Kostroma cheese and Kologrivsky goose have long been the main gastronomic attractions of Kostroma, even winning prizes in the nominations “From our village” and “Delicious nearby” in the first national festival of regional brands “Tastes of Russia”.
But a special embodiment of these products was given by Anton Rubtsov, who this year became the winner of the CHEF OF THE YEAR award with the title of Chef of the Central Federal District region.
Rubtsov is the chef of Kostroma restaurants of Russian and author cuisine – “Groza” and “Cheese maker”. He works with traditional dishes using the entire arsenal of modern cooking techniques and technologies, and also searches for local recipes in remote villages around Kostroma and promotes local products.
The chef tells about himself like this:
Oddly enough, the answer to the most popular question in childhood: “Who do you want to be when you grow up?” was not a “cook” at all. But the circumstances turned out that way. Since the age of 17, I have been practicing culinary art in different regions of Russia. I am in constant search of a new taste, crazy combinations of products available to everyone. In the last few years, I have been giving preference to local products. They give dishes such shades that will surely be remembered for a long time.
Anton prefers Russian cuisine, but notes that he learned to cook himself by reading various sources and rummaging through archives. This emphasizes the attraction of his author’s style to ethnic local traditions.
So, the concept of the cheese factory restaurant “Cheese Maker” specializes in the author’s cuisine based on dishes from local homemade cheeses.
Cheeses under the brands “Kostroma” and “Susaninsky” are included in the “100 best goods of Russia”. Moreover, the variety “Kostroma” has become so popular in the country that Kostroma is often called the cheese capital of Russia.
Cheese business in Kostroma is very popular, its dawn came at a time after the abolition of serfdom in 1861. One of the first Kostroma cheese makers was the merchant Vladimir Nikolaevich Blandov, and the first cheese factory opened in 1878. This date can be considered as the beginning of the history of Kostroma cheese. Gradually, cheese production became so popular that specialized agricultural schools began to open in the region.
So today you can taste the fruits of real cheese mastery in the “Cheese Maker”, which won prizes in several nominations at the “Cheese Festival” held in Kostroma.
The cheeses here are so fresh that they barely have time to show a light shade of a creamy bouquet with elegant touches of citrus. Almost immediately after cooking, they get into the kitchen of the restaurant.
Their variability and excellent presentation will amaze any raw food eater:
“Primevally suspended” cachocavallo is a semi–hard and low-fat Italian cheese made from local cow’s milk – with fenugreek or pistachio. It has a smooth texture and a slightly sweet taste.
Burrata is a young Italian cheese in the form of a “bag” of mozzarella with a delicate strachatella inside.
The most delicate Romanian cheese.
As well as Georgian salty-spicy Imeretian cheese.
The menu of the restaurant under the leadership of Rubtsov is filled with a whole kaleidoscope of authentic combinations of positions with cheese in its most diverse forms.
Among them are:
Fried halloumi cheese with glazed plum and mustard seeds
Cheese soup with pork rinds and fried onions
Stewed veal cheeks with onion sauce and cheese puree
Lamb in chapati tortilla with plum, cream cheese, nut dressing and glazed teriyaki sauce with truffle
Among the summer options , strachatella with fresh berries can be distinguished
The next Kostroma restaurant “Groza”, whose menu is also run by Anton, received the silver “Palm Branch of the restaurant business” – one of the most prestigious professional awards of the culinary industry, and also entered the Top 10 best restaurants in central Russia according to the WHERETOEAT award.
The institution gained particular popularity thanks to the dish of Kologriv goose with turnips presented by Rubtsov at the seventh festival of restaurant concepts “PalmaFest” in 2020, which brought the Silver Palm Branch to the “Thunderstorm”.
Kologriv goose baked in a currant shell, with sauerkraut with sea buckthorn, soaked apples with cranberries and a sauce of stewed goose liver was an excellent move to promote the culture of the region at the awards.
Rubtsov himself comments on it like this:
It’s a great story with tens of thousands of geese that come to our Kologriv every spring.
From the history of the concept of the dish, the chef says that he found an old recipe when the goose was gutted, stuffed with various urinations, sewn up, smeared with clay and buried in a fire. After a few hours, the clay was split, and the goose baked in clay melted in the mouth. In its improved version, the clay was replaced with an edible shell of unsweetened caramel. And the decision to take turnips instead of potatoes to the bird was justified by returning to the roots of the native Russian cuisine, when turnips could be found on every table until potatoes displaced it. Turnips are also fermented – according to the old recipe – but with the addition of sea buckthorn.
Among other significant traditional dishes in the “Thunderstorm” it is impossible not to highlight the famous Kostroma cabbage soup.
Green cabbage soup has been the main dish on the table of every Russian house since time immemorial. The main ingredient of this dish is “schanitsa” – a blank that was made in the fall for the winter.
The lowest cabbage leaves, which were unsuitable for eating, were cut, finely chopped, put in a container (more often in a tub), onions, carrots were added, sprinkled with salt and put under pressure for pickling.
Real cabbage soup should not just be cooked, but languish and infuse for a long time so that they acquire their rich and unique taste.
Only a few central regions of Russia keep the original recipe of this dish.
Here, too, in the “Thunderstorm”, Rubtsov adheres to the traditional method of cooking: in autumn, he cuts cabbage leaves with a real iron chopper in a wooden trough and after adding vegetables with salt leaves to ferment until winter.
If you happen to visit Kostroma, then be sure to take advantage of the unique opportunity to taste authentic Kostroma cuisine from under the hand of Anton Rubtsov!
Author of the article: Varvara Kartushina
