COCOCO is something even for battered St. Petersburg! Some establishments rely on the interior, others take the number of dishes, others surprise with an unusual format, but COCOCO (restaurant), whose owner, Sergey Shnurov, is a rather outrageous person himself, made a whole revolution in terms of the concept. To put it briefly and succinctly, this is a gastronomic postmodern.
Idea
The hallmark of the establishment lies in the combination of the latest innovative culinary practices and exclusively seasonal products that are grown by farmers in the Leningrad region. Also, the basis of the menu was an old Russian recipe, which was amenable to author's processing. Why did such an idea come about? Firstly, there are too many in St. Petersburg in particular, and in Russia in general, establishments that promote foreign cuisine. There is nothing wrong with this, but the founders of COCOCO wanted to pay attention to the original Russian recipes, to return toorigins, to revive the love for national dishes and to show that nettle soup or vinaigrette soup with liquid nitrogen can be no less interesting than exotic, but already fed up with risotto or sushi.
Second is the desire to eat he althy food. In most establishments, products go a long way from the producer to the restaurant kitchen and therefore lend themselves to some kind of processing to maintain freshness, and they are more expensive than domestic ones due to shipping costs. And the owners of COCOCO are confident that local farms are able to grow high-quality vegetables and fruits, which will be cheaper than imported ones. In addition, such products do not need any processing, because their path from the garden to the plate is very, very short.
And all this keeps pace with the global trends of haute cuisine, which the famous chef René Redzepi very succinctly formulated: what time of year it is."
Total, seasonality and locality are two pillars on which the newfangled COCOCO stands confidently.
Through hardships to the stars
Not so long ago, in 2012, the COCOCO restaurant (St. Petersburg) appeared. Shnurova Matilda, the wife of the frontman of the Leningrad group, inspired by the popular idea of seasonal and local cuisine, decided to open an institution with such a bias.
At that time it was a bold step, because there was nothing like this in Russia, and thereforeit was unknown if people would go to such a peculiar farmhouse restaurant. Mrs. Shnurova approached the choice of the chef very responsibly. They became an amazing master of culinary art Igor Grishechkin.
So, in December 2012, when many expected the end of the world according to the Mayan calendar, the COCOCO restaurant (St. Petersburg) was opened in the city on the Neva along Nekrasov Street. But defending your place in the sun was not easy. Indeed, although in Europe he althy food has long been the main trend, in Russia the farm restaurant was slightly ahead of its time. Therefore, there were very few visitors: well, at first they didn’t understand, or something … It took three whole years to conquer its audience, but the institution persistently adhered to its concept. And recognition was not long in coming: in 2015, COCOCO (restaurant, St. Petersburg) took fourth place among the best restaurants in the city, and Igor Grishechkin was declared the best chef of the year.
Product Suppliers
Now the restaurant cooperates with fifteen farms. They are not led by amateur peasants, but by real professionals. For example, cheese products are delivered by a manufacturer from the Vsevolozhsk region, who completed a course in France and now breeds goats and cows himself. They turn on classical music and drink wine to make the quality of the milk better. A professional pharmacist in the Volosovsky district collects herbs and roots, and fish is purchased directly from fishermen on Lake Ladoga. Large supply companies are generally not cooperated, because they usually feed animals with chemical additives and treat plants with pesticides.
Meat, fish, poultry, vegetables are brought daily, so as not to be frozen for a long time, herbs - every other day. In short, the restaurant is responsible for the environmental friendliness and freshness of the products from which the dishes are prepared.
Design
Where is COCOCO now? The restaurant changed its location in 2015: it moved from Nekrasov Street to Voznesensky Prospect, 6, to the W St. Petersburg. In this regard, the design has also changed dramatically. If in the previous appearance of the restaurant there were a lot of straight geometric lines, wooden finishes (tables and bar stools made of rough beams), now the deliberately simple style has been replaced by refined eclecticism.
Chief
Igor Grishechkin was born in Smolensk, where he began his restaurant career. After moving to Moscow, he worked in "Casta Diva", "Ragu", "Blogistan". He also collaborated with the gastronomic lounge LavkaLavka. There, his skills were noticed by the Shnurovs, who were just looking for a chef for their new project, which was COCOCO (restaurant). Vacancies of this kind provide an opportunity for self-development and implementation of the craziest ideas. So Grishechkin agreed.
