Stanislav Pesotsky is recognized as the best young chef in russia. In the wild north: features of Scandinavian cuisine Stanislav Pesotsky chef biography

19.11.2020

S. P .: Yes, it gets worse. The main problem is general amorphousness. The impression is that now no one needs anything. People get hired who do not strive to learn, develop, achieve something, but simply go with the flow.

V.D .: Since Soviet times, it has developed that those who could not enter more prestigious educational institutions go to culinary schools. Those who do not like their profession, toil in the kitchen, wait for the end of the working day, do not seek to learn new things. Employees prefer to perform simple operations, and their motivation is reduced only to earnings. Such chefs have nothing to do in restaurants with signature cuisine. There are not enough of those who have burning eyes, who have ambitions and a desire to develop.

Victor Devyatko

S. P .: A common situation in a Russian restaurant: for one really working employee - at least one slacker or inept, with whom, at best, you have to put up with. At Bjorn, we decided on principle not to take on such “ballast”. It turned out that it is extremely difficult to assemble a team in which everyone is working intensively.

V.D .: Some successful projects were on the verge of closure only because they simply could not find the right staff. It is difficult with employees for everyone who is responsible. For example, the team of chefs for the Cafe Pushkin restaurant has been formed for almost two years.

A restaurant with a well-thought-out concept and a competent team can work for many years! But there are very few of them in Moscow. Now it's not restaurants that are popular, but restaurant projects - the difference is huge. We opened with noise, worked for a couple of years, earned money. The fashion has passed, there are fewer guests, they closed, opened another - this is how many work.

Is it not the restaurateurs themselves to blame for the staffing situation?

V.D .: Partly there. For example, now passions are running high on Facebook - a large restaurant holding is delaying salaries for the second month, from managers and chefs to dishwashers. Often institutions do not fulfill their obligations to employees, do not provide normal working conditions. In such a situation, it is difficult to demand something. In Bjorn, salaries are above the market average, and they are paid on a day-to-day basis in exchange for knowledge and a desire to learn new things.

How can the situation be changed?

V.D .: I see a way out in toughening the requirements for the level of professionalism of chefs on the part of employers. If there are strict standards everywhere, you will have to comply, work on yourself, otherwise you will not get a job.

S. P .: I disagree. No one can be forced by force. The initiative, the desire to work and grow must come from the chef himself.

Stanislav Pesotsky

V.D .: It is necessary to popularize the profession, possibly with the participation of the state. In Soviet times, by the way, the corresponding mechanism worked like a clock. Remember films about tractor drivers, installers, pilots ... Can we name at least one domestic film about the profession of a cook, equal in impact, for example, to the film "Tractor Drivers"? But propaganda alone is not enough, it is necessary to change the training system.

What kind of specialists are missing in the restaurant business?

V.D .: Absolutely everyone is missing, from simple chefs to managers. In general, the problem with waiters is that in Russia this is not a profession, it has never been and, apparently, will not be. This work is always perceived as temporary, forced. If you are over 30 years old and you are a waiter, they look at you askance. In Europe, waiters over 40 do not surprise anyone, but here everything is different.

S. P .: There are no minor employees in the restaurant. The reputation of a place depends even on the dishwasher.

What is the level of education in Russia as a whole?

S. P .: The quality of education is none. Graduates do not know basic things, but worst of all - they want absolutely nothing.

V.D .: Somehow we agreed with a representative of one college that they would send promising students for internships. A few days later, it turned out that there was no one to choose from among dozens of students.

Plans are now being discussed to create a culinary school on the basis of the Higher School of Economics. I'm sure you get something worthwhile.

Is the Guild of Chefs of Russia doing something in this regard?

V.D .: I respect it a lot, but the Guild today looks more like a professional club than a really functioning organization.

S. P .: I don't know anything about the Guild at all, except that it has an asparagus emblem.

Are there good culinary courses in Russia?

How do you rate online learning opportunities?

S. P .: Skeptical. Our profession cannot be taught remotely.

V.D .: The cook is like a surgeon, he needs a lot of practice.

Does the chef need overseas internships? How many restaurants pay for such trips?

