New European Cuisine of Chef Natasha Pogrebinsky

Chef Natasha Pogrebinsky received her culinary training at the French Culinary Institute, therefore her styles and techniques are heavily influenced by traditional European methods, meaning French, Italian, English, and most recently Spanish styles.

The preparation techniques, the cooking methods, ingredients, and resources implemented at every level of European cuisine have a specific style differing from the rest of the world. This centuries-honed characteristic of cooking is what makes European food so interesting and admired throughout the world.

Historically Europe has been divided for centuries, and only currently has it experienced an unprecedented era of freedom and unity, in which not only is there a new interest in the cultures and traditions of Eastern Europe, but a common sense of history and a broader transcending pan-European tradition which has allowed for the rethinking of the concept of European culture.

Eastern European cuisine has for the most part been marginalized as "ethnic food" and thus not raised to the culinary status of high cuisine as the dishes of France and Italy. It is no argument that the cuisine of Eastern Europe, specifically Russia and Ukraine is distinct, yet it is time to step over the culinary iron curtain, and embrace the delicious and innovative concepts from all of Europe into high cuisine.

Eastern European cuisine was historically influenced and formulated from the social and historical conditions of privation and the vast and varying geographical conditions. Out from a tumultuous historical and geographic environment a rich culinary tradition was developed and sustained for hundreds of years. The use of these rarely known yet original methods along with the technical skills and traditions of Western cuisines is what Chef Pogrebinsky calls New European Cuisine, her philosophy and signature method of cooking.

New European Cuisine is heavily built around Russian and Ukrainian food culture and ingredients, while utilizing Western technique and style. Culinary borders are constantly being crossed by great chefs all over the world, infusing their dishes with styles and methods previously limited to only certain parts of the globe. New European Cuisine opens a new taste bud for the world, with new and distinct combinations of flavors, unique and region-specific ingredients. New European Cuisine is strongly guided by seasonal ingredients, farm-to-table consciousness of ingredient source, and an understanding and implementation of superfoods, and an aesthetic approach to the dish.