He was second at the ^[1]S.Pellegrino Cooking Cup 2013^[2], he's executive chef at White Rabbit - one of the most appreciated restaurants in Moscow - and he's the heir to the so called "Russian culinary dynasty". Vladimir Mukhin is one of the most interesting figures of international fine dining. Even more interesting when you consider where he was born, he lives and he works in Russia^[3]: a country whose gastronomic traditions are not so renowned.

Fine Dining Lovers caught up with the chef to focus on his work and understand better some of the hidden sides of Russian cuisine.

You come from a family of chefs that has spanned over five generations, did you decide to become a chef right away?
I worked in my father’s kitchen since I was 10. I was attracted to the way he treated products, almost feeling them. When I came of age, there was no question about what to do in life – it was clear, both for me and everyone, that borsch is flowing in my blood. I love the feeling of control over the "ordered chaos" of a restaurant kitchen. And I love my reward – the delight of guests. To me the prestige of the profession is determined by the opportunities and perspectives it brings. I started travelling the world, studying modern technologies, meeting new interesting people (there are so many of them in our profession!). In general, the more I turned to the world, the more it gave me.

You are part of a new (and young) generation of emerging Russian chefs: what are, in your opinion, the most interesting aspects of Russian dining today?
We must honor traditions and customs of Russian gastronomy in all their diversity. As each class – nobility, clergy, merchants, peasants, - had a different table, it’s difficult to truly understand Russian cuisine in its fullest. It’s also difficult to preserve a clean Russian taste: historically, foreign chefs had a massive influence on Russian cuisine. Today not everyone remembers the taste of genuine Russian dishes.

Your menu has a section dedicated to vegetables (Russian Forest Festival) and another one dedicated to seafood (Seafood from Russia): what are your favorite "local" ingredients?
Russia has a giant territory – over 17 000 square kilometers. At the moment I am a brand chef of 8 restaurants. In Moscow, at White Rabbit restaurant, I use “Kostromskaya” salt, “Borodinskiy” black bread, barrel cucumbers and other salted products, freshwater fish (sander, northern pike, catfish), meat and poultry, cereals (buckwheat, barley, millet), fresh and salted mushrooms. In Sochi restaurant Red Fox Rosa Khutor I use amber persimmon, feijoa, mountain trout, Black sea mussels, rapa whelk, oysters, goat and sheep cheese, jerked meat, pickled bamboo, mountain mushrooms, pomegranates and tangerines, just to name a few.

You revisited a lot of recipes belonging to your family’s traditions, from a book that was passed on to you. How did you decide to re-interpret these traditional recipes? What was the cooking philosophy behind your work?
I use many recipes of my ancestors, it gives me power. I adapt them using modern technologies, for example instead of languor cooking in Russian oven I use low-temperature cooking technique. The key element is to save a proper taste, to transmit it as accurately as possible, making traditional food "more convenient".

Has the recent Russian embargo, and the Russian long distances, triggered problems in your kitchen? If yes, how did you get organized to overcome these problems?
Of course, any restrictions are nonsense! I can only say that they have affected me in the least, as I have already been working with local Russian products for more than five years. On the other hand, there are certain advantages in this situation - we began to develop Russian farms. Have you heard anything about marbled beef from Voronezh? In reality, it is competitive in the global market! I admit, I really miss the Italian Parmesan and French oysters, but I am sure that soon everything will get better and we will have a fresh start of our friendly cooperation.

References

1. ^{^} second at the (www.finedininglovers.com)
2. ^{^} S.Pellegrino Cooking Cup 2013 (www.finedininglovers.com)
3. ^{^} Russia (www.finedininglovers.com)

What does the smoothest confectioner’s custard you have ever tasted have in common with the creamiest mashed potatoes? Both are equally delicious, of course, but the reason why they are so good can be summed up in one magical word: starch. But what is starch and how can we use it at the stoves? Today we shall learn how to dose the quantity of starch in our dishes. Here it is science that comes to our aid in the kitchen! We shall start by saying that starch is a sugar, made up of two types of molecules called amylose and amylopectin, as explained in this article^[1]. Just think that potatoes contain from 16 to 22% of starch according to the variety. A 6% difference between one type of potato and another will radically alter the result, according to the dish you intend to make. For instance, a high quantity of starch is fine for mashed potatoes but would make chips rubbery. So, how can we tackle this problem?