S. P .: Yes, of course we do! True, not all chefs have enough funds for such trips and not every restaurateur is ready to cover the costs. Although this is an investment in its employees, that is, in the most important element of the business. And the internships are not crazy money.

V.D .: The restaurateurs, apparently, are afraid that the chef, for whose training they paid serious money, may subsequently go to competitors. But, for example, Vladimir Mukhin has not gone anywhere and continues to participate in international competitions under the flag of the White Rabbit Family.

What qualities do you require from applicants?

S. P .: Last summer, there was a situation where the kitchen staff was only half full. The load was critical. We worked seven days a week - and this is almost with a daily full seat in the restaurant!

Superheroes of Bjorn Restaurant

V.D .: I think that professional pride and reliability helped to survive. Any normal person would have said long ago - “Oh, it’s gone! At home, my wife is waiting, there is plenty to do. " But they held out, because a team was created in which the feeling of elbows is not an empty phrase.

S. P .: We need people for whom cooking, gastronomy is not just a job, but the main interest in life. They don't go to work for money, although Bjorn has very good salaries. If you give your soul to the cause, constantly develop and strive to get out of the comfort zone, then the income grows by itself. Anyone who just wants money will never make it. This applies to any profession. Be at least a janitor, if you work the best, you will be fine. It is difficult for most to realize that this is so.

I don't like it when job seekers want to get into Bjorn to indulge their vanity or to tick off resumes. “I worked in a top restaurant”, “worked with the best young chef in Russia”. In my opinion, this is the wrong motivation.

What kind of training do new employees receive at your restaurant? How long does it take to prepare?

S. P .: We require some basic knowledge. Naturally, we do not expect that a person will be able to do what we do, this is unrealistic. There is no specific program, everything is individual. If a person actively and successfully studies, joins the team - in two or three months he becomes a superhero! I say this absolutely without irony. Each of my line chefs can easily become a sous-chef in any other restaurant, but many sous-chefs who come to us as ordinary chefs often do not pull.

What mistakes do you forgive, which ones you don't?

S. P .: We all do it from time to time, that's okay. If something happens, raise your hand and admit it. And I do not forgive irresponsibility.

Who decides who to stay on the team?

S. P .: We take into account the opinion of each member of the team. This is never my personal decision. And I don’t remember that my assessment did not coincide with the decision of the guys.

An effective team rejects those who work to get it off. Our waiters themselves, without the participation of the manager, expel trainees who are late. If a person, even on probation, lets everyone down, why is he needed on the team? Will just drown everyone.

What are your expectations of the Independent Qualification Assessment Act - what will it bring to workers and employers in the food service industry?

V.D .: Without significant changes in the personnel training system, that is, what should actually lead to advanced training, you can do as much as you want to assess it. Well, we get the result - low qualifications. And where to improve it, who will give the new necessary knowledge and form the necessary skills, is still unclear.

S. P .: He will bring money to someone, but nothing good to us. Laws that simplify life have not been adopted for a long time.

Since 2011, the annual Silver Triangle competition has identified the most talented young people who have chosen the profession of a cook. Over the years, Dmitry Zotov, Vladimir Mukhin, Anatoly Kazakov, Sergei Berezutsky and Georgy Troyan became the winners of the competition and the owners of the title “Best Young Chef of Russia”.
On November 14, 2016, young chefs of Russian restaurants competed in a full-time creative duel: Evgeny Vikentiev (chef Hamlet and jacks and "Wine cabinet" Petersburg), Stas Pesotsky (chef Bjorn, Moscow) and Oleg Kusov (chef Delicatessen, Moscow).

The title of the best young chef was determined in the format of anonymous tasting of dishes prepared by three finalists. Each chef prepared one appetizer and one main course. The presented competitive dishes were evaluated by a professional jury of chefs: Ivan and Sergey Berezutsky (Twins, Wine and Crab), Anatoly Kazakov (Selfie), Mirko Dzago (Cheese), Dmitry Zotov (Madame Wong, Haggis, Zotman), David Emmerle ( Brand Chef of Four Seasons Hotel Moscow), Georgy Troyan (Northerners), Nino Graziano (Semifreddo), Regis Trigel (Sixty), Luigi Magni (Uilliam's, Pinch), Vladimir Mukhin (White Rabbit) and Max Must (General manager of the Four Seasons Hotel Moscow.) None of the jury knew which chef he was evaluating. Each participant in the final performed simply by number, and each dish was rated on a ten-point scale. As a result, the winner was determined by the highest number of points scored from all jury members.

