In the race to win top gastronomic laurels, Novikov has only one serious competitor, Andrei Dellos, who built his reputation on high-production, slightly Disneyesque places like Cafe Pushkin, the restaurant most popular with visiting foreigners. Dellos exploits the Doctor Zhivago factor, portraying Moscow as a passionate, vodka-soaked city where residents scarf down vast quantities of caviar and smoked salmon in between roars of laughter and dramatic fits of sobbing.
Alain Ducasse, who has talked with Novikov about a joint venture (perhaps something akin to Spoon), says, “Russians love soups, dumplings, salmon, beets, cabbage, yogurt, and sour cream. Authentic Russian cooking—not the Frenchified food favored by the bourgeoisie before the revolution—has never been given its due.”
Says Novikov: “Soon we’ll want to taste our own food again. Then it will be my turn to create Russian restaurants that are copied in New York, Paris, and London.”
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