Saint Petersburg Curiosities
Top interesting facts about the cuisine of St. Petersburg from the easiest recipes to luxurious tea service
Potatoes Petersburg by Yuliya RomashikhinaFederal Agency for Tourism
3 facts about Saint Petersburg Сuisine
Fact №1: Peter the Great first brought potatoes to Russia. The emperor cultivated potatoes in the suburbs of Saint Petersburg, thinking to use them for medicinal purposes.
The vegetable was initially served as a rare delicacy at court balls and banquets, and and it was sprinkled with sugar and not salt. Peasants resisted planting this new vegetable crop for as long as they could.
Almost a century and a half after the potato first came to Russia, potato riots began, with some peasants calling it the “devil’s apple,” “devil’s spit”.
Vinaigrette Salad by Proximity RussiaFederal Agency for Tourism
Fact №2: Vinaigrette Salad
If vinaigrette is a sauce made from vinegar, vegetable oil, salt, and black pepper everywhere in the world, in Russia, that term is used for a vegetable salad made up of baked or boiled beets, potatoes, carrots, onions, sauerkraut, and pickles.
This curious naming issue is thanks to the famous French chef Antoine Carême, who came to Saint Petersburg in the early 19th century on the invitation of Tsar Alexander I.
Vinaigrette with herring by Dinara GimaldinovaFederal Agency for Tourism
When he saw how the court cooks were pouring vinegar onto a salad, Carême asked, “Vinaigre?” The cooks decided that that was just the right name for the dish.
A popular addition to this vegetable salad in Saint Petersburg is Baltic sprats – small salted fish caught in the Baltic Sea.
Portrait of Catherine II (1763) by Fedor RokotovThe State Tretyakov Gallery
Fact №3: The Most Expensive Tea Ceremony?
The largest and most expensive tea service belonging to the Russian imperial family can be seen at the Hermitage.
Catherine the Great commissioned it from the English firm Wedgwood and Sons for her summer palace, built in a place called Kekerekeksinen, after the Finnish for “frog swamp.”
Portrait of Catherine II the Legislatress in the Temple Devoted to the Godess of Justice (Beginning of 1780s) by Dmitry LevitskyThe State Tretyakov Gallery
None of the illustrations are repeated, but each one includes a frog. This is why the tea service was called the “service with the green frog.”
Almost 1000 items are illustrated with English castles, parks, gardens, abbeys, palaces, and estates.
Сhief Сonsultant — Ekaterina Drozdova, restaurateur, gastronomic entrepreneur, food and social activist, Contributors — Natalia Savinskaya, Anna Kukulina, Proximity Russia, Translation Services Win-Win, Marina Luzina, Alexey Baulin, Alexander Averin
