Several chefs at high-end restaurants in Moscow, most of which source 85-90 percent of their produce from abroad, were convinced there’s always a way to find what they need. The ban on most Western food imports has been hard to swallow for those who run the pizza joints, sushi bars and French-style brasseries that have opened up across Russia since the fall of the Soviet Union, especially in the capital Moscow.Ĭhefs are searching for new suppliers, buying delicacies from smugglers, rewriting recipes and overhauling menus. Igor Bukharov, president of the federation of restaurateurs and hoteliers, said he was surprised to see a sign outside a restaurant which said simply “Parmesan” and gave a phone number. It came in original Italian packaging, stuck with crude stickers saying “made in Belarus”. Two chefs at Moscow restaurants described buying genuine Parmigiano-Reggiano, produced only in a few northern Italian provinces. Once upon a time, the black marketeers of the former Soviet Union were known for using fake labels to pass off dodgy local products as expensive imports. No sooner had Moscow banned dairy, meat, vegetables and fruit from most Western countries in response to sanctions over Ukraine, than Belarus, a former Soviet republic better known for black bread and potato pancakes, became a “producer” of top-quality cheese. A vendor sells sausages and meat products during an agricultural fair organized by local food producers in the far eastern Russian port of Vladivostok September 10, 2014.
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