Gorky Park will become a food lover’s paradise Saturday with the first Prazdnik Yedy, or Food Holiday, a culinary festival set up by Alexei Zimin, co-owner of the restaurant Ragout and editor of the food magazine Afisha Yeda.
The food parties Zimin and his staff put on in the editorial kitchen at Afisha Yeda inspired the event, whose aim is to create a similarly relaxed atmosphere but in a larger format.
“It seems to me that gastronomy in the capital has never been organically integrated into social life and society,” Zimin said.
“It has always been something of an add-on,” he said. “We would like to make gastronomy more understandable, accessible and natural because that is what it is all about in the end.”
Foodies can attend a variety of master classes given by chefs from some of the best restaurants in Moscow, such as Andrei Ryvkin from the Dome restaurant and Zimin himself. Attendees can learn how to cook dishes like sea bass in gorgonzola.
For anyone too lazy to cook, there will be plenty of opportunities to try different foods and dishes, which organizers say will be priced at between 100 and 500 rubles ($3 to $17), or to shop at farmer’s markets.
Preparations at the park have already started, with construction workers in red overalls building colorful little food stalls for the event.
“I really like the setting itself at Golitsinsky Pond,” Zimin said on one of the park’s main attractions. “Beautiful tents, chairs, a market atmosphere, oysters and fish on ice. You can have a good time there, even if you are not crazy about gastronomy.”
There will also be a special stand for children where they can paint with sauces and marmalades and bead sushi necklaces, while their parents attend a master class by Zimin.
Tickets to the event cost 600 rubles, and free tastings at the master class are included in the price.
Prazdnik Yedy is on Saturday at Gorky Park between 10 a.m. and 10 p.m. Metro Park Kultury. See .
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