CULTURE

Cooking up a storm

Amateur chefs now have the chance to take lessons with a professional.

By Irina Titova

The St. Petersburg Times

For The St. Petersburg Times Chef Ilya Lazerson pictured in his workshop in St. Petersburg, where he shows visitors how to prepare a range of dishes in varied styles.

The hippest way to celebrate a special occasion in the city right now is by visiting the culinary workshop of local chef Ilya Lazerson. His welcoming kitchen-workshop hosts birthday celebrations, corporate parties and groups of people who simply want to learn new recipes or improve their cooking skills.

Lazerson, who has worked in a number of the city’s upscale restaurants, including those at the Grand Hotel Europe, opened his cookery workshop just over a year ago, and it has since become very popular among both adults and children, mainly through word of mouth.

The inventive Lazerson, who also hosts radio and television culinary shows and writes cookery books, said he came up with the idea of a workshop when looking for new formats through which to develop and share the art of cooking.

The workshop aims to teach visitors to prepare various kinds of food together with Lazerson. Guests are invited to put on an apron upon arrival, before getting down to work with different ingredients under the chef’s guidance.

“The choice of food to be cooked depends on my guests,” said Lazerson. “Some of them want to learn how to cook Chinese or American cuisine, others Italian or Japanese.”

Children are usually more excited about learning how to cook pizza, sushi or hamburgers, he said.

“They also get excited about cooking ratatouille because of the cartoon of the same name,” said Lazerson. “Ratatouille is a vegetable dish, and I remember how happy one mother was that her son, who had always refused to eat vegetables, suddenly enjoyed ratatouille,” he said.

At his studio, Lazerson demonstrates food preparation processes from start to finish, teaching participants how to skin fish and peel vegetables, as well as advising what spices to add for divine flavors, how to cook different kinds of food, and how to serve it to make the perfect-looking dish.

“My work here probably adds more competition to restaurants, because I teach people here different kinds of restaurant dishes that they will be able to cook themselves after the classes,” Lazerson said.

The atmosphere at the classes is warm and welcoming, as groups of people —whether friends or colleagues who have come to celebrate someone’s birthday, or strangers who have come to attend one of Lazerson’s classes — are united by their efforts and common interest in cooking.

Lazerson’s personality and humor are an integral part of the experience.

Anna Vyborova, administrator at the Dutch Institute in St. Petersburg, who once brought a group of Dutch guests to Lazerson’s studio, said they were thrilled to have the opportunity to learn about Russian cuisine.

“They were so happy to learn how to cook legendary Russian borshch and pelmeni,” said Vyborova.

From time to time, Lazerson invites famous Russians — often actors or singers, some of whom are also good cooks — to join his master classes and share their experience.

Lazerson became interested in cooking at quite a young age, after watching his grandmother cook.

“I was amazed to see how individual ingredients were turned into a dish. It was a kind of chemical process for me,” he said.

Later, Lazerson attended a culinary college in his native Ukraine, before serving in the army as a chef, and then studying at the Leningrad (now St. Petersburg) Food Technology Institute. Lazerson went on to work at the Grand Hotel Europe, one of the city’s leading five-star hotels, followed by positions at the restaurants Flora and St. Petersburg.

During his career, Lazerson has cooked for many famous people, including Prime Minister Vladimir Putin when he worked for the St. Petersburg administration, and for Britain’s Prince Charles.

“I think I was most surprised by the choice of Prince Charles, who ordered only roast potatoes and fried fish. Of course, I expected a more demanding order from a member of royalty, so it was interesting that he chose the potatoes instead,” Lazerson said.

The chef said that though he loves to cook, he doesn’t do it very often at home.

“My wife cooks very well, and I enjoy her food because it’s more fun to eat something that someone else has prepared. It leaves the moment of the food’s taste a surprise,” he said.

More information on Lazerson’s studio can be found at: www.lazerson.ru

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