Dishes that participated in the competition:

Evgeny Vikentiev:
... Scallop, "Dashi" from crayfish and smelt, pike caviar
... Beef tongue, pickled pumpkin, burnt pumpkin cream, dried strawberries

Oleg Kusov:
... Smoked saury with turnips, mango and spelled
... Baked onions and fennel marinated in beer vinegar with spinach sauce and pear

Stanislav Pesotsky:
... Lightly salted salmon, vodka, cranberries, horseradish
... Beef rib, onion, soaked apple, barley malt syrup

Stanislav Pesotsky was recognized as the winner: “I got my main cooking experience in the USA, lived and worked for 3 years in Boston and New York. Then I got carried away by the Scandinavian style, northern cuisine, in which the basis is naturalness, seasonality, natural taste and usefulness. I am trying to implement the principles of Scandinavian restraint and environmental friendliness in dishes from Russian products, combining Russian tastes and the principles of Nordic Cuisine. I am very glad of my victory. The example of Vladimir Mukhin, Georgy Troyan, the Berezutsky brothers really inspires me and encourages me to do my best or even more in order to become one of those chefs who will turn Russian cuisine into modern, fashionable and popular all over the world. The style of cuisine that I presented at the competition can already be tasted by everyone in the Bjorn restaurant. "

The popularity of Scandinavian cuisine is gaining momentum. This is explained by the unprecedented interest in the countries of the north (Denmark, Sweden, Norway and Finland), and at the same time by our closeness in spirit, and possibly by the fact that we are simply tired of restaurants of Italian and French cuisine and want to try something new. Elle decided to understand the peculiarities of northern cuisine and asked the chefs of Nordic restaurants about all the intricacies. The recipes are attached.

Chef Bjorn Stanislav Pesotsky:

Like the Scandinavians, we try to be careful with our products. When buying a carcass of a deer, I use different parts of it in the preparation of the corresponding dishes: I bake the fillet or fry it a little on the grill, the ham makes excellent meatballs. In the next version of the menu, I'm going to use bones in the presentation. You've probably noticed that when we buy this or that product, we throw away a certain percentage of it, cut something off, and so on. We try to use everything. We cook mashed potatoes from cauliflower stubs, use the inflorescences as a separate side dish for veal cheeks. We burn the peelings of vegetables with a fire to the state of coals and use them as a decoration imitating a fire for the "Burnt Apple" dessert. Salmon skin makes delicious airy chips!

Scandinavian cuisine is largely determined by climatic conditions. Most of the year in the Scandinavian countries it is rather cold, and therefore the choice of local products is limited. The main technology of New Nordic food preparation is a minimum of spices and minimum heat treatment, thanks to which we try to preserve the taste of products as much as possible. In each dish, the natural taste of the main, key component is brought to the fore.

And among the features of Scandinavian cuisine, I would note moderation. When developing my menu for the Bjorn restaurant, I tried to make each dish not only balanced in taste, but also optimal in terms of portion size. You should eat exactly as much as your body needs to feel good and use energy correctly. This also expresses the manifestation of care for nature and man, in this case for our guests. "

Complexity Difficult
Type Second course
Time 1 hour
Person 1

Ingredients

Ingredients for 1 serving:
Pickled barrel herring - 1 pc.
Water - 1 l
Table vinegar - 150 ml
Granulated sugar - 250 g
Farm sour cream - 50 g
Farm cottage cheese - 50 g
Rye bread or Borodinsky - 1 piece
Garlic - 1 clove
Parsley - 1 bunch
Dill - 1 bunch
Thyme - 2 sprigs
Radish - 1 pc.
Salt, pepper - to taste