To answer this question, let us see what happens when we boil potatoes. Once they reach a temperature of around 60°C, the starch granules start to absorb water and go on swelling until they reach a temperature of around 70°C. On exceeding this temperature, the granules rupture and fill up with water, which causes an amylose gel to be expelled. At this point, the amylose is dispersed within the potato cells. At a temperature of 80°C, pectin, one of the main substances of which the cell walls are made, starts to disintegrate. This causes the potato cells holding the amylose gel to burst in their turn, and the potato mass will become rather gluey. It is, after all, a gel, isn’t it? If there is a lot of this gel, the mashed potatoes will be excellent. We can say that, if we are making mashed potatoes, we need not worry about how much starch the potatoes contain: the more the better!

It is a different matter, however, with all the other cooking methods: fried, boiled or roast potatoes. In this case, it is preferable to eliminate as much starch as possible. How? By cutting the slices as finely as possible and rinsing them several times in salty water. And what if we wanted to increase the quantity of starch for our mashed potatoes and its various offshoots (such as potato croquettes)? Once the potatoes are boiled, we put them in the food processor and blend them for a few seconds at a high speed. In fact, it is useful to know that many starch granules remain intact and preserve their amylose gel, even when cooked at high temperatures. By processing the potatoes at high speed, we cause these granules to rupture and release the amylose our dish requires.

But the surprising thing is that amylose is not only useful in potato-based recipes but also in those containing… eggs. It all stems from the fact that egg is made up of many proteins, that is to say long interconnected chains of amino acids. As we apply heat to the egg its proteins gradually bind together to form a densely interconnected network. It is thanks to this process of coagulation that we have boiled eggs as we know them. If we add starch to raw egg, once the mixture reaches a temperature of approximately 80°C, as we have already learned, the cells rupture and release amylose. The amylose interferes with the egg protein network and raises the temperature necessary for coagulation to take place. You may wonder what possible use this magic trick could be put to. Think of all the egg-based custards and sauces, for a start. When they are cooked, we often find lumps in them, owing to the presence of eggs. By adding a little bit of starch (better still if it is in the form of cornflour), our creamy sauces will be perfectly smooth. Would you like to try this recipe for yourself? Half a litre of fresh milk, three egg yolks, 180 grams sugar, 60 grams cornflour, some vanilla flavouring. Blend the egg yolks and sugar in a bowl with a wooden spoon until the mixture is perfectly smooth. Dissolve the cornflour in a little milk and add to the mixture. Then gradually add the rest of the milk and the vanilla flavouring, stirring as you go. Put the mixture into a saucepan on a low heat and continue to stir until it has reached the required density. Too good to be true!

References

1. ^{^} as explained in this article (www.finedininglovers.com)

The Dolomites of Alta Badia have welcomed the tenth edition of one of the most eagerly awaited international haute cuisine events: the Chef’s Cup^[1], a week that combines skiing and haute cuisine^[2], sponsored by S.Pellegrino^[3]. Chef Norbert Niederkofler^[4] played host to 50 visiting chefs from all over the world: all of them changed out of ski boots and into work gear and toques several times a day as they alternated cooking shows with antics on the ski slopes. This year, we wish to report on the Chef’s Cup through its true protagonists, the ingredients used in the dishes of six days’ cooking sessions, which drew to a magnificent conclusion with a theme dinner entitled S. Pellegrino welcomes the world to Italy.

