The Nordic Cuisine Gastronomic Festival in Moscow presented a detailed business and gastronomic program
A program of Nordic Cuisine Gastronomic Festival to be held on December 10–11, 2021, in Moscow, during Russia’s chairmanship framework in Arctic Council, has been published. Participants include Alexey Chekunkov, Minister of the Russian Federation for development of the Far East and Arctic; Nikolai Korchunov, Ambassador at Large of the Russian Ministry of Foreign Affairs and Chairman of the Arctic Council Senior Arctic Officials Committee; heads of Arctic regions, as well as representatives of Arctic Council, diplomatic missions, public organizations, and research institutions. Chefs from the best restaurants of the Arctic countries and Russian Arctic regions will take part in this show program.
Festival’s business program is devoted to gastronomic tourism development in the Arctic and indigenous peoples’ national cuisine preservation. On the first day, December 10, from 14:00 to 17:00, two sessions will take place. One of them is dedicated to “Gastronomy as a key attraction for tourism in the Arctic’s international best practices”. Participants will discuss the Arctic cuisine introduction in Murmansk regional tourism infrastructure, the use of mobile cuisine in events and the benefits of gastrocamp “Under Arctic” as a new format of gastronomic tourism.
Ekaterina Shapovalova, the author-methodologist of “Gastronomic Map of Russia” federal project will be session moderator. Among other speakers are Alexander Eliseev, Chairman of Murmansk regional tourism committee; Stanislav Pesotsky, chef, and popularizer of New Nordic direction; Sergey Ivanov, co-founder and producer of Under Arctic gastrocamp for chefs; Mikhail Shirvindt, author and host of YouTube channel “Edible – Inedible”.
A presentation of the EALLU Arctic Council sustainable development working group project “Indigenous Youth, Food Culture and Change in the Arctic” is also on the first day’s program. The session will be led by Svein Mathiesen, professor and Head of the Institute for Circumpolar Reindeer Husbandry, University of the Arctic, Norway. Among speakers: Nikolai Korchunov, Ambassador at Large of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of the Russian Federation, Chairman of the Senior Arctic Council Committee; Anna Otke, Vice President of the Association of Indigenous Peoples of the North, Siberia and the Russian Far East; Anders Oskal, Secretary-General of the Association of World Reindeer Herders and others.
Participants will attend the festival official opening ceremony and an immersive gastronomic Arctic Gala dinner, where chefs from North best restaurants will prepare Arctic dishes and serve them for tasting in the presence of guests. Event organizers will also please dinner participants with the show program in ethnic style. Yakutian duo DJ Uraan, ethno-musician Erkin Alekseev, singer and DJ Alyona Minulina, performer of Nenets epos from Yamal Khadri Okotetto will perform.
On the second day, December 11, as a part of a business program, from 14:00 to 15:00, a session dedicated to the “Made in the Arctic” brand formation for Arctic cuisine popularization is planned. Experts will discuss how branding helps territories development by example of Yakutia and explore the practice of introducing Arctic cuisine into Murmansk region tourist infrastructure.
Andrei Purtov, chairman of an expert group and curator of “Open Your Russia” project acceleration, will be a moderator of the session. The speakers include Anna Popova, Head of IAGU Project Office, ASI Public Representative for Tourism of the Murmansk region; Olga Grigorieva, Chairman of the Association of Entrepreneurs of the Republic of Sakha (Yakutia) “Made in Yakutia” and other experts.
From 15:30 to 17:30, there will be a workshop “Packing of national cuisine in a street food format. Coaches – design-thinker Olga Alekseeva and service-designer Marina Startseva – will tell how to make national street food packaging successful and sellable, they will analyze examples from the world experience and draw attention to what factors to consider for business to flourish. Workshop participants will develop a Food Project prototype and test it using design thinking methodology. A gastronomic program is planned for two days also. The events will be broadcast live on the Russian Chairmanship of Arctic Council website and Roscongress Foundation online platform. On December 10, the show program will begin with the Arctic Cuisine International Culinary Marathon, which will run from 12:00 to 4:30 p.m. Chefs from Arctic regions will show to festival participants at the site, as well as viewers of online broadcasts, how to cook unusual and delicious dishes from the northern ingredients. On the second day, this marathon will begin at 1 p.m. and run until 5 p.m. The online marathon will also feature foreign chefs who are members of the World Chef’s Association under the leadership of its president, Thomas Gugler.
Such famous chefs as Dmitry Scherbakov and Anton Mukhiniz from restaurant “Zhakov” in Syktyvkar, Andrey Anikiev from Roomi in Arkhangelsk, Ivan Balin, sous chef of the museum-restaurant “VKareliaEat” will be among the participants of the Arctic Cuisine online marathon. Two chefs from Anadyr will be participants from Chukotka: Evgeny Kolachev from Coffee Studio and Kirill Volovik from Hotel Chukotka, two experienced chefs from Yakutsk – Evgeny Alfan from Aurora Restaurant and Semyon Tarbakhov from Muus-Haya, Alexander Yermolin from Timan Restaurant-Museum in Naryan-Mar, and many others.
Besides, on the second day of the festival, from 12:00 to 14:00 – street master classes of Northern indigenous peoples, who will show how to cook dishes and drinks with its national colors on the open fire.
The gastronomic show culmination will be a culinary duel on Arctic cuisine “Chef Versus ICE” with popular chefs – bloggers participation. Battle and its live broadcast – December 11 from 19:00 to 22:30The main battle features two chefs – Nikolay Sarychev, president of Chef Team Russia culinary community and Hochland Professional brand chef, as well as Sergei Sinitsyn, cooking expert at Channel One and WACS international culinary judge.
There will also be a technological exhibition Arctic Expo with multimedia iceberg stands, where participants will learn from videos and infographics presentation about the features, tourism, and economic potential of the Arctic regions of Russia and the Arctic Council member states.
Roscongress Foundation is the event operator of Russian chairmanship in the Arctic Council. Broadcast festival events are available here: https://arctic-council-russia.ru/en/events/