Preparation

We cut the barrel herring: separate the fillet from the bones, cut into triangles of any shape. For the marinade, mix 1 liter of water with 150 g of table vinegar and 250 g of sugar.
The proportions of sugar and vinegar can be altered to suit your own preference. At the same stage, you can turn on your imagination and add various spices and ingredients to the marinade, for example, spruce branches, wild berries, and so on. Put the chopped herring in the marinade and leave overnight.
After the herring is marinated, prepare the creamy homemade cheese. We mix farm cottage cheese and sour cream, add chopped garlic and chopped herbs to taste: dill, parsley, thyme.
Salt and pepper to taste. As in the case of the marinade, the proportions of sour cream and cottage cheese can be changed according to your own taste.
Cooking rye bread crumbs: grate a piece of bread or grind in a blender and fry in a pan over high heat without oil for a couple of minutes until crispy, salt to taste.
Dip the pieces of pickled herring in finely chopped parsley.
Next, we collect our dish: spread the homemade cream cheese on a plate, sprinkle with bread crumbs, put slices of herring in parsley on top, sprinkle with chopped herbs on top and decorate with thinly sliced radish slices.

MØS Chef Andrey Korobiak:

“The menu of our new project reflects the gastronomic traditions of Estonia, Sweden, Norway and beloved Denmark, where the idea of opening a restaurant of Scandinavian cuisine was born in Moscow. Our restaurant is a "Nordic for every day" - a rethought, adapted to the Russian mentality, the author's view of the cuisine of Northern Europe. In addition to the kitchen itself, a special pride is the unique handmade Würtz cookware, created by the team of the ceramics studio of the father and son of Oge and Kasper Würtsev. Based in the small provincial Danish town of Horsens, Würtz is well known to restaurateurs, gourmets and Scandinavian food aficionados around the world - from Noma, Geranium and Aamanns in Copenhagen, Denmark to Törst and Luksus in Brooklyn, USA. Completely handcrafted and in keeping with the latest technological requirements, this tableware is part of the Danish national culture and craft traditions of the 17th and 20th centuries. The guarantee of the quality and authenticity of ceramic and porcelain products under the K.H. Würtz brand is the personal signatures of the masters on each item without exception. "

Complexity Difficult
Type Second course
Time 1 hour
Person 1

Ingredients

Salmon fillet on skin - 1 kg
Dill greens - large bunch
Coarse sea salt - 2 tbsp l.
Sugar - 1 tbsp. l.
Allspice peas - 5-7 pcs.
White freshly ground pepper

Preparation

Peel the salmon, rinse with cold water and dry well with paper towels. Cut the fillet crosswise into two equal pieces.
Wash the dill, dry well on a paper towel and chop coarsely.
In a mortar, crush the allspice peas (if there is no mortar, you can crush the pepper with the flat side of the blade of a wide knife). Stir allspice with salt, sugar and freshly ground white pepper.
Spread cling film on the table, sprinkle with a little spicy-salty mixture and put one half of the salmon, skin side down. Sprinkle both sides of the fish fillets with the spicy-salty mixture. Put chopped dill on one fillet.
Top with second fish fillet (skin side up) and sprinkle with remaining spice mixture. Wrap the salmon in plastic wrap and place in a container.
Leave the fish at room temperature for 2 hours. Then press down with light pressure (for example, with a cutting board) and put in the refrigerator for 1-2 days. The fish should be turned over occasionally.
Salmon is marinated on the skin for 1-2 days, without skin - about 8 hours. The fastest way to marinate is salmon cut into thin slices. This will take 30-40 minutes.
Free the prepared salmon gravlax from the cling film, carefully peel the dill and spices from the fish fillet with a knife. Pat the fillets dry with paper towels and cut into thin slices. Serve with boiled potatoes or as a stand-alone snack with mustard or homemade cottage cheese.

