Put down those plates full of pelmeni, pass by the carts packed with pirozhki, and keep the blini and borscht on a slow cook on the stove. Muscovites no longer down pints of vodka and lament their culinary deprivation while reminiscing on the halcyon days of the Cold War. Great food has finally arrived in the motherland, a fact confirmed this week during a ceremony in the Russian capital, where Moscow received its first edition of the prestigious Michelin Guide.
Published for more than a century by the French tire company Michelin, the eponymous guide serves as the demarcator of excellence in the restaurant industry. Featured establishments typically see an upsurge in business, and the expansion of the guide to new regions and locales courts controversy over issues of bidding and corporate sponsorship while shining a spotlight on sometimes overlooked culinary haunts. The Bib Gourmand highlights restaurants offering exceptional food at moderate prices, while three Michelin stars in the little red guide signals membership among the elite of haute cuisine.
A total of 69 restaurants are recommended in the first Moscow edition of the Michelin Guide. Seven restaurants have received one star, including White Rabbit on the top floor of the Smolenskiy Passazh, whose head chef Vladimir Mukhin combines pre-Soviet recipes with modern techniques and was featured in the third volume of the Netflix series Chef’s Table. Two restaurants nabbed two stars, including Twin Gardens by the twin brothers Ivan and Sergei Berezutskiy, and Artest by the head chef Artem Estafev.
While several restaurants serving traditional Russian food – including the iconic CafĆ© Pushkin on Tverskoy Boulevard, currently operated by Maison Dellos – are recommended in the guide, none managed to attain stars, prompting the usual complaint that Michelin critics are too fond of French fare and continental constructs. However Michelin’s international director Gwendal Poullennec was quick to praise Russian produce, like the king crabs from the eastern city of Vladivostok, Borodinsky bread, halibut from Murmansk, and the sour cream used in the preparation of beef stroganoff.
At the ceremony on Thursday, the Moscow mayor Sergey Sobyanin heralded the boost for his city, especially given the strain imposed on the restaurant industry during the time of the coronavirus pandemic. Meanwhile Sergei Berezutskiy of Twin Gardens said:
‘Thank you, Michelin Guide, for coming to Russia and believing in all of us. Today is an historic event for the whole restaurant market. Moscow really has become one of the gastronomic capitals of the world.’
