A Bear's Feast

Menu for a dinner held January 14, 1912, at the restaurant “Medved”. Designed by I. Ia. Bilibin. Tip. R. R. Golike
and A. I. Vil’borg. Sankt-Peterburg, 1912.
© The State Museum of the History of St. Petersburg. St. Petersburg.

On January 14, 1912, the St. Petersburg restaurant Medved’ (The Bear) hosted a private banquet for a delegation of British Parliamentarians and Anglican priests. In a city where most of the fine restaurants served French food and listed their dishes in French, The Bear stood out for its traditional Russian fare, and notably, the menus were written in Russian. The banquet menu reproduced here was designed by Ivan Bilibin, an artist perhaps most famous for his stylized illustrations of Russian fairy tales.

Bilibin’s design is a sumptuous mix of Russian folk style and the heavy black outlining characteristic of Art Nouveau, a blend of folk ornamentation and abstraction. The menu also displays some of Bilibin’s signature gestures, such as sirins – the mythical half-female, half-avian creatures who portend paradisiacal harmony and joy. Bilibin’s organization of the menu into frames recalls the folk-art form of the lubok, in which descriptive text appears below a central image.

In the upper left of the menu we see a partial coat of arms of the city of St. Petersburg; the crown on the right appears to be a stylized depiction of the English crown of King Edward the Confessor. A little-known fact is that both Edward the Confessor (reigned 1041-1066) and his uncle, King Edward the Martyr (r. 975-978), are considered saints in the Russian Orthodox Church, and the English delegation had come to St. Petersburg to discuss increased contacts between the Orthodox and Anglican churches. Participating in the delegation were 30 Members of Parliament, as well as prominent figures in the Anglican Church. The delegation met with Russian Orthodox religious leaders for preliminary discussions that, they hoped, would lead to the churches’ unification. As a result of these meetings, the Society Of Advocates for Rapprochement between the Anglican and Orthodox Churches was formed; it soon came under the auspices of the Most Holy Synod.

The English delegation stayed in St. Petersburg from January 12-14 and was fêted on many occasions, including the farewell banquet at The Bear. The lavish nine-course menu represented the best of what the Russian Empire had to offer. Geographically, the dishes range from Russia’s Far North (Dvina sterlet; Arkhangelsk capercailzie and hazel hen) to the empire’s distant reaches (Siberian elk cutlets; Caucasian blackcock and partridge) and even to places far beyond (the sauces identified as American, Rhein-wine, and Polish). Enough characteristic foods and styles of preparation are featured to identify this menu as distinctively Russian, but it also appeals to cosmopolitan sensibilities. After various zakuski or appetizers came the soups: rassolnik, a rich chicken stock brimming with tender pieces of chicken, veal kidneys, salted cucumbers and their brine; and clear Ukrainian beet soup accompanied by vatrushki (soft, open-faced pies filled with farmer’s cheese) and pirozhki.

Diners were next regaled with poached sterlet, served with either a white wine sauce or with “American sauce,” a thickened fish stock enriched with lobster, butter, white wine, and brandy. After the fish came the roasts: suckling pig in the Russian style and Siberian-style elk chops. These heavy meats were followed by rowanberry punch as a palate cleanser. The sixth course was wildfowl: capercailzie, hazel hens from Arkhangelsk, blackcock and plump partridge from the Caucasus. Salad and condiments were served with the game to offset its richness: romaine lettuce, half-sour pickles, and lingonberry jam, more like a tart relish than a sweet preserve. The seventh course was fresh asparagus, rightly featured by itself to denote the height of luxury in January. The asparagus was offered with two lemon-inflected sauces: a rich Polish sauce made with butter and finely chopped hard-boiled eggs; and a mousseline sauce, even richer than the Polish sauce, thanks to the addition of whipped cream.

The eighth and penultimate course consisted of two desserts: Parfait Neva, a fanciful frozen dessert created especially for the occasion, and Guriev Kasha, a porridge of semolina layered with jam, honey, dried or preserved fruits, and candied nuts (see Russian Life, Nov/Dec 2013). The traditional recipe includes golden skins formed by baking rich milk or cream in the oven. The skin that appears on the top of the milk is lifted off and used to separate the layers of semolina and its fillings. To crown the dish, sugar is sprinkled on top of the porridge and browned under a salamander in the fashion of crème brûlée. The meal concluded with a platter of cheese and fruits served with coffee and liqueurs.

In 1914, two years after this banquet, the Holy Synod organized a special commission to study ways in which to strengthen relations between the two churches, and in 1917 Patriarch St. Tikhon of Moscow himself convened a Church council to consider the question of full unification. But the Revolution intervened, and a second planned meeting between the Russians and the English never took place. All that remains is this menu, a glimpse into Russia’s political and culinary past.

Menu translation

Assorted Zakuski (appetizers)
Kidney and Dill Pickle Soup with Chicken
Ukrainian Clear Beet Soup
Open-Faced Cheese-Curd Pies, Little Pies with Minced Meat or Vegetables
Poached Dvina Sterlet
Sauces: American (Reduced fish stock with lobster, butter, white wine and brandy); White Wine
Russian-Style Roast Suckling Pig
Siberian-Style Elk Cutlets
Rowanberry Granita
Arkhangelsk Capercailzie and Hazel Hens
Caucasian Blackcock and Partridge
Romaine Lettuce Salad and Half-sour Pickles
Lingonberry Preserve
Fresh Asparagus
Sauces: Polish (butter and finely chopped hard-boiled eggs) and Mousseline (hollandaise with whipped cream added)
Guriev Kasha
Neva Parfait
Cheese
Fruit
Coffee and liqueurs

Recipes for the following menu items can be found in A Taste of Russia: zakuski, Kidney and Dill Pickle Soup, Clear Beet Soup, Cheese-Curd Pies, Little Pies, Half-Sour Pickles, and Guriev Kasha.