“Nordic and New Nordic cuisine is products from forests and rivers: venison, fish, berries. The presented kitchen is as simple as possible, which gives me the opportunity to work with the minimum amount of ingredients, making them complete meals. If you have in your hands a product with a pure and rich taste, then you have to be crazy to add chili peppers there. The three most important things for me are taste, taste and taste! I have respect for the products. I like food that retains its own flavor of the ingredients. By the way, similar techniques are used in traditional Scandinavian cuisine. For example, how do you cook carrots? Probably boiling in water? But boiling water completely deprives the carrots of taste, so I cook the carrots in carrot juice. And I cook asparagus in asparagus juice. And the most used machine in my kitchen is the juicer. ”1 hour

Person 1

Ingredients

Ingredients for the sauce:
Venison broth - 500 g
Red table wine - 400 g
Port wine - 50 g
Madeira wine - 50 g
Wine vinegar - 10 g
Onions - 50 g
Carrots - 50 g
Celery - 50 g
Champignons - 50 g
Celery root - 50 g
Leeks - 50 g
Rosemary
Thyme
Tarragon
Parsley
Juniper
Black pepper
Bay leaf

Venison and mashed potatoes:

Venison tenderloin - 600 g
Celery root - 300 g
Celery juice - 200 g
Liqueur "Tar" - 10 g
Oil - 10 g
Brown butter - 10 g (butter must be melted at a temperature of 157 degrees, boiling takes 10 minutes, after which the whole mixture must be filtered)
Freshly squeezed lemon juice

Preparation

Sauce: fry finely chopped carrots, celery root, onions and mushrooms without using oil.
After sautéing, transfer the vegetables to a saucepan, then pour the venison broth and add the following ingredients: table red wine, Madeira, tarragon, parsley, bay leaf, thyme, black pepper, juniper and Tar liqueur. Cook for 30 minutes at 150 degrees. Next, you need to strain the resulting broth, salt it and cook for another 5 minutes.
Celery puree: boil finely chopped celery in its own juice until cooked. Make mashed potatoes from the resulting product, add lemon juice, brown oil and salt (to taste).
Venison: Venison is fried in brown oil until half cooked, each steak should be wrapped in foil for 10 minutes.

The best young chef in Russia according to the Silver Triangle-2016 competition - Stanislav Pesotsky , chef of a northern cuisine restaurant Bjorn... Without wasting time, Interview met with the champion and found out how the competition went, what paths he took to his professional vocation and what to expect from the best young chef.

For almost a week you have been named the best young chef in Russia - how does it feel?

Mixed. Nothing has changed inside myself and the restaurant: as they were meticulous in terms of work, they remained. Much more information began to flow from outside: new proposals, requests from journalists, and so on. It's nice. But I still have my own measurements of success.

Let us remind the readers once again what dishes did you enter the competition with?

I cooked two dishes. Gravlax, which I transformed into the format of the competition, made it more elegant, complex: in the form of a snowball with cranberries and vodka jelly. The second is beef rib with onions, soaked apple and barley malt syrup. The idea of the dish is to make everything from onions, showing how interesting this product can be.

Young chef - until what time?

How are participants selected? Why did you decide to participate in the competition?

Professional chefs are aware of the existence of the "Silver Triangle" competition. Responsible for the selection of participants and the selection of finalists - Igor Gubernsky. Special thanks to him for what he is doing. Igor drives, looks, tries, chooses. Initially, there are a lot of applicants, then the list narrows to about 6 people, three remain at the finish line. At the "Triangle" you have to show your potential, the techniques that you own. Competitive dishes are not food for every day. They are more complex in terms of taste, visualization and understanding. My task was also to fit my style into the framework of the competition. And I'm happy with the result.

How long does it take to develop a menu?

I had 2 weeks.

What is the atmosphere in the kitchen when all three members are side by side?

I, Evgeny Vikentiev, Oleg Kusov - we are professional guys. Everything was pretty friendly, without screaming or any panic. Everyone was busy and focused on the result - victory! When I gave the main course, I felt absolutely calm inside.

Why do you think your dishes won?

Perhaps I should say thank you to my perfectionism and obsession with details, which sometimes reaches the point of paranoia. Not everyone is ready to be strict with themselves, and this is a very important feeling. As soon as a person comes to the idea that he is incredibly cool, at that very second he becomes a dead person.

Will these dishes be on the menu?

