The Russian Twins, Ivan and Sergey Berezutsky, are known for their extraordinary culinary techniques. With their second restaurant, Twins Garden, they reinterpreted Russian cuisine completely new and brought it to the next level. While I was on a business trip on Moscow, I had to use the chance to visit this magical place. And it truly was a magical experience.
About the restaurant.
On their farm outside of Moscow Ivan and Sergey Berezutsky cultivate 150 different types of vegetables, berries, fruits and herbs. In the natural environment they breed fish, poultry, cows and rare Nubian goats for their own production of cheese. In total, 2/3 of the ingredients they are using in the restaurant are self-produced. Leftovers of the restaurant are sent back to the farm to feed the animal and reduce waste.
The most stunning about the experience at Twins Garden is how these ingredients are being used. The twins invented new cooking techniques to create commonly known diary/meat dishes completely made of vegetables, herbs and fruits. This rightfully ranked them on place No. 19 of the 50 Best Restaurant List of 2019.
Atmosphere.
The restaurant is located on Strastnoy Boulevard, you enter the building from the right side. The hallway is extraordinary. You are walking through a long corridor with birch tree trunks on both sides. The mirrors behind the trees make it look like you were walking through a birch forest. At the end of the corridor a beautiful lady will guide you to the elevator. The elevator takes you to the top floor of the building. After leaving the elevator you’ll see a half open kitchen on the left and a spiral staircase on the right heading to a second floor. As we were sat on the second floor we were amazed by the stunning view over Moscow. The moment we arrived the sun was just setting down, throwing the dining room in a beautiful yellow light.
Food.
Firstly, you are overwhelmed by the offer of wine. The restaurant has one of the biggest wine collections in Russia. The most distinct feature are the vegetable wines. The Berezutskiy twins have spent years to develop them by themselves. The results are achieved by using the same process as with traditional grape wine production. So that they produce small batches of tomato, carrot, parsnip and leek wine. You can imagine, when we were given an iPad to choose a wine the choice was not easy. Thankfully, the skilled waiter helped.
Ivan and Sergey Berezutsky offer a vegetable-only tasting menu and an a la carte menu. The a la carte menu includes dishes like vegetable salads, pumpkin soup with sea urchin caviar and quail’s egg. All dishes are made of ingredients that are freshly delivered from the farm in the morning.
We decided to get the full experience and went with the tasting menu. It is called rediscover Russia, as each dish is using ingredients that are typical to a different region from Russia. It includes some quite rare ingredients like Anglo Nubian goat’s milk.
The tasting menu.
And this is exactly how the experience started, the Anglo Nubian goats’ milk was poured into a steel pot and placed on the table. At the time we didn’t know what this means, the surprise was to come later.
Firstly, we were served purple peas with black currant, parsley sauce and several types of mint from the farm. All ingredients tasted extremely fresh and original.
Secondly, one of the highlights of the night, we were served a white mozzarella looking dish. We were quickly taught that it was actually made of potato starch. It was topped with two buds of dandelions that were marinated like pickles, adding a sour taste.
This was followed by a dish made of smocked cherries and algae. The smokiness of the cherries was the perfect complementation to the salty algae.
The next dish consisted of fried chanterelles, courgette flowers and a sweet tasting peach sauce. Just delightful.
Subsequently, we were served a dish, that consisted of six different tomatoes. The tomatoes were all from the farm and half marinated and half fresh. I was served with tomato sauce and tomato seeds.
The following dish displayed four varieties of potatoes, backed onions and celery lard. The potatoes were created by using four different types of cooking methods. You could really taste the aroma of the Russian oven from the baked potato.
A boletus ecosystem – the highlight of the menu. Birch, birch bark, birch leaves and birch buds are all included in one dish. When the dish is served mushrooms are smoked in a birch bark in front of you which gives the mushrooms a typical Russian aroma. This dish works with the nose, you can really smell the aroma.
Now we got to know why the goat’s milk was poured in the pot at the beginning. This dish is completely made by nature. It contains peppers that are cooked by the sun and milk that was fermented by time. Super fresh!
Then, the desserts started, it was onion ice cream with tomatoes. The onion ice-cream had decoction of onion and peel on top. When you taste this ice-cream, you are getting warm feeling in your mouth.
Lastly, a tree of candies made from vegetables was served – beetroot and currant marmalade, sweet corn pralines, green pees lime and mint in macaron shape, eggplant with ginger looking like chocolate, carrots and sea buckthorn in macaron shape, cauliflower and hazelnut in the shape of pralines. Absolutely marvelous.
The end.
This was a once in a lifetime experience. The twins have found ways to process the fresh and rare ingredients in ways no one else has done before them. Who would have thought you can make a mozzarella looking dish from potato starch, this is magic to me. They are at the forefront of modern Russian cuisine. I can highly recommend a visit at this restaurant. If you don’t want to go through the long tasting menu, you can choose a dish from the a la cart menu. I think this is what I’d do next time. 🙂
For more information about the restaurant visit their website.
Last visit of the restaurant: August 2019
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