If we had to award a prize to the most curious ingredient, it would certainly go to pineapple guava, a fruit that comes from Brazil but has also caught on well in Italy and some regions of the former Soviet Union. It has a dark green peel and tiny seeds inside with an aroma similar to pineapple and a slightly sharp taste. It made its appearance in a dish presented by the twins Ivan and Sergey^[5] Berezutskiy ^[6]of the newly opened Twins restaurant in Moscow, and which aroused no end of interest. Ivan and Sergey used it in a recipe ironically dubbed “letter from Russia”. And this dish is all that its name promises: enfolded in letter headed food wrapping paper, complete with sender’s name and address, it contains scallops (carried by the twins all the way from Moscow in a suitcase), slices of pineapple guava and grains of couscous, all dressed with a pesto sauce of herbs gathered in Val Badia.

The second prize goes to an Italian ingredient, the garusoli presented by chef Davide Bisetto and interpreted in a little soup of fennel and clams, or used to fill ravioli, as served in his “Oro Restaurant” in Venice. This tasty little sea snail lives on the bed of the Adriatic sea. Various types of offal – much loved by star chefs and lady diners, so long as they don’t know what it is they are eating - made their customary appearance among the evening’s star ingredients. To celebrate the genre, Sergey Berezutskiy chose diced veal cheek which had been previously smoked on peat moss and flavoured with a celery pick-me-up.

Swedish chef Edin Dzemat (Linnéa Art Restaurant), interpreted the most noble of offal, sweetbreads, by teaming them up delightfully with truffle and artichoke. Slightly grilled on a hot plate to make them crisp, accompanied by Jerusalem artichoke and sprayed with ginger, sweetbreads also appeared as a starter at the Col Alt refuge, cooked on this occasion by chef Enrico Vespani. More offal inside the tasty “blutwurst “, a spiced liver sausage by chef Kolja Kleeberg from the Vau Restaurant in Berlin. And what a huge success for the tripe braised in crustacean shellfish pan juices and served on red wholemeal polenta, this being one of the most conceivable types of offal maybe but also the most enjoyable. With this amazing dish of tripe, chef Karl Baumgartner from the Schoneck restaurant of Falzes has successfully taken what is normally considered a working class dish to a sublime level in a perfect example of light and contemporary haute cuisine.

Unquestionably the ingredient most loved by participants, chefs and foodies alike, pasta continues to reign supreme. We have tasted many Felicetti pasta shapes, which goes to show that pasta can be made equally well in the region of Trentino, and not only in Southern Italy. Davide Scabin^[7] served his fusilli pasta with burrata, amatriciana sauce and rocket leaves before wrapping it in a piadina, after the style of the famous Romagna street food. Filippo La Mantia prefers Kamut ribbed rigatoni pasta and dresses it with a pesto sauce of fennel, sun-dried tomatoes and roasted pistachios.

And to conclude with a celebration of Italian flavour: an apparently traditional spaghetti with tomato sauce by Nino di Costanzo from the Ristorante Mosaico, which reveals five different types of tomato, and a superb dish of Kamut linguine by Calabria-born Francesco Mazzei from the London restaurant L’anima^[8], dressed with anchovy butter and “dragged” around the pan with turnip tops.

References

1. ^{^} Chef’s Cup (www.finedininglovers.com)
2. ^{^} combines skiing and haute cuisine (www.finedininglovers.com)
3. ^{^} S.Pellegrino (www.finedininglovers.com)
4. ^{^} Norbert Niederkofler (www.finedininglovers.com)
5. ^{^} Sergey (www.finedininglovers.com)
6. ^{^}  Berezutskiy (www.finedininglovers.com)
7. ^{^} Davide Scabin (www.finedininglovers.com)
8. ^{^} Francesco Mazzei from the London restaurant L’anima (www.finedininglovers.com)

Al-Zad al-negidh. It means 'the real food for travelling' and this is the name given to dates by the Manasir Bedouin tribes who claim it is possible to live off nothing but dates and water for years and who nourish women who have just given birth with a sort of pudding made from water and dates for three days after the event.

Bhari. A small round variety with a butterscotch flavour: a truly natural toffee. It is one of the few varieties – together with the Hiann, for instance – that can be eaten fresh when still in the khalal stage.

