It’s dinner time in Saint Petersburg on a Friday night. On the menu tonight, as you might expect, there’s beetroot and potatoes. But at Hamlet + Jacks restaurant, situated a few minutes walk from the iconic Church of the Saviour on Spilled Blood, these traditional ingredients have been turned on their heads.
A plate with a generous slice of a plump purple tart on is put down in front of me. Next to it sits a little pot of what looks like whipped cream. The waitress then pulls out a blowtorch and ignites it. Just as I’m getting a little concerned with the rasp of the blue-white fire being launched mere inches from my face, she turns it on the little dish of cream and in a few seconds, a few leopard-like spots begin to brown the surface, before it is well and truly bruleed.
‘This is the signature dish on our menu,’ says Natalya Zemlyanik, the marketing director at the restaurant who is joining me for the ‘10,000 kilometres’ tasting menu – a culinary trip around the nation in seven courses. ‘It’s beetroot cheesecake with potato ice cream. We like to have fun with classic Russian ingredients and play about with them; it’s my favourite dish.’ I dig in with my spoon, and with a mouthful of the creamy, sweet and slightly earthy tart, I’m inclined to agree with her.
St Petersburg, with a population of 4.9 million, is a city steeped in history; of grand tsars, epic cultural talents and the power of the people. Formerly the Russian capital – it switched to Moscow in 1918 – it was the launch place of the Russian Revolution in 1917, came under siege in World War II and survived the collapse of the Soviet Union in 1991. However, over the past few years, there's been another quiet revolution taking place in the city: and it’s taking place on plates.