Good afternoon from a typical winter day in St Petersburg…. not too cold (-7 last time I checked) but the wind makes the temperature feel much lower.

The day dawns around 10,  pale skies with low grey clouds hang in there until dusk, just around 4pm…

But she is still and ever so beautiful….

As you may understand from the title in Russian (Bon appétit), I am still learning useful Russian words – as you with any language, I guess… hospitality vocabulary first-!

I was describing in my last post, здравствуйте!! (so long ago, it seems! I must have been so busy enjoying my new slice of life here..), how I felt the next trends in gastronomy would come from the East, from Russia and neighboring countries in particular…

so I will share with you a few of my latest discoveries..

Even CNN (not the most pro Russian media you could think of, but ohhh let’s not talk politics here, -it’s a travel experiences and food blog….)- , but I digress -again!-, here is what they say about it :

Dining under Putin: How sanctions are fueling a Russian food revolution

Sounds exciting, doesn’t it?

3 months ago, when I had just arrived in Russia -attracted by this fact, and a few other things about Russia too-, and was sharing my views with my brand new first year students, they looked at me incredulously, some of them smirking… wondering why a guy just debarked from what is considered the mother country of gastronomy on the planet, would come to cold Russia, and lecture them on how sanctions could have such positive effects…

Which reminds me, that just around the corner from where I live, there is a small fruit and vegetable shop selling the tastiest apples I have had in a very long time, for about 1,20 euros a kilo… I am told they come from Uzbekistan.

If you think about Russia’s not so distant past, it was, after all, the epicenter of good taste in gastronomy and service… the place for the then bourgeoisie and members of royal families, to be invited to, to be seen, dining at the Tsar’s table….

Witnesses to this golden era are the treasures found in  Catherine The Great’s Palace in Pushkin :

MARKETS

Another one of the highlights of my week was the discovery of one of the indoor markets in Saint Petersburg…. delicious products from all over Russia, Uzbekistan, Georgia… and in particular this “Chinook salmon”, caught on the East coast of Russia, on another continent…

In my next post I will talk more in depth about these new food trends, and how a new generations of chefs, hoteliers and restaurateurs are shaping this exciting future… one of them is a young promising Russian chef, Alexander Mishin . Keep this name in mind, as I would not be surprised to see him as one of the leaders of this movement…

Until then, I leave with you with a few pictures of our last catering event, a dinner held in the kitchens of SWISSAM Business Hospitality and Culinary Arts School, for the members of the school’s Board of Advisors – including some of Russia’s most prominent and respected hoteliers -.  Culinary students were in charge of production, while 1st year Undergraduate Hospitality Students made sure the service was up to the highest standards