Grand Chapitre 2005

Gastronomers' Guild  - Chaine des Rotisseurs

The traditions of the culture of high cuisine in St. Petersburg

December 10, 2005, the Marble Palace hosted the gala dinner of the Gastronomers' Guild of St. Petersburg, Renaissance Careme.

The best city hotels: Angleterre, Astoria, Grand Hotel Europe, Corinthia Nevskij Palace, SAS Radisson, Renaissance Sankt-Peterburg Baltic Hotel, have joined forces for the preparation of the culinary arts show and have tried to recreate the dishes served at the table of the Emperor Alexander I by his court chef, Careme.

The dinner was the climax of the international meeting of the Russian Gastronomers' Guild  (Chaine des Rotisseurs), which took place in St. Petersburg on December 8-11 and gathered over 170 guests - gastronomers, gourmands, and association's friends from 16 nations worldwide.

According to the established tradition, the 30 new Guild members have undergone the initiation ceremony and accepted their membership from the President of the International Fraternity of the Gastronomers' Guild, Yam Atallah.

This year, the new full members of the Guild became Boris Tsitkin and Alisa Pyatnitskaya - Palkin restaurant, the general manager of Kempinski Moika, 22 hotel, Liam Madden, the chef of Grand Hotel Europe, Dominiq Ferchaut, and Dmitry Zhurkin of Bon Vine company.

The Gastronomers' Guild Honorary Member title was awarded to the director of Petrodvorets GMZ, Vadim Valentinovich Znamenov.

The history of the Gastronomers' Guild is over 800 years old. First appearing in 1248 during the reign of Louis IX, uniting the French knights - the masters of carving game after the royal hunts. In 1789, during the French Revolution, the Guild had been dissolved along with the other royal establishments. The Fraternity was revived only 1950.

Currently, the Chaine des Rotisseurs gathers professional restaurateurs and chefs as well as gourmands and the aficionados of high cuisine. The Association has approximately 40,000 members in almost 100 nations worldwide. The number of the associations' new members continues growing.  

In December, 2002 under the initiative of Thomas Hall (the general manager of Grand Hotel Europe), the Russian branch of the association has been opened in St. Petersburg, and more recently, in Moscow.