EV: Double espresso!
Sat: What are we identical orders ... I finish my second espresso.
Waiter: Heavy Morning at all ...
EV: I have a good morning! What is heavy? Not harder than usual, I would say that classic (laughs).
Sat: I tell me better, why did you move to Moscow? We are all of the capital taking to Peter.
EV: I decided that it was time for me to leave Hamlet + Jacks. I realized that I would stay in good friendly relations with the guys, but would stop conducting any business relations. It is important to say right away that we are primarily friends, and not business partners. With the Hamlet, for example, we are very close. Here in Leveldva recently played with him Seth. Hamlet - a musician in general in its main activity, already then a restaurant. And in our work we always understood that we are very different. We did not coincide in interest and plans. I wanted to grow, change, tried to open a restaurant in Germany. And the guys stopped at some kind of level, they were satisfied with everything as it was. Therefore, I have not seen the growth for myself there. And there were still nuances, already inland, because of which I understood that it would be better to do in their own way, and I will do in my own way.
As soon as we swore, I became somehow proposal to immediately come. The fact that nowhere has not officially leaving information about my care. She purely physically did not even have time to become public, because from the moment, for example, I gathered all my guys in the office, until I wrote to Maria Gorleov with a proposal to go out in the Beluga, half an hour was held. It was very strange. Although I really considered different projects after care. Before Lokdaun, there were some guys, investors who wanted to work with me as with a partner, open something to me. But when it became clear that quarantine is for a long time and seriously, they have a little talked (laughs).
Sat: amazing!
EV: yes, very strange! (Laughs.) They offered me to wait for me, promised that we were about to open the project together, but I understood that it would delay it. And then I was offered to become the chef in one of the restaurants of Alexander Rappoporta. I initially, honestly, skeptically referred to Alexander Leonidovich project. And in particular - to Alexander himself. Because we somehow had a long time ago a round table on the theme of the chef's importance in the restaurant. It was about 5-6 years ago. A lot of people participated in the event, but they argued mostly with him together (laughs). And he had a clear position at the time that the chef was, as it were, an executive link, which should simply react as accurately as possible to the wishes of the business owners. He said something like: "I write all the menu for restaurants yourself, and the chef is just a person who is preparing in the kitchen." I had a completely different point of view, naturally, at that time, because I was already a chef "wine cabinet", and we opened or opened the then Hamlet + Jacks, where no owner dictated me what to do, although I always listened. When Maria called me after these 5-6 years, I thought it was a lot of time and that I did not lose anything, so why not call and not talk.
Sat: with Alexander Leonidovich?
Yes Yes. And we talked to him for a very long time. In the amount, I do not even know how much it was - more than 12 hours, probably, if you flatten all our conversations. But I immediately said that we would talk a lot, because you need to start working together with complete understanding. Only people who look in one direction can go to one goal, right?
Sat: I think yes. Did you manage to settle all the contradictions?
It doesn't seem to me that it can be called contradictions now. After all, five years have passed after the round table, and for such a period of time, people are quite changing. We receive new experience every day, some impressions, emotions, analyze events and reflecting. It seems to me that Alexander Leonidovich have greatly changed his eyes during this time, and we strongly touched him and realized that we could work together. Therefore, it is important to understand that I did not have a desire to specifically move to Moscow. I just liked the project. And first of all I wanted to work with Alexander Leonidovich. And so I found myself in Moscow.
Sat: You say you liked the project. With what? Of course, I will not speak anything bad in the Beluga, sitting in Beluga, but this restaurant me at the hotel always seemed too pathetic and old-fashioned to your arrival.
EV: Previously, the restaurant at the hotel was considered something second-time and boring, because someone rarely walked anyone except hotel guests. But recently, a lot of cool restaurants opens at the hotels. Biomybio on the site "Cococ", Savva in the Metropol, in Four Seasons in St. Petersburg there are Percorso and Sintoho, if not mistaken.
Sat: There is also a very cool Xander bar, just amazing.
Eva: an excellent bar, by the way, yes. In Beluga, I like most of all that this restaurant has two formats. One is an orbar bar where you come with a large company to drink vodka and have fun. And the second is the Fine Dining Restaurant, where you can come on a date, with family, colleagues. Therefore, I have the ability to create a menu for completely different guests. And they all get just a top view from the windows.
Sat: When did you come to Beluga, you immediately decided that you want to remake?
Eva: In general, when Maria called me, she did not voice immediately what exactly the project is my name. It was in principle about the restaurant of the rappoport. And when I found out that this is "Beluga", I, of course, was a little embarrassed. Before I went here the chef, I was in the restaurant just once. Two years ago. The establishment seemed to me quite strict. And all my plans for updates and changes are associated with the "Beluga" less strict. Alexander Leonidovich, I have already agreed a lot, I think, the draft will change to my May network.
Sat: Menu or Interior?
EV: a little menu will change, slightly with the decor will work, the playlist in the hall will be updated. It will not be global, naturally, changes, but nuances who really help and guests, and first of all feel more comfortable. The project will become balanced and more thorough. In general, I think that even the soupeless restaurants need to be periodically refreamed.
Sat: How will the food change? Have you already brought with you four positions from Peter, four new dishes came up in place, what else do you plan?
Ev: Yes, four brought and four made them right away. In terms of food, I originally spoke to Alexander: "You understand that when you call the cook with a clear style, you kind of want to create a new one and in your restaurant, well, there is a plus minus. We can discuss some nuances, but globally my kitchen will not change much. " He says: "Yes, of course. Everything is OK". And from the very beginning I was not going to change anything in my vision. It is very difficult, because as a person's formed do not set up, he will still do as he seems to him. Well, it is logical.