In the form in which the jury was presented at the competition - no. For many, they will be difficult to understand. People in Russia like more understandable food and rich tastes. Therefore, I will adapt the ideas of these dishes to the Bjorn concept. Most likely, they will appear in the winter version of the menu.

By the way, what do you think about the fact that, according to journalists, Oleg Kusov was in the lead?

Calmly. I spend a lot of time getting an idea in every dish. Unlike ordinary restaurant guests, restaurant reviewers and critics are more prepared gastronomically and can read a lot of information from a plate. But professional chefs are reading even more. Taste, visualization, idea - more often it is the chef who is able to count correctly everything that you put into the dish. It's about the range of perception. Therefore, the recognition of my professional colleagues is especially valuable for me.

Let's rewind a little to the past. Why a cook?

I am a creative person. I write music. For example, he released three albums without knowing a single note. First, I studied in Kiev, at two institutes at the same time: I studied restaurant business and service and English (translator). Then I went to the States, where my first experience of working in the kitchen happened.

Where exactly did you work?

These were casinos: first Mohegan Sun Casino, then Foxwoods, between New York and Boston, on the site of huge Indian reservations. There were many restaurants there. I couldn’t do anything when I arrived. But the constant desire to do better than it was last time helped me grow quickly and move forward.

Do I understand correctly that you learned to cook yourself?

Nobody taught me how to cook professionally. From a technical point of view, I draw skills from everywhere: the Internet, literature, communication with colleagues. From the point of view of ideas, I have a notebook, divided into folders, where I write down thoughts, ideas. For example, I add to the menu section what seems interesting to me: salted plum, pumpkin puree with coffee, soaked spicy apple, malt dessert, oysters with sorrel, cod scallops, deer bone soup.

What Happened After America?

I returned to Ukraine. I got a job in a five-star hotel, went through three interviews in English, worked for two days and realized that I had nothing to do in this country. In 2010 he came to Moscow. By the way, my future wife insisted on this. First I got to the Oblaka restaurant, where I spent three years from cook to sous-chef. The next project was the Extra Virgin restaurant. Then I found out that Bjorn was looking for a new chef.

And what is the difference between the local restaurant industry and the Russian one?

Management. There is no better country to work in than America. There you are respected, they do not look at where you are from. Everything is determined by the quality of the work you do.

What's going on at Bjorn now?

When I came to the restaurant a year ago, it was on the verge of closing. Having completely changed the team of cooks and the menu, he began to work with the staff not only in the kitchen, but also in the hall. Now the restaurant is working steadily and is gaining momentum every month. I am very glad, but there are still not enough people like me, ruthless to myself, ideological colleagues nearby, in the kitchen. I try to work with people for whom it is important what and how they do it.

When did you feel drawn to the new nordic kitchen?

This philosophy has always been close to me. Nordic stands for respect for nature, for products. I like simple, straightforward food. At the same time, I try to put an idea into each dish. Take, for example, an appetizer of halibut caviar, smoked sour cream and mashed onions. It is served on a homemade plate that resembles the seabed. Halibut caviar has a natural bright salty sea taste. Nearby is sour smoked sour cream, sweet onion puree and a few thyme leaves. The result is perfect balance. Or take smelt, which in nature moves in flocks. I tried to fix the fish in motion. When serving, we spread it in a flock on a stone, and instead of salt we use chopped algae. Next - a sauce based on burnt butter and whey from the same butter. Or our deer tartare. The deer lives in the forest, feeds on lichen, and cranberries grow there - all in one dish, which is served in the bones of the same deer. We practically do not throw away products, we use the most unpopular ones. Bran, moss, spruce branches, hay are very cool natural products that are often left behind.

Are you hugging birches?

I go to the forest. Be silent. The city is very exhausting.

Do you look up to someone professionally?

Professionally, there are no specific idols. There are many talented people, and everyone has a lot to learn. There are many respected people, and not even in the cooking world. Peter Mamonov, for example. Or Andrey Lysikov. Everything they do absolutely resonates with who I am.

The best young chef is good, but what goals do you set for yourself in the future?

