Yoann Bernard is a French chef who, over the course of his 19-year career, has worked in haute cuisine restaurants from Hollywood to Kuala Lumpur, and who has recently been appointed the Executive Chef of The Ritz-Carlton in Moscow. On the eve of International Chefs’ Day, he told RIA Novosti what kinds of adjustments had to be made to the menu due to “food sanctions”, his love of winter in Russia, and the way he deals with his most capricious customers.
You have plans to change the menu in your restaurant Café Russe, and steer it in a more contemporary European direction. How you are planning to do that?
Yoann Bernard: This is just one of many gastronomic innovations that we are implementing in this hotel. In Café Russe it will be, as you have rightly mentioned, contemporary European cuisine with a good mix of French, Italian and Russian items. The latter ones will be presented in a modern way, but retain their traditional taste and texture. For instance, Russian cuisine classics like Beef Stroganoff will receive a highly original presentation. We are starting with this new menu on Tuesday, October 21.
Which items will be on the menu exactly?
Yoann Bernard: The signature feature of the refreshed menu will be dishes for more than one person, like sea bass cooked in sea salt crust; and chicken roasted with herb butter under the skin, which makes the meat juicy and very delicious; and there will be a Moroccan dish with a lamb leg slowly cooked for 70 hours and served with some Moroccan spices and Argan oil – the meat just melts in your mouth.
May be there will be some dishes from your home region of Brittany?
Yoann Bernard: Unfortunately not, because Brittany is all about seafood and due to the sanctions, we have had difficulties with obtaining these products. But I’ll be happy to cook in my home style when the embargo is cancelled.
Do you have a lot of difficulties because of the sanctions?
Yoann Bernard: We’ve adapted to them pretty well – the meat now comes from Latin America and Argentina, the vegetables are mostly local, our seafood is from the Mediterranean and from North Africa, and we receive oysters from Morocco, which are very nice in fact. And we are using Russian fish too - sturgeon for example.
Do you like Russian cuisine?
Yoann Bernard: I think that the Russian and French cuisines have a long history of coexistence, and there are some dishes that are really similar. You just do it in your own way, and we follow a different path. Talking about Beef Stroganoff, it is quiet similar to Boeuf Bourguignon. There is another example that I particularly like – you have that sophisticated pie called Coulibiac; it was hugely popular in Russia at the beginning of the 20th century, and Auguste Escoffier, who was one of the founders of the modern French cuisine and worked closely with Cezar Ritz, brought it to France and included in his opus magnum Le Guide Culinaire. So yes, I do like Russian cuisine and have worked three years in Saint Petersburg, which I still miss.
You mentioned local products; do you have any contacts with the farmers?
Yoann Bernard: Here at The Ritz-Carlton we maintain very strict food quality and safety standards, which makes it more difficult for us to work with farmer’s produce than it is for stand-alone restaurants. It is good on the one hand, as we can be 100% sure of the quality of the food that we offer to our valued guests, but on the other hand, it limits our use of local produce. However, some of our suppliers work with farmers, and that’s why we have free range chicken and farmer’s eggs on the menu, for instance.
So do you think that it is still possible in a big city such as Moscow and with our uneasy climate to follow the values of ‘slow’ food? I mean, to use products that reflect the local ecosystem and preserve the regional cuisine?
Yoann Bernard: I think it is absolutely possible, but we should keep in mind the seasonal factor and try to cook using the products that are available at the moment. In Russia, even during the winter, we have cucumbers, tomatoes and other veggies. And you have such a vast tradition of making various pickles, soaked fruits, etc. But it is a two-sided situation, as it involves initiative not only from the chefs but understanding from the guests as well.
There is a movie by Turkish-German director Fatikh Akin about the restaurant business called Soul Kitchen. There is an episode there where a restaurant customer asks a chef to warm up gazpacho because he doesn’t like it cold. The chef refuses to do it and resigns. In your opinion, what is more important: what the customer wants or your own freedom of creativity?
Yoann Bernard: We need to respect the creativity of a chef, but the customer’s will is important too; that’s why we are working on making improvements every day. If a customer wants something cooked in a certain way, taking your example, I would suggest cooking for him a tomato cream soup. An experienced chef can always find a way to comply with the customer’s demands. Our customers are well-travelled and successful people, so they know what they want to have and the best place to obtain it. If a guest wants some product that I don’t consider suitable, then I’ll try to talk him out of it by suggesting different variations.
Has it ever happened that you’ve had to remove an item from the menu because nobody orders it?
Yoann Bernard: I’ve never faced such a situation, but I always carefully collect comments from our guests; a dish is never perfect. And of course, when a new dish appears on the menu, we adjust it, and change it all the time until we (and the guests) are fully satisfied.
You’ve worked in a lot of places around the world; which city do you like the most?
Yoann Bernard: I liked working in California in a restaurant located in the middle of Hollywood, where I cooked for all the celebrities every night for three and a half years. It was a fantastic restaurant, where I met all the famous people: celebrities, actors, sports people. My second favorite place is Saint Petersburg, because of the stunning beauty of the city and now I really enjoy Moscow; I like the energy, everything here is so fast and powerful. You may be surprised, but in Russia I also like winter. You know, when you live in a hot country eventually you get bored because there aren’t actually any seasons. It is good to have a bit of winter, and in terms of cuisine it also gives you an opportunity to work with seasonal products.
What do you think about the Moscow culinary scene?
Yoann Bernard: It differs a lot from what I saw in Saint Petersburg six years ago, and it’s growing so fast. I’ve been to a number of restaurants and they are really nice, the quality of the cuisine is excellent, the interiors are spectacular. Moscow is really pushing the limits now.
How do you plan to develop the hotel’s cuisine in the future?
Yoann Bernard: Well, after we set everything up in Café Russe, we will start working on our main project, O2 Lounge restaurant and bar. O2 Lounge will be closed starting from 1 November so that we may create the new interior design and introduce the cuisine concept. The base of the new menu is Peruvian, which you can rarely find in Moscow. And since O2 Lounge was really popular for its excellent sushi, we will keep the sushi bar as well.
When do you plan to open it?
Yoann Bernard: We think about January of next year. We already have the Chef, Florent Courriol, who has worked in a number of high-profile establishments around the world. Florent will provide his culinary excellence and contemporary touch to the Peruvian cuisine, but we will also have a specialty chef from Peru to keep it authentic. Many products will also be sourced directly from the country, including spices, potatoes, and seafood. A little Peru in Moscow.
