On a sultry evening at the end of August, around 5 p.m., in the empty restaurant “Russian Samovar” in the centre of Manhattan, there was a lady sitting alone. She had a strict and concentrated look, despite the glass of white wine, from which she sipped out of from time to time. It was clearly too late for lunch and too early for dinner, and the barman looked at her suspiciously as he inspected his bottles.

The lady was none other than Elena Vladimirovna Visson – a simultaneous interpreter, literary translator, editor of the Hippocrene publishing house, pedagogue and author of several cookbooks. One of them “Recipes of Russia Abroad”, which was published several years ago in English and Russian, attracted the attention of a writer at the Christian Science Monitor. He decided to write an article about dishes of Russian cuisine with commentary by an expert, and so invited Ms. Visson to have dinner with him.

It has to be said that the writer did not have much choice. You can count Russian restaurants in Manhattan on the fingers of one hand. In a city where you can make a gastronomic tour of the world on almost any block, Russian cuisine has become truly exotic. The only successful restaurant, Russian Samovar, is popular not so much because of the chef’s culinary art, but because of the charm of the owner. Roman Kaplan, who opened his established 20 years ago together with Joseph Brodsky and Mikhail Baryshnikov, is now almost one of the sights of New York for emigrants and Russian tourists.

As the writer was late, and the glass was empty, I took the opportunity to ask Elena Visson why Russian cuisine was not able to compete in the harsh world of ethnic cuisine. Why has everyone tried a hamburger, burrito or pizza at least one in their lives, while borsch and pelmeni are at best only things that people have heard about?

Ms. Visson’s answer was as follows. Firstly, Russian dishes involve a lot of fuss. In the age of fast food, Russia has not come up with any alternative to hot dogs and Big Macs, and cannot conquer the world with wonderful but finicky pies and cutlets. Secondly, Russian dishes challenge all modern health theories. Their recipes require a lot of animal fats, which people are afraid of because of their “bad” cholesterol. Fashionable vegetarian trends also have difficulty establishing themselves on the Russian table.

Finally, “cheap” Russian cuisine simply does not exist, and in expensive restaurants it cannot compete with more diverse and intricate European dishes.

The appearance of the long-awaited writer caused an unexpected tangent in Elena Visson’s explanation. In the following hour or so he manages to eat (after taking photos for the newspaper), several snacks, two entrées, two main courses and at least three deserts. However, the swift disappearance of the dishes should not be particularly encouraging to anyone who is interested in the fate of Russian cuisine. As it turned out, the writer was just very hungry.

From the “Ogonek” magazine