Tilda food&bar

The heroes of our interview are the Tilda Food&Bar team: chef Pavel Kazmin and bar manager Nikita Alexandrov. They told us about the project, their own creative path and how to do what you like and enjoy it.

Tell us a little about yourself: how did you get into this profession?

Nikita: Like most people in the restaurant business, my journey began with the fact that I wanted to earn money and become independent from my parents. I was 18 years old, I had just graduated from the first year of university in my hometown of Rybinsk in the Yaroslavl region and got a job as a bartender in a nightclub where my school friends worked. I worked there for five years and realized that I wanted to develop further, saved up some money and went to Moscow. It was 2012, and then I didn’t really understand the difference between restaurants, the specifics of the work, but I just went to Avito and posted my resume. I found a job in one of the many Italian restaurants - I worked there for six months and made my first bar card. Then my friends invited me to become part of the Glen Balis team, and I went to work at the newly opened Glenuill - this is where my meaningful path in the profession began. What’s important is that I got acquainted with wine there and began to develop in this direction.

I worked at Glenuill for about 4 years, participated in other Glenuill projects, and at some point the guys from the team and I realized that we wanted to develop further. We made our business plan, found an investor with whom we are now working - he is also our partner.

I left Glenuill and started looking for space for the project. Initially, we were going to settle on Trubnaya, but in the end “Tilda” is here, and we have been working for three years. The first six months were a little difficult: we opened at the end of September, and although the first 2 months were explosive, then there was a recession - winter, New Year, and we only recovered in the summer.

Pavel: I came into this profession thanks to Lera [co-owner of Tilda]. I had long dreamed of becoming a chef, but something always confused me. I wanted to go to study at the French school Le Cordon Bleu, but I doubted that it might not be “for me,” so I decided to try my hand at the kitchen first. Then Lera introduced me to Glen Balis, and I came from a well-paid job cutting bread. It was an interesting but difficult time, but I was confident that everything would work out quickly enough, and it did. In the same establishment I became a foreman, and after a while, in another place, I was hired as a sous-chef. We were already thinking about our place, and through Glenuill, through guests, we met Valery Abel, did a tasting, and eventually opened the establishment. It sounds easy, but in reality it was not so simple.

What achievements in your profession are you proud of?

Nikita: If we talk about bartending competitions, then I have an ambiguous attitude towards them - up to a certain point I participated in regional competitions, won, but I realized that I did not like the advertising of these competitions.

Of course, one of the important milestones for me was that I am a partner in a restaurant - I started as an ordinary bartender, and this is a big step forward. Another achievement is my line of Wild Soda lemonades. These are lemonades without added sugar - they contain only concentrated juice and fruit. In the summer we bottled the first batch - three flavors: grapefruit with strawberries and mint, orange with passion fruit and tangerine with pomegranate. I make them with a partner whom I met here at Tilda, but they are not here because they do not fit the concept a little.

Pavel: The main achievement is opening your own restaurant - it’s something unreal. To be constantly in good shape is an achievement, I think, because I myself am lazy by nature. But I don’t consider myself a great chef or restaurateur - I just love to work and enjoy what I do.

What is interesting about the restaurant? Tell us more about its concept?

Nikita: Many people ask what kind of cuisine we have. We don’t have a specific focus - Russian, French, Pan-Asian - we cook everything, but with Asian motifs - sauces , serving. Perhaps these are echoes of the experience of working with Glen, who instilled in us a love for this direction. This is also reflected in cocktails - we make a premix for one of our sours from tangerine, lychee and lemongrass - all the ingredients are Asian, there is a sake cocktail with strawberry liqueur, there is an ideal, in the opinion of our guests, dry cocktail - a twist on a dry martini - this two types of sake, gin and capers. But we don’t, as is now fashionable, drink cocktailsrings for dishes, because I think that cocktails and food are not compatible: cocktails should be drunk separately, and pairings are best done with wine.

Pavel: We really don’t have any specifics on our menu - we just do what we like. This is probably our peculiarity - we can do whatever we want, and no one forbids us anything. We are the owners ourselves and we create what we want, and it works out quite well.

Do you cook classics or do you experiment more?

Pavel: I think it’s 50/50, but we probably do more experiments, we do a lot of interesting things. In the new menu we have, for example, pies with truffle, but these are not just pies - we took them and opened them, showed them what was inside, grated the truffles - made something unusual out of the ordinary.

What about drinks?