Coffee^[1]. After roasting, date stones are sometimes used as a coffee substitute.

Deir al-Balah meaning Village of Dates is located in the Gaza Strip and is renowned for its exceptionally sweet red dates.

Energy. Dates are considered to be a calorie bomb: they have 253/287 calories per 100 g, which means up to 70 calories per date. A positive energy boost with highly beneficial properties.

Finger. The name of this fruit derives from the Greek word 'daktylos', meaning 'finger'.

Glucose. Dates are among the fruits most rich in glucose whose content may even reach 70%. Industrially processed dates are often given a further coating of glucose – as well as preservatives, one of the most common of which is E202.

Honey^[2]. Date ‘honey’ makes an excellent alternative to sugar and is obtained by blending dates – preferably soft ones - with the possible addition of a little water.

Iftar. In the Islamic culture, dates are eaten (with yogurt or milk) as the first food of the Iftar, the evening meal consumed after sundown during Ramadam.

Judean. The Judean date palm is a date palm traditionally grown in Judea. In 2005 a 2000 year- old seed germinated, making this event the oldest verified human-assisted germination of a seed. The palm tree which grew out of it has been called Methuselah.

Khalal. These are fresh dates in the stage in which they are yellow and crunchy like an apple. This is preceded by the unripe stage – called kimri; it is followed by the phase in which they are soft and ripe – rutab and, finally that of tamr, meaning sun-dried.

Lithophaga lithophaga. This is a shellfish that looks just like a date and hence its name of date mussel. It is illegal to collect them, sell them or consume them in countries of the European Union.

Medjool. This is one of the most highly-prized date varieties, renowned for its softness and sweetness. It comes from Israel and Palestine but – together with the Deglet Noor – today it is even cultivated in the United States.

1947 (Nineteenfortyseven) Chicago Culinary Institute: this is the most famous date bread recipe in the United States where this sweet little bread loaf is very popular. Originally a speciality of Arab countries, where date flour is obtained from sun-dried dates and often mixed with that of barley.

One thousand. On the plant, dates grow in thick clusters bearing from 200 to as many as 1,000 fruits each.

Palm. The tree on which dates grow is a palm, the Phoenix Dactylifera, which reaches a height of 20 or 30 metres. It is surprisingly long-lived and productive: some species start to bear fruit after just three years and can live up to three centuries; when fully mature a plant can produce over 50 kilos of fruit a year.

Queen of all dates. Its name is Deglet Nour, it is soft, translucent and tastes of honey. Called 'Queen of all dates', it is one of the best cultivars in the world and, according to the FAO, the most significant in terms of export value. Its homeland is that of some Algerian oases.

Ready to deliver. A study conducted by Jordan University has shown that women who eat six dates a day for the four weeks preceding childbirth have a better chance of spontaneous labour and greater cervical dilation. Other studies show that the oxytocin contained in dates also enhances the quality of breast milk.

Soft versus hard. According to the variety, dates may have hard or soft pulp: the former are particularly sought-after in Arab countries whilst the latter, of a fleshier kind, are highly appreciated in Europe and America.

Tajine. In this traditional Moroccan stew generally accompanied by couscous, dates are used for typical sweet and sour combinations, for instance with lamb – together with spices like ginger, cumin, cinnamon and saffron.

UNESCO. The Palmeral of Elche is the date palm plantation complex around the city of Elche in south-east Spain. Originally planted by the Carthaginians in the V century B.C., today it is a UNESCO heritage site.

Vinegar. Vinegar can also be made from dates: it is a typical Middle Eastern product.

Wine. The ancient Egyptians used to ferment this fruit to make wine. Today, dates continue to be used in the production of various alcoholic beverages.

Xmas. In Italy and other European countries it is customary to eat dates at Christmas^[3]. There are many reasons for this tradition: the fact that they come from the birthplace of Jesus, and the symbolic value of the palm tree as being representative of martyrdom, victory and fertility.

