told me about one dish: the salad is delicious, but lacks brightness - the whole picture lacks brightness, think again, you can do better. Says to think - and I take into account that this salad simply may not be ready yet to enter the menu. And after a while a new idea will appear, I will finalize something - and it will sparkle with new colors. Probably, such a relationship is very comfortable. I'm not going to prove to someone that I am a professional. And the manager of the company understands that I am a professional. Why dictate to a professional what to do? We don't hire a lawyer to tell him: you know, but I read on the Internet that this is such a law. Or someone will sit to paint your portrait - you will not tell him: I have a different nose, you see wrong. We don't tell architects how to build houses, engineers how to design machines. Everyone must do their job. And it's great that Maison Dellos understands this border, they know how to behave with the chef. This is a whole science. We are, in essence, very capricious. This is a story about how anyone can offend an artist. But I know more expressive chefs than me. Many are more harsh about criticism - after all, you also need to be able to perceive criticism, it comes with time.
Do you yourself understand where you will move on? Which way?
Yes, I do understand that I am moving in the right direction. The beauty of Fahrenheit is that I have a regular menu and a chef's table (dinner, set, which the chef makes up entirely at his discretion. - Approx. ed.), where I can reveal my ambitions, unrealized experimental ideas.
What should a dish be like in 2016 to be considered modern? How should it look, what should it be?
Well, I think everyone has their own modernity. It seems to me that the main idea is for the dish to have a connection with the traditions of your country. Then it should support locality as much as possible - production on the territory of its own country. Innovation - it has to be in textures. But they shouldn't come to the fore - look, I made smoke from potatoes! The most important thing is that the food must be delicious. And I think that the dish can be made more interesting by combining different combinations. For example, I do not limit myself to Russian tastes: I really love Asia, and I like to add Asian notes. I love to bring something new, because it helps to take a fresh look even at the familiar product. The chief must travel with his head.
After Heston Blumenthal decided that something must crunch on the plate, everyone crunched. What do you think, should something crunch on the plate or not?
Well, for example, I like it to be crunchy, because this variety of textures helps our brain to perceive the dish better. I am also a supporter of diversifying textures. The same Blumenthal gives an example with mashed potatoes: the first three tablespoons are the tastiest, but your brain does not perceive everything else so brightly. Any dish should be balanced, and if you taste it and think - it would be great if there was a touch of crunch here - then you need to add it. And if you have a concept that the main dish should be creamy, and for a change you can add some kind of pickled element or something sharply acidic, then the crunch is no longer needed. Balance matters.
What about color? Does the dish have to be bright?
Do not know. The dish can be made interesting to the taste - and completely black. Black is the color of artists, the color of Malevich. However, it is not for nothing that they say that we eat with our eyes. The dish, of course, must be beautiful. As tasty as it is, the first thing you do is look at it. Even the appearance of the plate is important. Many people make plates themselves, to order - I am also a supporter of this. In general, about trends ... I recently received a call from some publication and asked: "Have you heard about such a trend - a bitter product?" Like a bitter taste dampens appetite, and if there is a bitter element in every dish, that's very good. I say: no, I have not. And the second question was: "Do you know any ways how to make a bitter product less bitter?" And I was like, “What is the point of this trend then? To use a bitter product - and try to make it not bitter? " The strangest trend.
Anton Kovalkov
Chef of the Fahrenheit restaurant (Moscow)
Recruitment agency HoReCa Talents continues to meet and get acquainted with the most successful, talented guys! Today we present to your attention an interview with Anton Kovalkov. It will take a long time to read, we talked for two hours, but it was very interesting.
- Anton, are you from Nizhny Novgorod?
- Yes. I traveled a lot, trained. It all started when he was still living and working in Nizhny Novgorod. I wanted to constantly develop. First, I interned in London at the Hibiscus restaurant, and then, a year later I went to the Noma restaurant, then Noma had the first year when they took the prize for the best restaurant in the world, at which time I was lucky to work there. It was an unforgettable experience. After that there were Europe, Spain, Stockholm, Asia.
- What surprised you about your work during your internships abroad?
- Everyone works in a different mode, in Russia no one works like that. There are very few people who work with such passion. There are only a few people here, like in Europe, America, hard walkers who have devoted their lives to working in the kitchen, who know that this is their life. For them, it is 7 days a week. And it might just be a line chef. We do not have such. Even the trainees who come to work there have more passion than some of the Chefs in Russia. This will be confirmed by any Chef who has trained in such restaurants. Our people have not seen how they work there, or they are not infected with it, I don’t know. And they seem to be interested, but they try to jump back and forth all the time. And the point is not that we do not have Michelin restaurants, we have talented Chefs who develop the gastronomic world, but they cannot find a TU team, a dream-team. It is worth a lot when Chefs find themselves Here, in Russia, people with flaming eyes.
- I am interested in how long it is possible to withstand work in such a mode as in Noma. Were there line chefs working for several years?
