Igor Kotov is a chef. Menu of the Week: Summer Menu at Geraldine

Throughout October, the chefs of the most famous Moscow restaurants prepared Tasting Menu for guests - gastronomic visiting cards of restaurants for a fixed price of 1900 rubles.

The results of the festival were announced the night before.

Grand Prix for the best tasting set of the Moscow Gastronomic Festival

The winners of the Grand Prix for the best tasting set of the Moscow Gastronomic Festival in 2017, according to the expert jury, are:
— / Chef Andrey Zhdanov, Brand Chef Adrian Ketglas
/ Chef Giuseppe Davi
/ Chef Andrea Impero
— / Chef Alexander Zherebitsky, Brand Chef William Lamberti
— "" / chef Ilya Cherkashin
/ Chef Kobayashi Katsuhiko
- "" / chef Igor Kornev

— « » / chef Mikhail Gerashchenko / received a special bottle of Gray Goose Ducasse, created and also signed by the great French chef Alain Ducasse

— « din» / chef Igor Kotov / this restaurant has collected the most positive feedback from the guests of the Moscow Gastronomic Festival and it is doubly pleasant that the Grand Prix of the Festival to the Geraldine restaurant is backed up by the choice of the people.

City bar will always be relevant. Unlike privileged establishments designed only for an elite audience, a bar—democratic place! They come to them in joy and in sorrow, with or without reason, on holidays and just weekdays. In any case, this is what happens in Moscow bars. Dmitry Sokolov known for such projects as Help Bar, All Time Bar, Aloha Bar, Lawson's Bar. The latest creation of Dmitry was the universal Main Bar, located in the very center of the capital (Tverskaya St., 22).

Atmosphere

The bar is a large space without rigid partitions and borders, however, well-zoned into several lounge areas, with an original color scheme and a great concept. On the one hand, we are dealing with the repeatedly proven algorithm of the "Sokolovsky" bar with a long bar counter and a spacious dance floor.

On the other hand - restaurant areas for negotiations and business meetings, with a small semi-basement hall, where connoisseurs of wine drinks gather, starting from classic champagne Paul Roger and ending with the democratic Argentinean Vistaflores Malbec-Sangiovese. Exploring a series of spacious halls with neat wooden tables, spacious leather armchairs and aromas hovering everywhere, you notice how a very different audience gathers in the bar: a company of business men over a hookah, girls dancing at the bar with elegant glasses, married couples comfortably located in a quiet restaurant area . Seems, Dmitry Sokolov was able to combine the concept of simple beauty with convenience, and also with hospitality. Since the opening, the bar has not only attracted the attention of "talented alcoholics", as the owner of the "drink" bars calls the regulars, but also added to their number the metropolitan gourmets who came for gastronomic cuisine. Main Bar.

Chief and team

Chef - Igor Kotov- Responsible for innovations in the kitchen Main Bar, where the gastronomic theme unfolded to the scale of the bar. The menu of European cuisine turned out to be very compact, varied and, most unexpectedly, really tasty.

website asked the boss Igor Kotov and learned the main features of the kitchen Main Bar:

— We are promoting souse vide — low-temperature cooking, we cook meat and fish in a vacuum, the products with this method are very tender. At the same time, the qualities important for the product are preserved, the native taste, aroma, all useful vitamins and microelements remain. Since the food is cooked in its own juice, without the use of oil and does not undergo oxidation, the meat literally melts in your mouth! The main feature of our kitchen is its volume, we have a separate confectionery shop, our own bakery, a smokehouse and even a sausage shop. Since we have a universal bar, we have made the dishes quite diverse, designed for people with different ideas and preferences.

I advise you to try the leg of lamb, which is marinated with spices, with the addition of garlic and olive oil, then wrapped in unleavened dough (acting as a shell, preventing the juice from pouring out) and baked in a wood-fired oven. We also often use our blanks, for example, to Moscow Borscht (310 rub.) we serve an appetizer, bread with smoked lard, which we smoke ourselves. The borsch itself is cooked from consommé - a strong beef broth, with ravioli stuffed with porcini mushrooms and beef, seasonal mushrooms and new potatoes. We buy fish from good farms, after which we fry well and with high quality. In general, our cuisine implies serious and thoughtful serving, I hope our guests will appreciate it.

over cocktails in Main Bar a whole stellar team of bartenders is working, who have recently won only prizes in all-Russian and world competitions. Not boasting of well-deserved awards, the guys around the clock prepare their works for the Moscow public. Cocktails made according to original recipes make a splash! The history of cocktails can be found in the proposed bar list. For example, there you can find out that the first cocktail recipe "Fish House Punch", came from the state of Pennsylvania, where in the bar of the same name the members of the club Marquis de Lafayette And George Washington they prepared punch, this happened back in those distant times, when “cocktail” as a word did not yet exist in America. Just imagine what an educational journey you can take with such a map, where every cocktail has its own story!