Sat: four dishes with you brought from Hamlet + Jacks, as we have already discussed. I heard from the couple of delxo, that they do not like it. Here, they say, the lazy Vikentyev did not even bother with a real new menu to come to Beluga.
EV: Actually, this is an absolutely normal story. And some gartrocritors just just see more than their nose. If they, so to speak, would look a little bit outside the garden ring and watched that in the world there was, they would not be surprised that I did. This is a normal global practice. Many cooks have their own copyright dishes who call Signature. Can be said branded. People associate cooks with these dishes. This is your luggage that you always get with you. If I were a musician, I would play the same songs on different sites. And no one would require a new album from me for each city. In the near future, the menu will change completely.
Sat: But the poor Levan can no longer sing lyrics L'One.
EV: he was not on that label simply. Not with those people collaborated. I know that they have cunning schemes in which they take songs and names and in general everything that is possible. Someone was lucky more, someone less. I understand everything clearly. But my label (laughs) was completely different. It was a label named after me, and all the rules that were taken in my projects, they were installed by me, since I was a full-fledged partner, and not just a cook. Therefore, I do not see any problems that I took with you four of my company dishes. There are a lot of Moscow residents who used to go to me in Peter, for example, and they loved these dishes very much. Why should I refuse them in pleasure to eat them now in Moscow? Or to deprive the Peterians the opportunity to come to the capital and again to order them?
Sat: In Russia, they just love to get to do something and set some kind of complaint. It is more fun than praise.
EV: especially in Moscow! Here, the more and the more often you do, these are cooler. That is, it seems to me if we go with you to a restaurant, I'll eat everything, and you eat everything and tell me: "I like everything cool, I'll like it," I'll think about it: "Someone she is a laughter, does not understand anything" . If you at least a couple of positions do not break in the fluff and dust, it means that you are not a connoisseur, you do not understand, you have no high flight of taste perceptions. In Moscow, a lot of mothers critics, whose main task is to scold.
Sat: in St. Petersburg they are not so much?
EV: in St. Petersburg, too, but it seems to me that less.
Sat: Although yes, you in principle in the city only one entertainment media.
EV: "Dog"?
Sat: Well, yes!
EV: ha ha, yes! You will not see the reviews of dishes and huge restaurants reviews anywhere in the media. Once in Moscow, I was even surprised how many journalists are written here about food. And very many of them are the truth of Mamkina Critics. These are people who work in the industry about two years old, went around somewhere abroad, and then accidentally, they sow somewhere in the restaurant "Mishlen" and believe that they now have a rich experience of taste. Simply, in fact, to be criticized, you need to understand very well in the product that you write about. This is connected not only with food, in my opinion, with all - with music, with art, with any other craft.
Sat: Therefore, I immediately speak on every tasting that I am not a gastrocritic, but just like to eat.
Eva: You see, I love criticism, honestly, I love very much, I really appreciate and respect the people who understand and can, trying your food, give you some kind of professional FIDBEK. I as a creator can not always objectively appreciate the reality, I need an opinion on the part.
Sat: understandable thing. You love your child anymore.
EV: not always. I am my "children", by the way, not particularly suffering. To be self-satisfied this is the most dangerous for any creator. Therefore, if we are now talking about metaphors, with my children such a story happens that I constantly try to somehow improve them, improve. That is, the dish, occasionally in the menu, it does not flatten on, say there, decades - it changes. That is, the dishes that I brought to Beluga from Peter, for example, were still modified. These, perhaps, the modifications of the visual part did not affect the inner component, they influenced the inner component. I can, for example, wake up in the morning and decide that here you need to try to do differently, come to the kitchen, remake this dish, which is three years old, and it all likes it in the current form! I say cooks: "Well, why do we change it when it all and so like it?" But I come, trying to cook it in a new way, I understand that this dish sounds better. This is a living organism. By the way, the good is the comparison with children. The dish is constantly growing, evolving, changes the new form and is improved inside. Well, philosophy, for example, Japanese gastronomy. All watched the movie "Dreams Dziro about Sushi"? It does not change the menu for a thousand years, but he comes every day and thinks about how to make this the menus is better. Many forget about it. Especially in Moscow, where everything needs to be done quickly. Quickly and much (laughs). But on the topic of internal content here are often errors, in my opinion.
Sat: the classic question is St. Petersburg, who moved to Moscow: Do you see the difference in the mentalite?
EV: in Moscow it is necessary to behave carefully with people. If in St. Petersburg you can be on the relaxation, then you need to understand that when in Moscow, you begin to communicate with you a lot, then often either want to sleep, or make a business together (laughs).
Sat: either and that and that! Do you agree that the public in Moscow is more discerning and even narrowing? I often say that I have too many expectations and requirements and that the restaurant is not a circus, where the chef, like a clown, must entertain me.
EV: I disagree. Not about the circus (laughs), in no case. But the cook must, of course, amaze. The main task is to give a person, in this case, the guest, emotions, and not feed it. I do not try to feed you, I want to give you some kind of experiences, feelings. Why in almost all gastronomic restaurants in Europe indicate the price for Experience - for experience, because their paramount task is to surprise and give a new emotion.
Sat: This very experience is necessarily expensive?
EV: Experience - optionally expensive. Now, in general, all the new Pleiad cooks is trying to minimize the crutches and make inexpensive set menu to work on a wider audience. In order not to cut off a huge layer of people who can not afford dinner in your restaurant, because it is not cool at all. So I plan to do in Beluga, which will be able to afford not only those guests who eat every week with our Breast Breakfast.
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