Interview with Chef
Dmitry Zotov
He is the chef at the well-known restaurant “Entrecote”, which is one of many of his successful projects within the “Restaurant Syndicate”.
Dmitry Zotov is famous for an unusual take on traditional cuisine. We sat down with this “culinary creator” and talked about his inspirations, signature dishes and the new Russian cuisine
AUTUMN 2012
Dmitry, how did your collaboration with the “Restaurant Syndicate” begin?
It may have been because of fate. I saw a want ad for a chef completely by accident at a trendy old fashioned restaurant called “Tarelka”. At 20 years old I started managing the kitchen of this restaurant where I gained a great deal of experience. After that I took a break for some time. Soon after I returned to the “Syndicate” as a chef for the restaurant “Pavilion”. I eventually became a chef for the restaurants “Zolotoy”, “Beefbar Junior”, “Entrecote” and “Olivetta”.
How do the cuisines differ amongst your restaurants?
“Olivetta”has my special view on Italian cuisine, which is my favorite.“Beefbar Junior”has an American style with rich choices of meaty meals and large portions. “Zolotoy” is a fabulous restaurant in the center of Moscow with a gastronomical
concept.
In “Entrecote”there is a variety of choices of meat. However, our main mission is to follow the American school as an example because nobody else cooks meat better than Americans. The key lies in freshly-cooked quality sauces for the meat, an inspiration which came from gastro-trips to the USA. All the original sauces were invented by us through methods of trial and error and we are proud of the results – we have produced about fifteen special named sauces for our meat dishes.
New Russian cuisine is a connection of products, which are grown and produced in Russia.
Which kind of meat do you use?
We only use the most luxurious and best quality meats. They may include Australian Wagyu (marbled beef of Japanese origin), Tajima (also Japanese beef raised in Australia), and American Black Angus (marbled beef ).