I have always loved cooking, but I never thought that I would become a pastry chef and devote my life to this profession. Initially, I imagined that a pastry chef was a purely female profession, even I was embarrassed to tell my friends, I was afraid they would laugh.
Confectioners are not particularly praised by the media, and they often remain in the shadow of star chefs. The more valuable are the cases when cakes and sorbet have a face. In our case, this is Alexey Grebenshchikov, the winner of the CHEF OF THE YEAR award in 2022 with the title of Pastry Chef of the Year. His surname may seem familiar to our readers for a reason, because together with his brother – Artem Grebenshchikov, who won the same award in the nomination “Chef of St. Petersburg” – he conquers new heights in the culinary art in their joint project – “Bourgeois Bohemians” or BoBo. The Grebenshchikovs work in tandem: Artem is in charge in the kitchen, and Alexey is in the confectionery shop.
Like his brother, Alexey is self–taught, whose talent still picked up after changing a dozen different occupations and getting an education as a customs officer. When the cargo and duties did not grow together, fate threw Grebenshchikov into production in the confectionery “Garson”. There, egg yolks were whipped for sabayon, chocolate was tempered, caramel was cooked – and Alexey caught fire. He received some of the “sweet” knowledge there, and mastered some himself, including at the Australian online school “Savour”.
That’s how Grebenshchikov Jr. remembers that time:
I immediately liked the confectionery art: the accuracy of the programming, the temperature. Any deviations are critical. On jewelry scales, we weigh the ingredients up to the tenth decimal place. Plus a huge amount of knowledge: from self-study to master classes of famous confectioners. I have loved sweets since childhood: I adored margarine roses on cakes, I could eat a jar of boiled condensed milk — yes, everything sweet in the house, so they hid sweets from me. He could eat two or three kilograms of sweets.
There are five or six positions in the dessert menu, which change frequently. For example, since November, raspberries and beets can be found there with a sorbet of coconut and luck (a Japanese hybrid of mandarin, lime and grapefruit). This is a “pearl” made of beetroot with raspberries, plus baked beetroot in sugar syrup, beet juice chips, raspberry gel, coconut and sudachi sorbet and fresh raspberries. This dessert is both vegan and lactose-free, and therefore perfect for those who care about the figure.
We call beet drops “beet pearls”. We take beets, bake them, make mashed potatoes and add raspberries. It turns out a natural sweet taste. We punch all this in a mixer and then freeze the resulting puree in special silicone molds-balls.
Chips are also made elementary. Beet juice is taken, a little corn starch is added, all this is tightened, then distributed in a thin layer over a silicone sheet and dried in a dehydrator. Then we remove the plates from the silicone.
Healthy eating is slowly but surely entering the lives of more and more people. In VoVo, Grebenshchikov creates all conditions so that guests receive not only incredible pleasure from gastronomic discoveries, but also a useful product without added sugars.
Previously, when I took dessert after eating, I felt heavy, many guests do not order sweets because of this – they do not want to overeat, and I understand them well. So I came to the conclusion that a sweet dish should be easy. The kind that you want to order the second portion right away.
In this regard, it is worth mentioning another healthy lifestyle-dessert from the sweet card “SWEET 5 menu à la carte” in the presentation of Alexey – Nerd 2.0 – which, as can be understood from the name, is the reincarnation of its first version, which we already mentioned in the article about Artem Grebenshchikov. Unlike the first version of this position, which consists in a combination of basil and sorrel, the second version consists of sorrel granite, pear-aloe gel, anise meringue, two varieties of pears and yogurt ice cream – freshness and lightness in each spoon.
Among the January novelties in the same menu is Cuban chocolate with guava sorbet and caramelized pecans.
Also, “SWEET 5” includes both a hit from the opening of the restaurant and a favorite of Grebenshchikov Jr. himself – a dessert including pomelo with caramel sauce, meringue with nutmeg, white chocolate ganache with yuzu, yuzu sorbet and tarragon leaves.
Another one of the most popular items on the menu is “Anna Pavlova”. For visitors, he is the most familiar, because Pavlova has the longest PR in the world confectionery history.
In modern restaurant Russia, desserts are still in the background. In an interview, Alexey repeatedly noted that he would like to see the demand for a dessert card on a par with the main kitchen. So that dessert is an indispensable attribute of lunch or dinner, and so that after it there is no feeling of oversaturation – a weightless touch, a light cherry on the cake. Grebenshchikov does not set himself the task of finding rare ingredients, rather he likes to cook from simple products.
The more textures and techniques in the dessert, the more interesting, but the main thing here is not to overdo it,” he explains, “the guest is waiting for dessert, and you don’t have time in time, so you can’t. That’s the balance I’m trying to achieve – complexity, lightness and simplicity.
Apple with feijoa sorbet and avocado and coconut cream
Despite the general fascination with proper nutrition, many still like sweeter. If it is not sweet at all, then, in Alexey’s understanding, it is no longer a dessert. In their dessert card, the Grebenshchikovs offer desserts with a different balance of sweetness so that the guest has a choice. At the same time, the pastry chef still tries to lighten them, use a minimum of added sugar and animal fat, making desserts different in density.
In the confectionery art, there is now a trend for lightening desserts, a trend for fusion. I myself now like something fresher, berry, with a minimum amount of added sugar.
Pear with truffle caramel, macadamia and caramelized chocolate ice cream
Dessert of Kupuasu beans
Pear with black cardamom and truffle
As for the fusion cuisine and how desserts are invented, then everything lies in experience and “having seen enough”.
The more tastes you try, the more ideas come to you about what to combine with what. When I first started, in 2011, I had completely different tastes. It’s been ten years, I’ve tried a lot of things, so now all the combinations of flavors are already being born in my head. It has become much easier.
The newest dessert set BoBo “Bobo’s Signature 9.0” was marked by the main position in the form of a modern interpretation of the well–known classics – baked apple in caramel with caramelized walnuts, almond crumble, sauerkraut caramel and baked apple sorbet decorated with celery and cabbage chips.
Grebenshchikov also paid tribute to his love for “green” variations, one of which is a fresh and bright pre–dessert of feijoa, kiwi and green shiso.
In the last course, it is also worth noting a more evening dessert, for those “who like sweeter” – a candy made of dark chocolate with caramel with porcini mushrooms.
Alexey Grebenshchikov is a true example of experimental taste and the fact that you should never be ashamed of your profession, especially if you really have a soul for this business.
Author of the article: Varvara Kartushina
