Local and International Trends in Hospitality and Gastronomy

Acknowledgement

The Wine Lab – Generation innovation between practice and research (575782- EPP-1-2016-IT-EPPKA2-KA) has been funded by the Erasmus+ programme of the European Commission. The project period is from January 2017 to December 2019.

TRENDS AND FEATURES OF RESTAURANT MENU IN SAINT PETERSBURG

Vazha Kushitashvili¹ and Evgenii Fedorov² Saint-Petersburg State University of Economics, Russia Faculty of Service, Tourism and Hospitality Department of Hotel and Restaurant Business

Introduction

Russian cuisine dates back to the 10^th century. Old Russian cuisine became really diverse by the 15^th century. Of course it was influenced by natural and geographical conditions. The abundance of rivers, lakes and forests contributed to the appearance of dishes made from fish, game, mushrooms and berries.
In the fields they planted different grains like rye, oat, wheat, barley, buckwheat and others. They made grain porridges from it of different kinds. Porridge has always been a traditional national dish. Russians eat porridges throughout their lives: young kids eat manna-croup kasha, adults like buckwheat kasha.
As the Old Russian saying goes: “Porridge is our mother, bread is our father”. Hot liquid dishes appeared from the early times as well: first fish soup (уха), shchi (щи), and later borsch (борщ), rassolnik - sour soup (рассольник), and then different sorts of Solyanka (солянка). In the XIX century these liquid dishes were named Soups (супы).
Among drinks popular were kvass (квас) and different wild berries' drinks. Russian cuisine was not only unique because of the ingredients they used, but because the food was cooked in the Russian Stove (в русской печи). They baked



¹ Student, [e-mail]
² Student, [e-mail]
bread in them, brewed kvass and beer, and on stoves they dried food. And they were generally used to heat houses and many people slept on them.
The food cooked in stoves was delicious because it was heated evenly from all sides. Russian stoves are no longer used these days, even in the countryside. They have been replaced by electric stoves and microwave ovens. In the old times the food of the elite class was no different from what the common people ate. By the 17^th century the food of the elite became more sophisticated, differing not only in quantity but in the serving manner and students.
The development of Russian cuisine does not stand in one place, in our time in restaurants there are new trends and technologies