The new chef has turned cooking into a whole philosophy. He believes that every trip to a restaurant must give a person those emotions that he will not feel at home. Grishechkin compares this to going to the cinema. He creates not just dishes, but whole images, associations. Draws ideas fromtaste memory of childhood and youth.
COCOCO Restaurant (St. Petersburg): menu
Here the bet is clearly not on the number of dishes, and this is understandable, since the menu changes according to the season. There are also permanent positions, such as the famous "Tourist's Breakfast". In general, COCOCO (restaurant) speaks a modern gastronomic language, because molecular cuisine is also used here.
So, as appetizers here they offer assorted farm cheeses with onion jam, pike-perch steak with spicy carrots and dill ice cream, bone marrow with pickled vegetables, capelin caviar and rye bread toasts, baked beets with Adyghe mousse cheese, elk stew. The most popular position from the same series are the tubes with the taste of Borodino bread and sprat mousse - the Russian analogue of sushi.
From the first courses here they serve pickle, cold soup "Vinaigret", potato cream soup with red caviar.
SOSOSO meat dishes are very popular, especially the already mentioned Tourist's Breakfast, as well as beef tenderloin with baked vegetables and kvass sauce, pork neck pork, beef stroganoff with boletus mushrooms and rye flour pasta. Among the fish dishes there are cod, flounder and pike perch in the author's processing. For those who prefer poultry, they cook chicken, stuffed quail and duck.
Sweet-toothed will find a lot of interesting things, especially intriguing names like honey cake with wax ice cream and "Mom's favorite flower". The one who remembers the oldgood times, can try ice cream according to GOST in a waffle cup.
The brain explodes just from the names themselves, because you immediately want to imagine a combination of tastes of the announced products. For example: beef tongue disguised in herb puree, birch syrup and burdock root, pea jelly with flax seed crispbread, nettle soup with Karelian trout sorbet and Ivan tea.
Interestingly, there have been many copycats of COCOCO lately. The restaurant, the menu and concept of which is somewhat reminiscent of its predecessor, is the St. Petersburg Vinegret, as well as Ptichy Dvor, Blok. This suggests that the new Russian cuisine has taken root and is becoming popular.
Fantasy presentation
This should be told separately. What is only "Tourist Breakfast". It is served, as befits a dish with that name, in an open tin can. The composition of the dish includes steamed barley, beef tartar and quail egg yolk. And around the jar, garlic puree is laid out in heaps, sprinkled with Borodino bread, ground coffee and seeds - such an imitation of the earth. You immediately imagine yourself near the fire, surrounded by bards with guitars.
Sauces for filigree lard rolls are served on a palette like multi-colored paints. Honey cake is laid out in the form of honeycombs. All this and more looks very creative.
And the most interesting dessert "Mom's favorite flower" is made in the form of a broken pot of violets with crumbling earth on a plate in the form of a parquetboards. Everything looks so natural that at first it is inconvenient to eat. Such a miracle cannot be photographed.
Prices
Average bill - 1500 rubles. By the way, due to the fact that all products are brought only from the Leningrad region, and the prices are not exorbitant for restaurants of this level. If you go through the menu, then starters and desserts, for example, cost from 210 rubles, first courses from 250 rubles, meat from 670 rubles, fish and poultry from 850 rubles.
COCOCO (restaurant): reviews
Although not everyone immediately grasps the idea, but in general the guests are more than satisfied. Evaluate originality, conceptuality, environment.
Now there is nowhere for a needle to fall, especially on weekends. True, due to such popularity of the institution, a table is allocated for 2-3 hours, no more, and then they are delicately asked to leave. You can understand customers who are extremely unhappy with this.
Complain that the order sometimes has to wait from 30 to 40 minutes. But this is not surprising, because almost everything is done under the knife.
Vacancies
In March 2016, COCOCO (restaurant) opened the internship season. The institution is now inviting young, courageous, talented people to work under the guidance of the brilliant modern chef Igor Grishechkin. This is a great opportunity to gain new skills, and in the future, work in one of the most prestigious restaurants in modern St. Petersburg.
COCOCO - a restaurant popularizing local cuisine - has become a cult place for many city guests. Many celebrities come here. So new Russian cuisine is on the waythis establishment will soon become a role model.