- Rarely. If linear, then basically they move from station to station, grow, become older. Some of course go a long way, from line chef to sous chef, etc.
- Chefs from different countries have this opportunity?
- Yes, it all depends on how devoted you are to work, the main criterion is your passion. You need to be talented, perfectionist. My goal was to look at different approaches, so I had short-term internships - from a month to several, in different good restaurants.
- When will we come to the understanding of "going to the Chief"?
- In 10 years, probably. But we are moving. We went as ambassadors to Milan Expo, as ambassadors of modernity, to Montreal for the Omnivore festival in August. We made dinner. The Chefs came to try. Pascal Barbot, (3 Michelin stars), tasted everything, said it was interesting, delicious. The world community is beginning to show interest, despite the geopolitical situation. People who are closer to cooking are probably further from politics.
- Would you like to work abroad?
- It is hard to say. Europe, of course, always attracts with its certain things. There, for example, the cult of the Chef has already been formed, people go to food, and they understand that Food and Chef are very important. I think that over time it would be possible to try your hand at Europe. I don’t know the location yet. One thing I know is that I will not be able to cook something that is not close to me in style, but Russian modern cuisine is close to me. This is how I characterize it. The new Russian cuisine, or the new wave of Russian cuisine, doesn't matter. Copyright. We grew up in Russian cuisine, we have our own mentality. Potatoes with mushrooms are delicious, buckwheat with mushrooms is delicious. Sea buckthorn for me is a garden tree with berries. And for example, for Americans, Spaniards, this is not typical, they may never have seen.
I was privileged to feed Joan Roc a couple of weeks ago the best Chef the world at the moment. I made him a dessert with millet porridge, pumpkin, sea buckthorn, and he tried it, he said, great. For him, these are unusual tastes, he perceives as new. He liked it very much, said: "this is interesting, this is great."
Of course, I would like to try my hand at a gastronomic project in Europe, over time. This is one of the steps. I am 30 years old, so many roads are open, I am not even in the middle of the path, but at the beginning. However, I think that there is no age when you can "sit down and calm down", for someone 25 years is the age when he believes that he has achieved everything. It is not right.
- How to remain a Media Chef, since it is very important in Moscow, and not to miss the work process?
- It's a balance. Time management. A chef is already a person who works at a different level, not just like a cook. That is, you need to be a leader. Therefore, I make an appointment in advance, I do everything in advance. You need to be able to manage your time. This is the lifestyle of a healthy, successful person. Be efficient at work, be efficient in life.
- What does it mean to be effective at work for the Chief?
- Just to catch this balance between the organization of the kitchen, the creative process, elaboration. Catch balance and be efficient.
- About the organization of the process. Is it possible for the Chief to learn consistency in his work if he is creative, for example, but a bad organizer?
- It all depends on the person. You can't force him. In addition to creativity, the Chef must, of course, be tasty, disciplined, and organized. But all together, in the balance, this is the Chief. It cannot be one-sided, only creative, or only delicious. Together.
- Are there such examples?
- In Moscow, I did not work under the leadership of some Chief. No, I worked at the very beginning for A. Ketglas, there was a system. But the best system is the one I saw during my internships. There is such a well-oiled mechanism! There is a system, and it is built on people. If a person treats work in bad faith, then he will not make this mechanism rotate. Anatoly Komm said that the kitchen should be like a well-oiled tourbion. Each wheel knows where it is turning. This is all true. This is probably the test of the Chief's talent as an organizer. The chef must be sure that what is needed is released from the kitchen when he is not.
- When did the Chief leave?
- This is one of the most difficult things in work. From a distance, you can only trust. You can't control. In the end, it all depends on how the system is built. By the way, we recently turned a year, we all looked around, looked, realized that in fact there were not so many people left.
- But there are no “random” ones anymore?
- There are no more random ones. Everyone who works, works because they want to work Here. And not because someone forced it, etc. They want to work with me, in this team. I believe that you need to trust people. Not trying to do "myself" is a question to the Chief as a leader. If you cannot delegate authority, you will not build a system.
- How to motivate chefs and keep them in constant shape?
- Motivation is different. We have no crazy financial motivation. Only material is not correct. Although financial motivation is one of the most important in the work. When it is understood, satisfied, others take effect: what will I get from this work, how the future will develop, what can be achieved in this restaurant, in this company.
How to motivate: you need to talk with people, explain what is important. Your sous-chefs should be in the same team with you. Our team has friendly relations. But I'm not an angel in the kitchen. And if in the evening we drank together at a holiday, it does not mean that tomorrow I will keep silent if the chef is wrong.
- And when the Sous-chefs grow up. Let go with a light heart?
- With pleasure. I will only be glad if someone comes out from under my wing and moves on.
- There are those who will work with you for three months, and then say in another company: take me, did I work with Anton Kovalkov?))
- Yes it was. This is very funny. Having worked in a linear position, in good location, says, "I know everything, well, what else will they teach me!"
- Do you visit other restaurants to see the Chefs?
