Russia and a passion for Japan come together in the menu at Sakhalin, signed by Vladimir Mukhin in Istanbul. Discovering the new restaurant of one of Moscow cuisine's most irreverent chefs.
Photo of the dessert on the cover: @TripAdvisor(Sakhalin)
The chef
Eclectic, visionary, able to break the mold even in the most hostile situations, Vladimir Mukhin is the chef who first turned the spotlight on the gastronomic scene in the “Land of the Czars.” Very likely most people learned about Vladimir Mukhin a few years ago, when White Rabbit, his Moscow restaurant , entered the list of the world's best restaurants, even earning him a Michelin star; few, however, know that the Russian chef's life at the stove is much longer history. For no less than five generations, in fact, the Mukhin family has been involved in the restaurant business and over the years has seen its cuisine evolve through the most diverse and unlikely scenarios. In a recent interview with hurriyetdailynews , the chef, who hails from a small town near Sochi, told how his family and the nation's various geopolitical phases have strongly influenced the way he expresses himself through dishes and stimulated his talent.
"My father had a way of dealing with ingredients, as if he communicated with them; he was more than just a cook. My grandfather was a tutor in the food world, and my grandmother prepared special dishes for the distinguished people who were always among the guests at home. These dishes were unique because, during the Soviet Union era, all restaurants were run by the state and no one else was allowed to innovate canonical recipes. This is the kind of home I grew up in," he confided. A grandmother who pioneered gastronomic creativity, who pushed him to tell his story through dishes; a father, a stimulus for study, who led him to deepen his technique and knowledge of ingredients. Mukhin's extended family, however, is much larger and crosses Russian borders to the Empire of the “Rising Sun”. In Japan, a country that has always fascinated him, Mukhin has continued to train alongside the greatest chefs, from Jiro Ono, to Narisawa, to Mitsuharu, the chef friend who owns Maido in Peru (second best restaurant in the world) with whom he has collaborated.
Fusing his origins, his territory, and his passion for Japan, Mukhin, with restaurateur Boris Zarkov and chef Alexei Kogay, created Sakhalin, the Istanbul restaurant where he offers cuisine he likes to call “Mediterrasian.” On Sakhalin's extensive and intriguing menu, the protagonists are crab, lobster, tuna, as well as vegetables. There is an entire tasting menu based on crab, and unmissable, according to Mukhin himself, are all the dishes with tuna such as tataki and the three tartares with the different parts of the fish: akami, toro and chutoro. The grand finale is left, then, tiramisu with coffee caviar served in small boxes of sturgeon eggs: a reinterpretation of the Italian dessert in the form of a luxurious homage to “modern classicism.”
And indeed, one can find numerous dedicated shots and videos on Instagram (the restaurant's official one here), where customers repost the unusual dessert service, scooping out the explosive little pearls with their spoons. A success, because surprising to the last is part of Vladimir Mukhin's DNA.