The bar often experiments with ingredients, for example, truffle honey based on mushrooms of the same name or buckwheat honey on coniferous buds, or mimosa syrup made from several bouquets of mimosa bought from grandmothers in the spring. The best impressions are also made by Russian components: lingonberry homemade liquor, red basil, which is sold only in Russia. Authentic things such as rhubarb, sea buckthorn, mountain ash (which will appear in the autumn map) are used. In general, this is the very case when you can’t figure it out without alcohol.

Menu quotes

It is worth starting a gastronomic acquaintance with the famous "Pea Soup" (290 rub.), which is nothing like pea soup! This dish, not noticeable at first glance, was, frankly, a revelation for me. Green pea mix, more like a rich creamy soup, served with quail eggs and mushrooms.

It is also worth mentioning "Rabbit Fillet with Lasagna"(690 rub.). The chef prepares the fillet, wrapping it in bacon, and serves it with a peculiar, but very useful cereal - quinoa. The dish is complemented by appetizing rabbit lasagna and pumpkin puree mix.

Significantly expands the range of dessert dishes "Watermelon with melon", cooked in a vacuum, with this method, the crystal structure of the pieces of berries is preserved, the dessert is carefully flavored with ginger syrup. The accompaniment is ginger ice cream, fixed on your plate with gingerbread crumbs.

And, of course, relax with a glass of cocktail, here you have an almost limitless choice! If you want to try something unexpected, opt for a cocktail "Greenfield", a component of which is gin, elderberry syrup, protein, lemon juice, made from homemade beater, based on cardamom and pineapple. The taste of green basil is perfectly revealed in this drink!

Service

The right approach from all sides to the concept of the institution makes it universal, so the staff of the institution works with all their might, although without much pedantry. The waiters are always ready to recommend interesting menu novelties, and the bartenders will offer you to get acquainted with the cocktail menu. If you are a supporter "Whiskey cola", "Gin Tonic" or "Cuba libre", here you will be offered a choice of whiskey, gin or other alcoholic base of all stripes, while a cocktail will be mixed right in front of your eyes, which indicates the quality of alcohol and honesty on the part of the bar. Coming out Main Bar, do not forget to take with you a couple of boxes of handmade sweets (250 rubles for 5 pieces) made of white, milk and dark chocolate, believe me, these taste sensations will remain in your memory for a long time!

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TV presenter, journalist and culinary specialist Elena Chekalova started working in a professional kitchen this summer, first at the Leveldva gastronomic club, above the restaurant "", and then at the restaurant "Rybka". In both establishments, Chekalova acted as a brand chef, and her own chef, Igor Kotov, helped her. And in the fall, together with him, as well as with restaurateur Alexander Orlov (Tanuki and Benvenuto networks, the Rybka restaurant and about 80 other establishments in Moscow, as well as in Kazakhstan and the United Arab Emirates) and his partner Denis Gusev, Chekalova opened restaurant "Let's Go".

Elena is responsible for the menu and the concept, which, according to her, the name symbolizes: in the restaurant she cooks dishes from her travels with her husband Leonid Parfenov in her own interpretation. In addition to a full-fledged menu, "Let's Go" also has a decent bar - it is run by chef bartender Maxim Ivashchenko, who previously worked at Door 19 and Mendeleev bar, from where he brought part of the team.

The look of "Let's go" was created by designer Natalya Belonogova (Ugolyok, Haggis, Zotman Pizza Pie) and Dasha Durneva, experienced in restaurant interiors; the task was to create a congenial atmosphere of either home cooking or a train station, a place symbolizing a meeting for Chekalova. It really turned out like a domesticated train station: brick, concrete and wood of cold shades dilute bright stained-glass windows and furniture covered with fabric. The room itself is small and used to the maximum: at the entrance - a bar. When new visitors come in, those sitting in his counter blow hard in the back. Further, very close to each other, there are tables for two, four, one for a large company and an open kitchen, which occupies almost a third of the hall. Crowded, noisy, but inoffensive and comfortable, including due to the fact that Chekalova herself is constantly in the hall - she walks, controls, communicates with guests and tells in detail about the ingredients and cooking dishes, which are served in cast-iron dishes and on oak boards "".