- Yes with pleasure. I have friendly relations with the Chefs. I have no Chef-friends in Moscow. In Nizhny Novgorod, my best friend was the Chef of a competitive restaurant. We talked about culinary topics and there were no secrets from each other. The Moscow community is a little closed in professional communication.
- Do they copy your work?
- It happens, but I always understand “where the legs grow from”. Let them copy, I'll figure it out. Even if they copy it outright, I don't care, no problem. I love to share, I give master classes willingly, come and take a look. The whole world shares with each other.
- Do you personally, as the Chief, have competitors?
- Vladimir Mukhin, Brothers Berezutsky, Georgy Troyan, Anatoly Kazakov, Andrey Shmakov - we work in a similar style. We are doing one thing, we are contemporaries. But we think differently, we have different schools, we have different hands, different interpretations. I am not ashamed to say after eating someone's dish: "This is cool, this is cool, this is something to think about, the idea is interesting!"
- How does the idea come to mind? What is the source of inspiration?
- There is no clear resource from where I would draw inspiration. Differently. Sometimes an exhibition can incite an idea, sometime an idea can appear from a product, sensation, understanding. There are several resources, roughly speaking: some childhood memories, traditions, traditional products, new products, and simply - a flight of imagination.
- Can your hobbies lead to ideas?
- I know that some ideas come during drawing, or when they sketch dishes, I'm not one of those, for example. Ideas are born in my head. And you can get inspiration in different ways. It happened that something was dreamed. I write down a lot, if something comes to my mind, I write right away.
- Dessert "crooked hands" - this is clearly from childhood?
- Oh sure. Dessert with millet and pumpkin too. I wanted to make a dessert with porridge, but I didn't want to make cold porridge, we boil millet separately, then mix it with cold pumpkin mousse prepared separately. There is no sensation of cold porridge. He loved okroshka, but in the summer you can eat it, but not in the winter. I came up with hot okroshka. We took the same ingredients, cooked a broth based on kvass and baked vegetables. And all the other ingredients, everything that is included in okroshka, was used to make a full-fledged soup hot.
- Where did you like from the last restaurants you visited?
- I like about A. Shmakov in "Savva", I liked about Madame Vong, I pleasantly admire Dmitry Zotov. Having crossed from a cook to a restaurateur - this is a good way of development. "Roll" and Timur always pleasantly surprise me. I want to go to Kutuzovsky, 5 in a couple of weeks. Family weekend restaurant for me is Torro Grill, good value. I study the culture of Moscow, go to different restaurants. When I travel the world, I always look through the eyes of a visitor - whether the chair is comfortable, whether it is comfortable to lean against the wall. Abroad I liked one place with amazing delicious food but the chair was so uncomfortable that I will never go back there.
- What restaurant would you open if you had the opportunity?
- I would open a simple restaurant, casual, for people. We have not covered the topic of mono-concepts, maybe something like that. In my head, after 5 years, I probably already own the establishment. But I can’t be outside the kitchen and I’ll definitely never change my chef's coat to an office jacket.
- Tell us about rest, books?
- I got myself an English shepherd, a small one, I am walking with the dog now)) Her name is Hugh. I like to walk when the weather is nice. Yesterday I went to the theater. About books - I recently read Keyes Daniel "The Multiple Minds of Billy Milligan", and his "flowers for Jellon", I highly recommend. This is about human evolution, the point is that an experiment was carried out on a mentally retarded person of 30 years old, and with the help of neurosurgery, this flaw was corrected, and he began to grow. It is very beautifully described how nothing has changed in the world, only his perception has changed, and how he turns from an idiot into a genius during the book. The book is compiled in the form of a diary. How he begins to understand more than others, etc. Sometimes I try to rest from cookbooks, there are also a lot of them.
- Anton, do you feel the moment of popularity?
- I don't feel like a star at all. There are world gastronomic stars, that's it, this is a landmark, that's when I’m there, and the first stars of gastronomy will come up to me, shake my hand, and say: “Well done, Anton, you are doing the right thing,” then, yes, I will feel that I am on the right track. When Joan Roca himself came up to me, expressed a desire and said that he really liked it, he remembered what he ate, and said that this is one of the best memories of Russia that he will have, I was very pleased. At these moments you understand that this is what you are working for. When venerable Chefs tell you that you are on the right path, it is very stimulating to develop and think-think and move on!
- What would you like to wish the ambitious young generation?
- It is precisely for the ambitious young generation that I wish them not to jump ahead of their heads. I myself was. The fact is that now a large flow of information is dumping, and people forget about basic things, about the classics. Learn what you need to know, and then move on. And of course, don't stop dreaming. Love your job!
You need to be able to manage your time. This is the lifestyle of a healthy, successful person. Be efficient at work, be efficient in life
I am 30 years old, so many roads are open, I am not even in the middle of the road, but at the beginning
The chef must, of course, be tasty, disciplined and organized. But all together, in balance - this is the Chef
Our team has friendly relations. But I'm not an angel in the kitchen