Chestnaya Kuhnya, which is literally translated as ‘honest kitchen’, presents itself as a restaurant which serves up modern Russian cuisine. The brainchild of Chef Sergey Eroshenko, the restaurant aims to present its authenticity through fresh ingredients, amiable ambience and an open façade. Having been in the industry for more than 20 years, Chef Eroshenko picked up his skills from Moscow to France and his restaurant was a New Entry to the World’s Best Restaurants list in 2016, debuting at No.100. Chef Eroshenko was also the 2015 President of Bocuse D’Or Russia and Russian Ambassador at the Milan 2015 Expo. Here he shares with Aspire Lifestyles his greatest influence and thoughts on the upcoming awards.

Aspire Lifestyles: Tell us more about how you entered this profession and what was your greatest influence?

Chef Eroshenko: To be honest , I am very happy to have been given a second chance at this profession. The first time, I was actually a student at the Culinary College, who did not plan on making this a career after graduation so I went to the army. However in 1992, at the very beginning of Perestroika, many joint businesses were formed and by a twist of fate, I sent my CV to one of them which was the Radisson Slavyanskaya Hotel. That was how I began my career as an assistant to the Chef. It was very interesting because the kitchen was mainly French and the management was American, the different cultures intrigued me to engage further in this field.

Aspire Lifestyles: Who has been your greatest teacher so far?

Chef Eroshenko: I must say the one teacher, who imparted me most of my knowledge, was Chef Jean-Luc of Vatel Institute in Nimes, France. He taught me the fundamentals of getting inspiration to cook from the produce itself – whenever I am choosing ingredients, I start to visualize how I would serve it, what kind of spices, herbs or other produce would work well with it. That is how it all starts for me now.

Aspire Lifestyles: If you had to choose a famous chef to work with, whom would you choose and why?

Chef Eroshenko: Haha that’s an interesting one…as I cook from all produce I personally select, my approach is rather similar to Chef Magnus Nilsson of Fäviken in Sweden. It would be amazing if I get to meet him one day and work with him, discuss about different topics related to cooking, or even, just to observe him in the kitchen!

Aspire Lifestyles: And who do you think would best represent Russia in this year’s World’s 50 Best Restaurants 2017?

Chef Eroshenko: I think there are a lot of young, talented chefs who could represent Russia on this list, apart from Volodya Mukhin of White Rabbit who works very hard at promoting Russian cuisine to the world and innovating new concepts. This year, we might see new entrants like Vanya and Sergey Berezutski of Twins, Andrey Shmakov of Savva Restaurant and Timur Abuzyarov of Wine Religion. I think they each have their unique qualities and representation of Russian dining scene. Vanya and Sergey is a kitchen “from the modern village”, as we call it, Andrey Shmakov does rich Russian cuisine while Timur Abuzyarov works with fish and conducts a lot of bold food experiments. I’m excited to see the results of this year’s awards in April.

As a partner on the Global Preferred Restaurant program, reservations through Aspire Lifestyles enjoy exclusive privileges at Chestnaya Kuhnya.