Yotam Ottolenghi^[4]. The Israeli chef and restaurant owner defines date syrup as the ‘curveball ingredient’ of his bestselling cookbook ‘Jerusalem'.

Zahedi. One of the better known varieties of the hundreds grown in Iran, the world’s biggest date producer together with Egypt. It is a semi-dried and particularly sugary variety, widely used in the food industry.

References

1. ^{^} Coffee (www.finedininglovers.com)
2. ^{^} Honey (www.finedininglovers.com)
3. ^{^} it is customary to eat dates at Christmas (www.finedininglovers.com)
4. ^{^} Yotam Ottolenghi (www.finedininglovers.com)

Horticultured Cities is a photographic project about European urban and community gardens^[1]: the photo series, by Helsinki-based photographer Maija Astikainen^[2], was shot between 2009-2014 and the pictures have been taken in 20 different community gardens in London, Helsinki, Berlin and Madrid. Horticultured Cities project has now turned into a book^[3] with essay by Beirut based writer Aischa Berg: it includes over 60 photographs of the gardens by Maija and essay about the history, present and benefits of the gardens by Aischa. You can buy the book online from here.

Fine Dining Lovers has reached Maija Astikainen to ask few questions about the project and the urban gardening trend.

Could you please tell us more about the Horticultured Cities project?
It’s a book about community and urban gardens in Europe. The idea of making the Horticultured Cities book took beginning when I met Aischa Berg in Madrid in 2010. We became friends and realized that we were both really into urban gardening, and were actually both already working on the subject. I was photographing and Aischa was making research on community gardens. We thought that it would be a good idea to put our things together and make a book with my photos and Aischa’s text. At the moment we hadn’t seen any similar books so we thought it would be good to make one, since urban gardening was already a big phenomenon then. With the book we wanted to make community gardening more known to a broader public.

When did you start being interested in urban gardens and where did you get the inspiration from?
My photographing of the gardens took beginning in 2009 when we had a contact photography course in the university. We were supposed to follow some group or a person for a week and take photographs. I was already interested in urban gardening and found out about the community gardens in London. At the moment there weren’t any similar gardens in Helsinki, and I wanted to go there and see what was it all about.

You've taken pictures in 20 different community gardens in London, Helsinki, Berlin and Madrid: which are the main differences you've noticed among the different cities?
I would say that London is more focused on the socializing, horticultural therapy and bringing green areas to the city, whereas Berlin and Helsinki are more into growing food. Madrid is something in between.

You spent four years photographing urban gardens and communities: do you think is this trend changing the cities' landscapes and habits? How?
In London the phenomenon was already so big when I first went there, that I don’t think it hasn’t changed so much during the four years. But in Helsinki it’s definitely got way more bigger. Before we’ve had here lots of allotments, but they are not communal, there you rent your own allotment for a year. Now the urban gardens and specially container gardens have spread out, and it has also become more a community thing. I don’t think you could say that it has changed the actual landscape yet, but I would say the city people are now more conscious of what they eat and how to grow their own food. Generally there are more possibilities of urban gardening, growing and foraging your food. People also go to pick berries, pears and apples in public areas of downtown Helsinki.

What is the most interesting situation that you've experienced while visiting the garden communities?
I think it must have been the party at Dalston Eastern Curve Garden in London that we visited with Aischa. There I could really see how the community garden works at its best in bringing a whole load of local people from different backgrounds together. And we had lots of fun!

You're also a food photographer: how would you describe the role of food in your life?
I’m really interested in food. Besides photographing it, I love cooking. I’m specially interested in trying new flavors and using the ingredients from nature. I have a kitchen garden where I grow many different vegetables, and whenever I can I go foraging mushrooms and other wild food.

References

1. ^{^} urban and community gardens (www.finedininglovers.com)
2. ^{^} Helsinki-based photographer Maija Astikainen (www.maijaastikainen.com)
3. ^{^} Horticultured Cities project has now turned into a book (horticulturedcities.tictail.com)