Nikita: We initially had the task of creating a non-trivial wine list, which would contain items that people don’t know about - we wanted to educate guests. We haven’t managed to move away from the most popular wines – there are certain positions like this, because the guests come different. They are not always ready to experiment; they may be embarrassed to ask the waiter if they don’t understand what kind of wine it is. It is important for them that there is something familiar on the menu, and we try to make our guests feel comfortable.

Along the path of wine, I have come a long way since 2013 - I went to tastings, courses, sommelier schools... Not so long ago I completed sommelier courses and received an international certificate, systematizing my knowledge about wine. The world of wine is constantly evolving, and you need to constantly update your knowledge. I'm confident that wine will soon surpass spirits - many large alcohol companies are also starting to switch to it.

Our cocktails are experimental, but we try not to bother with complex presentations, also because we don’t have much room for maneuver. We decorate with powder, chips, select dishes - our guests really love these glasses of yours [ Rona “Mod”] , they are straight Instagram glasses.

Can a guest's opinion influence your decision about a menu item or recipe change?

Pavel: Yes, we focus on the opinions of guests - we recently did a tasting and fed everyone for free - a certain core of guests has already formed, and we invite everyone, often take into account their wishes, but not all :)

Nikita: If one guest, one out of a hundred, said that it is not tasty, we will certainly pay attention to this, but we will not remove the item from the menu; if complaints begin to be repeated, then we begin to think about the comments and either try to correct it or remove it from the menu .

Is it difficult to come up with new dishes and drinks? What guides you when working on the menu, what inspires you?

Pavel: When you are asked to create a new menu right now, it is, of course, difficult, I need time to be creative. I try to travel more, go to restaurants, communicate with chefs.

Nikita: I can’t say that it’s super difficult, but it’s not easy either. There is a base, a basis - all cocktails are one way or another twists on the classics - the same layout is taken, other ingredients are taken, but sometimes successful impromptu ones are obtained. This is interesting to industry workers and enthusiasts, but guests usually don't think about it, don't see the connection between the Negroni they drank last weekend and today's cocktail - it's delicious, and that's all they care about.4

Tell us about the current kitchen and bar trends – are you following them?

Nikita: We follow trends - I follow top bars on Instagram, Lera and Pasha [co-owners of the restaurant] also bring something. The last thing we introduced were twists on tropical classics. Of course, not everything can be used in technology due to lack of space, so I try to simplify a lot of things. But I actively use sous vide. I make cool liqueurs with his help - we have a guest who regularly comes after closing just for them.

Pavel: Well, it’s unlikely that something completely new can be invented now, but we, of course, use sous-vide and other technologies, this simplifies the work.

What equipment do you use most often in the kitchen?

Pavel: we follow the classics - stoves, combi oven, sous vide. I want to install a robata grill - it’s small, holds the temperature well and produces smokiness.

What about behind the bar?

Nikita: Sous vide, for me it’s a talisman - with its help I can do something new. When I met him it was timewives - instead of infusing for a month, you can make a tincture in just a couple of hours. And at Tilda I became acquainted with the thermomix - also a very useful tool, I use it all the time.

How do you approach choosing cookware? Are quality marks important to you?

Nikita: First of all, we focus on our taste, and then we think about how the glasses will behave in use. We know the top manufacturers and we focus on them, of course, and we look at the price, because glass is a consumable material, so we are looking for the optimal combination of price and quality.

Pavel: Yes, we look at originality, quality and durability. We do some things ourselves – it’s more interesting.

Can you share a funny story about your restaurant?

Pavel: I don’t really like going out to guests... But once a man tried to steal a chair from us - there was a buffet on the street, and he tried to take it away. We recently told such stories on Sasha Sutormina’s podcast .

What is the most challenging part of your job? And the most pleasant?

Pavel: The most difficult thing is to stand on your feet for a long time, but the most pleasant thing is to achieve results.

Nikita: When before the opening we tasted about 100 bottles of wine in 2 months, it was both difficult and pleasant :) From a daily basis - it’s difficult to constantly maintain a smile on your face, your mood can be different, but your bad mood shouldn’t matter to the guest, so you need try to keep a sincere smile for him.

What do you need to do to become a professional in your field?

Nikita: You need to follow trends, constantly learn, update your knowledge, don’t stand still - if you stand still, you’ll be lost. You definitely need to keep up with what's happening in the industry. The most important thing, perhaps, is to be able to communicate with guests. Even if you don’t know something, thanks to your charisma and your ability to communicate, you can make a guest’s evening.

Pavel: I advise beginners not to be afraid - if you want something, you need to go towards your dream.