The menu is already rather big, but Chekalova is likely to expand it - over the years of home culinary exploits and trips around the world, she has accumulated a lot of ideas. The first page of the menu is now occupied by snacks: for example, Japanese-style carpaccio of sea bream and daikon with marinade; Lebanese quinoa salad with seeds and parsley; roast beef and Spanish salsa verde with almonds; Vietnamese tartare with pear and sesame - similar to the one in Delicatessen, only with marinated pear and meat. There are three bruschettas: with egg roll, eel, avocado oil and onion sauce; with baked tartare, caramelized onions with beet chips and poached quail - due to mustard it can be too spicy; bruschetta with minced meat, apple curry, fried cucumber and lightly salted herring - very tender, they say they bring it from Sevastopol. There are about ten main dishes, some of them periodically fall into the stop list. We managed to try a rabbit leg with potatoes, pears and citrus sauce and came to the following conclusion - during the training in professional kitchens, Elena has made significant progress in understanding the differences between homemade and restaurant food. By the way, this rabbit, like the turkey and quail eggs, is from Chekalova's farm, the rest is from Russian suppliers from different regions; cucumbers and tomatoes will not be on the menu in winter. However, they do not work with the LavkaLavka cooperative, they look for everything themselves.

Crispy Lyon rabbit leg on potato biscuit with pear and citrus sauce (690 rubles)
Chinese ratatouille with honey-orange sauce (390 rubles)
Gray cabbage soup Vologda from the outer leaves of cabbage, fermented on black bread, with beef and porcini mushrooms (450 rubles)

Vietnamese tartar with pear and sesame seeds (550 rubles)
Sweet and sour beef in a potato boat (480 rubles)

"Our Kiev cake" with nuts, almonds and light custard (290 rubles)

The most important dish of the restaurant is the already legendary gray cabbage soup, which Elena feeds the guests of her house for many years and talks about at every opportunity. We now understand why - because it is incredibly tasty, this soup is a real drug, a celebration of the taste of umami. It is prepared according to the recipe of Leonid Parfenov's grandmother from the outer leaves of cabbage, fermented on black bread, and on three broths: cabbage, mushroom and boiled from beef brisket.

As for the bar, according to head bartender Maxim Ivashchenko, there was no task to create a large cocktail bar here, because the place is “more about food”. There are about ten cocktails in the menu, some of them change every day. Cocktails go great with food, but if you want something that is not on the menu, most likely, if you have the right ingredients, you will get it, but only if it is not rum and cola - the guys here are very decent.

"Freshness itself" - green salad with beets, hazelnuts and raspberry dressing
390 rubles

Korean salad
from unbeaten cucumbers with sesame seeds and cilantro
250 rubles

Vietnamese tartare
with pear and sesame
550 rubles

Duck gravlax carpaccio
Scandinavian style with cherry chutney
550 rubles

Bruschetta with baked tartare
with caramelized onions with beet chips and poached quail
590 rubles

Biblical Lentil Chowder
with hyssop, cumin and lamb patty
350 rubles

Georgian farm chicken fried in green walnut sauce
730 rubles

Crispy Lyon rabbit leg
on potato biscuit with pear and citrus sauce
690 rubles

Pike burgers with cod liver and river fish caviar on potato pancakes
450 rubles

Lebanese quinoa salad with seeds
and parsley
370 rubles

Roast beef and Spanish salsa verde
with almonds
590 rubles

Duet carpaccio in Japanese
from sea bream and daikon with marinade
570 rubles

Ratatouille in Chinese
with honey orange sauce
390 rubles

Gray cabbage soup Vologda
from the outer leaves of cabbage, fermented on black bread, with beef and porcini mushrooms
450 rubles

Scotch rabbit bombs with green puree and vegetable tempura
550 rubles

Venison (boar) burger with spicy kimchi sauce on Korean cabbage pancakes
690 rubles

Carrots baked in Moroccan style in citrus sauce with avocado, dried apricots, hazelnuts
390 rubles

Italian-style baked and marinated vegetables with tender anchovy salted sprats, pesto sauce and salad leaves with basil dressing
490 rubles

Quail eggs merette
burgundy in wine
470 rubles

Bruschetta with egg roll and eel
as well as with avocado oil and onion sauce
630 rubles

Bruschetta with minced meat and apple curry,
as well as with burnt cucumber and salted herring
360 rubles

Thai Pumpkin Cream Soup
with shrimp and barley popcorn
450 rubles

"Duck Story" - breast roast, falafel with confit and marinated eggplant with honey-yoghurt sauce
720 rubles

Candy duck in orange glaze
with Chinese hoisin sauce
1 900 rubles

Photos: Mark Boyarsky