International project "GastroCamp Amur 2025" in Blagoveshchensk
From July 13 to July 20, international project "GastroCamp Amur 2025" was held in the Amur region. The project team included specialists of the International Center of Wine and Gastronomy led by Leonid Gelibterman, chefs Anton Salnikov from Moscow, Sergey Mikhnevich from Donetsk, Indian chef Nagendra Makhadevappa, president of the gingerbread masters artel of the International Culinary Alliance Victoria Bredis and mixologist/bartender Valery Malyshev. In Blagoveshchensk, the team was joined by local chefs Denis Churakov (restaurant of Far Eastern cuisine "Ivolga"), Yulia Kudryavtseva (restaurant "Vostok"), Nikolai Rakuta (restaurant "Festivalny"), Alexander Patashev (lounge bar "Miracle Valley", resto-bar "Dubrovsky"), Petr Drozdov (restaurant "Koster") and Elena Kotsin (Food Technology Center). The initiators of the project in the Amur Region were the Ministry of External Relations and Tourism and the Amur Region Hospitality Agency.
Before starting to develop the Amur Menu, the project team visited enterprises in the Amur region that produce high-quality food products, including the Seryshevsky production holding, an apiary in the Blagoveshchensk district, and the Agrippina cheese factory. The possibilities for catering to tourists at the Vostochny cosmodrome, in regional restaurants and cafes were explored, and master classes were held at the Amur College of Service and Trade. A visit to the Blagoveshchensk Botanical Garden and the Museum of Local Lore provided an opportunity to better understand the history of the region, its gastronomic traditions and modern realities.
The official presentation of the Amur Menu was held by the project team at the Vostok restaurant (Blagoveshchensk). The author's menu includes 40 positions, including cold and hot appetizers, main courses, desserts and drinks. The recipes are based on local products: fish, meat, milk, butter, cheeses, soy, buckwheat, vegetables, kvass. And, of course, wild plants: dwarf daylily from the Blagoveshchensk region, Kuril tea from the Botanical Garden and yagel, which was delivered from the Evenki village of Ust-Urkima the night before the event (so that the chefs could use deer moss in dishes, the parcel traveled more than a thousand kilometers).
About 60 guests took part in the official tasting of the Amur Menu. These are representatives of the regional government, restaurant owners, heads of food and processing enterprises, tour operators and journalists. It is up to them to popularize new dishes, supply ingredients for them, introduce novelties to the menus of catering establishments, and tell tourists about local cuisine.