I had definite plans and goals even before winning the competition. Ahead is a trip to Sweden, an internship at the Vollmers restaurant (one Michelin star) and a visit to the most interesting establishments. Swedes are tough guys with their own style. I will definitely make a set or a special menu based on the results. At the beginning of the year I am planning another update of the main Bjorn menu. I clearly know where I am going.

Slow Food ideas are becoming more and more popular in Russia largely thanks to the chefs who are members of the Alliance of Cooks.

We talked with one of them - Stanislav Pesotsky, the chef of the Moscow restaurant of northern cuisine Bjorn, the best young chef in Russia-2016 - about local products, Nordic principles of work and where to look for responsible suppliers.

The philosophy and ideology of your restaurant is freshest, local, seasonal. Where do you get your groceries?

This is a very broad and complex question. There are too few conscientious suppliers ready to fulfill all the requirements that we impose on them.

We do not have a priority in terms of working with any specific supplier, the starting point is the product itself. Regardless of what they tell me about it - how it was processed, how it was grown, and so on.

I can distinguish between what is good and what is bad, thanks to my experience, including my experience working abroad with high quality products.

For example, fish. If it is frozen or, on the contrary, instead of minus 18 ° C, as expected, was stored at minus 5–8 ° C, then it is simply impossible to eat it. This is felt, and we refuse such suppliers.

If we talk about large-scale production, they are generally not capable of delivering the quality that we need. I would call it biomass factories. We try to work with only original suppliers, we try to get the fish chilled, if the economy and the scale of supply allows us.

If not, then we take the one that is immediately subjected to shock freezing on the ship. This is a whole fish, not a semi-finished product. Our direction is north, from there the main fish comes, mainly from Murmansk.

What about vegetables? Is there a supplier from whom you get, for example, root vegetables for this amazing salad?

We find some products on the market, others from suppliers that specialize in fruits and vegetables, with an emphasis on local products.

By the way, root vegetables in our menu are at the forefront during the cold seasons. Now spring has come, we are updating the menu, and I am afraid that this wonderful salad will be gone in two weeks, the root vegetable season is coming to an end.

If you are asking if there are farmers who grow vegetables especially for us, then there are none. Unfortunately, our format of work (90 seats with a full hall) excludes such a possibility.

In addition, if we talk about the competence of modern farmers, then it is just beginning to form as such. We live in a country in which people are not used to working and are not used to being responsible - no matter what they undertake.

Therefore, to be honest, I have not met conscientious farmers who are ready to work at similar speeds and with similar quality standards. I heard about them, they probably exist, but under our conditions, I'm afraid it's just technically impossible.

What can we get from local producers today? This, for example, deer - we carry it from Krasnoyarsk, reindeer - from the Vladimir region. Of course, we try to use point such things, "craft" ones, as much as our capabilities allow us.

You have to get something on your own. Spruce branches, for example. Or the stones on which we serve food are natural flagstone. I personally selected it, then polished it by the restaurant. Now the birch sap has gone - we collected it, made birch ice cream. Ramson will appear soon - I hope to reach the Vladimir region and collect it there.

But there are also examples when local farmers provide some positions in the restaurant menu.

Yes, there is LavkaLavka, "Mark and Lev", who work in the direction that we are talking about, but this is a slightly different style and format of doing business in general.

We have 35 items on the menu, and I have to be responsible for them. So that it doesn’t happen that a guest came and didn’t get what he wanted, because the conventional “Uncle Vasya” could not deliver the product to us on time. This, of course, needs to be thought about.

Cooperation with small suppliers is possible, but not within the framework of daily work “here and now, 7 days a week”, but within the framework of some tasting sets, a farm dinner, some event organized by the Alliance. These are small steps towards development.

In my opinion, it is better to do a little less than you can afford, but of a higher quality, and bear real responsibility for it. And talking about something that doesn't really exist is not about us. Business must be done with utmost honesty.

You have a lot of dishes that you burn. A tribute to the northern tradition?

The philosophy of Scandinavian cuisine is based on very simple products and very simple cooking techniques. Our ancestors, when they still lived in caves, used fire for this.

