It was my introduction to culinary nationalism. A few weeks ago the Vladimir Putin loyalist I was keen to meet suggested Voronezh, an upscale Moscow restaurant overlooking the Cathedral of Christ the Saviour.
We sat in the second-floor dining room, where the decor is vintage chic. I watched the waiters roll out a menu of sea herring, shrimps, oysters and even bone marrow. “It’s all from Russia,” my host says proudly.
Housed in an 18th-century mansion, the restaurant is named after a city on the banks of the Voronezh river, hundreds of kilometres south of Moscow. It first opened its doors after international sanctions were imposed in 2014 over Russia’s annexation of Crimea.