An ode to pies and expectation of 5 million tourists

Pie with egg and green onions and chak-chak as symbols of hospitality

The board of the Association of Restaurateurs and Hoteliers summed up the results of 2024. The theme of the largest international events held in Kazan ran like a red thread through all the speakers' speeches. The hospitality industry, like no other, felt not only the honor, but also the full weight of the mission assigned to the city for almost the entire 2024. The general verdict is: we did it!

“Never before in history has it happened that our Tatar national cuisine was present at such large events attended by top officials of states. We were at the BRICS forum! Our association assembled a team of 9 people who took part in organizing the meals as part of the Kremlin catering plant. They were delighted and inspired by the national cuisine that we offered them,” President of the Association of Restaurateurs and Hoteliers of Tatarstan Zufar Gayazov proudly said and told us that our usual pie with green onions made a splash among the forum’s highest guests, and they even ordered it again. Not to mention how chak-chak, which was used to greet all the high-ranking guests right at the airport, “thundered” around the world.

A serious reason for the Association to be proud is the entry of the Yunus Akhmetzyanov Young Chefs Tournament into the international orbit. Realnoe Vremya reported on it in the format of a visiting editorial office — the competition was held in May during Russia — Islamic World international forum, chefs from 15 countries, including both from neighbouring and remote countries, participated in it. The event set the highest bar: a separate pavilion was allocated for this at Kazan Expo, in which the most complex construction with full-fledged kitchens and cooking equipment was carried out. The concept was unique: each finalist was supported by one Kazan restaurant, whose chefs prepared a set of dishes on a certain national theme under the supervision of the contestant. Moreover, they cooked not only for the jury — each visitor to the forum could come here and choose which country's cuisine to treat themselves to for lunch today.

Mikhail Sharipov, Chairman of the Board of the Association of Restaurateurs and Hoteliers of Tatarstan, co-owner of legendary Skazka cafe, spoke about the tournament at the board meeting. He recalled that the World Islamic Culinary Association issued a document recognizing the results of the tournament. In 2025, the tradition of receiving the tournament will continue, applications are already coming from all over the world, and the Association hopes to maintain a high bar. At the same time, Mikhail Sharipov called on colleagues from the Association to join the activities of organizing the tournament. He invited Kazan restaurants to help its participants — to take responsibility for this or that cuisine, to allocate their production facilities for this task.

“Among the Association members, we have the fewest number of comments”

The city’s restaurants and hotels withstood the unprecedented load of hosting high-ranking guests under the TV and photo cameras of the entire world, but before the events began and before the arrival of the BRICS Summit participants, they still had to prove their sanitary reliability to the supervisory authorities. It should be said that the Association has established a constructive and fruitful dialogue with the regional office of Russia’s consumer rights protection watchdog. The chief sanitary doctor of the republic, Marina Patyashina, who was present at the board meeting, noted this fact:

“At the preventive stage, all the comments that the watchdog identified were very promptly eliminated. They withstood the high load and showed high-quality work. The local office constructively interacts with the Association of Restaurateurs and Hoteliers. It includes fairly conscientious restaurants and hotels. We have the least number of comments on the members of the association. During the year, we repeatedly meet within the framework of our Public Council, within the framework of our current meetings and discuss the recommendations that are developed by the watchdog and should be implemented in restaurants or hotels. We receive good feedback from enterprises.

However, the head of the Tatarstan office of the watchdog complained that not all catering establishments in the republic are so conscientious and executive. Small cafes and canteens, as a rule, not included in the perimeter of the Association, sometimes allow gross violations that lead to group infectious diseases of residents. In this case, there is no time to persuade them to start working correctly. Therefore, the only measure here is often an administrative suspension of activities, and during this time they manage to bring everything into compliance — make repairs, put the flow in order, purchase the necessary equipment, conduct a medical examination of their staff (this is also a common violation). There are questions about them, and, according to Marina Patyashina, they will, unfortunately, be during 2025.

Victorious May, 5 million tourists and new festivals

CEO of the Association of Restaurateurs and Hoteliers Galina Sharafutdinova listed everything that the organisation lived with during 2024: in addition to international events, there was a collection of gifts for Sabantui, and gastronomic festivals, and, of course, the 20th anniversary of the Association, which was celebrated in November.

The plans for 2025 include, firstly, the ambitious task of welcoming 5 million tourists to Kazan.

Secondly, in light of the upcoming 80th anniversary of the Great Victory, Galina Sharafutdinova suggested that her colleagues hold the Victorious May campaign the details and essence of which have not yet been formed, but will be discussed in the near future.

Thirdly, it is already known that the VK Fest will be held in Kazan for the first time, within the framework of which Tatarstan restaurateurs propose to launch gastronomic activities.

Fourthly, active exhibition and exhibition activities, in which the Association is traditionally active, will continue.

One of the interesting innovations is that Mikhail Sharipov announced the signing of a memorandum on the principles of preserving gastronomy in rural areas.

Farmers will unite to solve issues of interaction with restaurants

The problems that the Association faces are not new. The main bottleneck, the bottleneck of the industry is personnel. Our publication literally the other day published an article dedicated to this problem. It was not ignored at the board: Rector of the Volga State University of Physical Culture, Sport and Tourism Rafis Burganov also spoke about the problem of staff shortage in the hospitality industry, Zufar Gayazov also spoke about it, and Galina Sharafutdinova recalled. Various ways of solving the problem are proposed — from training high school students as waiters and baristas to attracting people with disabilities to the industry, among whom there are many excellent marketers, designers and creators.

And the second important topic is the interaction of restaurateurs with farmers offering a local product. Representatives of farms took part in the board. Head of Svetloye Ozero agrofarm, Tatyana Kirova, spoke to Realnoe Vremya about this topic. She attended the board meeting with a presentation of her cheeses. According to her, there are difficulties for a farmer to bring his products to a restaurant. The problem is that restaurants cannot always rely on their farmer-supplier. In some cases, restaurateurs may face a shortage of the required volume of products, irresponsible behaviour of the supplier, and instability of quality. Plus, there is seasonality in the farmer's work, which creates additional difficulties in terms of stability of supplies.

“But I hope that the ice will break soon. I think that we, for our part, will share our knowledge with colleagues. We graduated from the Farmer's School, a project of Rosselkhozbank, the Ministry of Agriculture and the Agrarian University. And now we want to create a Farmer's School Alumni Club, which will help us cooperate and give restaurants the opportunity to get the product they need. We want to establish interaction and improve its quality,” says Tatyana. — We are here today precisely to find common ground and opportunities for mutually beneficial work. So that we can promote our products, and the restaurant can offer its guest something tasty, high-quality and natural!”