Over time, many gadgets have appeared for processing food, including heat treatment; processing with live fire has faded into the background. But meat cooked over an open fire “sounds” quite differently in terms of taste.

Yes, we love to burn, it's true. Because it is delicious, because it is natural, in our opinion, because it corresponds to all our ideas about what we do.

You have bread burnt over an open fire. It is not fried, but fried. The fried bread will taste completely different. You have roots that were cooked in a strange way: they were burned over high heat in order to add a little taste and, as it were, to "seal" the product, and then they were compressed under high pressure. We try to “draw out” as delicately as possible what we can get from the product, thereby showing our respect for it.

A careful and rational attitude to products with the maximum reduction of waste in your restaurant also comes from the North.

For Nordic, within which we work, this is one of the basic principles. Before leaving the house in the morning, you brush your teeth. It's the same with us: before we finish preparing the dish, we must make sure that we get everything we can get from the ingredients.

This is economically justified - the percentage of waste is close to zero. And the skills of the chefs are improving, because with this approach there are subtleties that need to be taken into account.

For example, based on the green part of leeks, which is usually thrown away, we make oil. Cut off the chicken skin, fry it with spices, turn it into a crunchy crumb and sprinkle it on the cooked chicken fillet. We decorate a vegetable salad with burnt powder made from peelings of vegetables.

I can go on with this list for a long time. I don’t use something for the sake of a tick and we do it not because it’s fashionable. This has always been and will be in the Bjorn restaurant.

A careful attitude towards nature, the right attitude towards products is not blasphemy over consumption, but harmony, balance. It is these simple principles that dictate the things that I have voiced to you.

There is one idea that I still haven't implemented. I would like to record all food waste during the day and sort them into different boxes, collecting everything completely. And then invite each employee to prove themselves and do something from the collected.

Thus, we can enable chefs to develop professionally, to use the product as a whole. We will see that someone has created a masterpiece from potato peelings, and we will launch it on the menu on an ongoing basis.

But, unfortunately, the pace with which we do business does not allow us to do everything that we would like to implement.

"Last year" apple

The same ideology is adhered to by Anton Abrezov, chef of Gräs restaurant in St. Petersburg, also a member of the Alliance of Chefs.

We went to St. Petersburg, cooked with Anton. Great guys there. True, their organization of some processes is more inclined to do what we are talking about.

Do you have any other plans in this direction?

We talk a lot on similar topics with the owner of our business. Now the plans for the next year are the preparation of an internal ecological program for the Bjorn restaurant.

It will include a huge number of points. For example, use lighting only where you really need it, reduce the amount of plastic used as a consumable, sort waste, and take food waste to vegetable growers for processing into fertilizer. Including establishing interaction with local producers.

What local producers will you work with more closely?

With those that are. That "Uncle Vasya" with whom we need to get to know and build mutually beneficial relationships.

So you are planning to get to know him after all?

You did not quite understand me correctly, or I expressed myself incorrectly. The point is not that we do not want this, but that there is no one with whom. How do you imagine who will look for them?

One of the ideas of the Chefs Alliance is to create a roster of responsible local suppliers to recommend. And chefs can share contacts within this roster. The larger the list, the better.

Yes, personal acquaintance and communication with existing manufacturers plays a role here. Some restaurants even have people collecting herbs for them.

The guys who brew beer turned to us. They have a microscopic enterprise, but the product is insanely high quality. Due to the fact that everything is done with our own hands and done in an honest way, the actual cost of this beer is several times higher than what we can buy in barrels.

Most of the establishments sew them off, and we are negotiating with them. I think this beer will appear on the menu of our restaurant. We are always open to dialogue.

The Alliance of Cooks, which was launched in Russia, what can give Russian chefs, how can it affect Russian cuisine?

If people do something together, the energy potential increases. Rene Redzepi used to say: "If you want to go fast, go alone, if you want to go far, go together." What we do is acquiring more and more powerful potential, more intensively spreading.

The approach is to think not only about money, but also about more important things, about what will happen tomorrow. Now it only exists at a rudimentary level. It was important to start - and it has already happened. Now we need to continue what we are doing. Further more.

Thanks for the interview!