Valentin Tarasenko

About career

If you had told me earlier that I would become a chef, I would have laughed. I have a musical education, I taught button accordion, guitar, solfeggio. Then I broke my fingers, and now, unfortunately, I can only listen to music. I became a photographer - I had my own studio in Volgodonsk, a camera with plates, I took family portraits, school graduations. But then point-and-shoot cameras appeared - and instantly everyone became a photographer. I moved to Moscow in 1996, and my passion for cooking turned into a profession. I got a job in a vegetarian cake shop, baked cakes and cooked for the staff. In 2000, Jagannath opened, the first vegetarian cafe, and I worked there from the first day - in the confectionery shop. Then there was the Rotunda club on Leninsky Prospekt, where I spent six years - not exactly a vegetarian place, but esoteric: magicians, shamans, whoever was there. We didn’t eat much meat there, only chicken. After that there were several more places - “Yoga House”, “Open World”, so I already have experience and intuition: when I come to a new place, I immediately understand who comes here and what needs to be prepared.

About the public

There are many women aged 35 to 45 in Soka, but there are also plenty of young people. Raw foodists come in whole groups. Foreigners eat - Japanese, Koreans, for example, and after the Tretyakov Gallery random visitors come, we are located right opposite it. I’ve been here since August, and I actually didn’t expect that there would be so many visitors in such a small cafe: sometimes there’s a line at the entrance, people waiting for tables to become free. I often meet people here whom I fed in other places, and they are glad that I work here - this, of course, is very pleasant.

About the chefs of the vegetarian cafe

The cooks in my kitchen are by no means all vegetarians - this is not a necessary condition at all. It’s difficult with vegetarian chefs, because they, as a rule, engage in spiritual practices - they’re always having some kind of festivals, or going to India, or something else. So in my kitchen there are just very efficient guys who cook and earn money.

About raw food diet

For example, we have raw food borscht - we grind beets and carrots in a blender, add a little clean water and lemon juice. We make raw food hummus from sprouted chickpeas, mung beans, buckwheat and oats, also using a blender. And they bring us raw food bread - it is made at low, up to 30 degrees, temperatures in special devices, dehydrators, we don’t have those. To be honest, I don’t understand raw foodists. I don't want to say it's good or bad, but it's not for me. How can you refuse good, tasty hot soup? We have a waiter who says to himself that he is a raw foodist, but only two-thirds: he sometimes allows himself to eat soup - otherwise, he says, he is blocking me. And indeed, this is a violation of energy. If a person does not eat hot food, his mind becomes very restless, he cannot concentrate on anything, he begins to break down. The body consists of five elements - fire, water, earth, air, space, and they are in balance. When a person decides that he will become enlightened by eating only raw food, he upsets this balance.

About posts

When Lent begins, it is very noticeable: more people immediately start coming to us. But, to be honest, the posts are not entirely clear to me either. Of course, it’s not bad for a person if he doesn’t eat meat for a month. But often, by refusing meat in such a violent way, he simply creates problems for himself: he waits impatiently for the end of the fast, and when he waits, he overeats - he throws up, and that’s all. This applies not only to vegetarianism and food in general - if a person limits himself in something not based on an internal conscious need, but because he decided so in his mind or someone told him, then problems always begin as a result.

About vegetarian cafes

Nowadays, being a vegetarian or even a vegan in Moscow is not very difficult, especially if a person knows how to cook. And if he doesn’t know how, now there is “Juice”, already three “Jagannaths”, two “Avocados”, “Yoga House”, “Open World”, “The Path to Yourself” on Pyatnitskaya, “The Sea Inside” (I also took part in its opening), Fresh - a lot of things.

I don’t think that vegetarianism is such a big merit, I think it should become the norm. People don't eat meat for various reasons. Many people become vegetarians to make their minds clear. The ancient science of Ayurveda says that food has the qualities of passion, ignorance or goodness. There is a lot of passion in spicy food, the person who eats it becomes passionate, like the peoples of the Caucasus. Fresh meat also has this quality. Food that is old, rotten, decomposed has the quality of ignorance - the person who eats it becomes dull, like an animal. And vegetarian food makes a person more peaceful because it has the quality of goodness. Vegetarianism is often associated with various spiritual practices, but I would like people to become vegetarians just like that.

About the pleasure of food

The main thing is not the food itself, but what it gives. When a person begins to obsess over it, it is a deviation. We need oxygen, but we don’t buy masks to breathe it. We come to the forest and breathe the forest air, or we come to the sea - we breathe the sea air and enjoy it. In the same way, you can enjoy eating at a good cafe or restaurant - but to keep yourself healthy, you can cook simple meals at home.

Baked eggplant with cheese crust and golden couscous

Serves 2

Eggplant 1 pc.
Olive oil 1 tbsp. spoon
Sour cream 2 tbsp. spoons
Parmesan 20 g
Mozzarella 1 ball
Basil 2 sprigs
Pesto sauce 2 tbsp. spoons
Sun-dried tomatoes 6 pcs.
Provençal herbs to taste
Couscous 100 g
Turmeric pinch

Cut the eggplant in half. Make cuts in the pulp, pour in olive oil, sprinkle with Provençal herbs - and bake for 15 minutes at 200 degrees.

Then brush the eggplant halves with sour cream, sprinkle with Parmesan and put back in the oven for a cheese crust - for two minutes at the same temperature.

Add turmeric to the couscous, stir, pour a glass of boiling water, cover and let the liquid absorb.

Cut the mozzarella into small cubes, finely chop the basil leaves. Mix cheese and basil with pesto sauce, place on eggplant halves, add sun-dried tomatoes. Place the prepared couscous next to it.

Comments (19)

Margarita Babovnikova March 29 “Old, rotten, decomposed food has the quality of ignorance” - don’t we eat all vegetables/fruits in a decomposing state except cucumbers?

Nina Lezhnina March 30 No, we don’t eat. Probably few people eat rotten vegetables and fruits.

Olga Ermolaeva March 29 Oh, and the hero of the article has eyes of different colors, funny :) Thanks for the recipe!

Valentin Tarasenko March 31 Please)) and eyes really have different colors from birth))

Julia Kukuschkina March 29 Margarita, forgive my ignorance, but what do you understand by the “decomposed state” of vegetables and fruits? Broken, with barrels, blackened, beginning to mold? What are you eating?

Svetlana Rogovaya March 29 The first phrases of the interview - and that’s it. Like, “I wouldn’t mind becoming a chef if life hadn’t forced me.” Seriously, it’s better to go to the sewer trucks with that attitude. Valentin Tarasenko March 31 Life didn’t force me, I became interested in practices that implied vegetarianism, at that time there were no vegetarian cafes, I cooked myself. And then I couldn’t stop))) Svetlana Rogovaya March 29 And another question for the hero of the interview: Valentin, have you tried fasting? Just wondering. Valentin Tarasenko March 31 There are different fasts, I didn’t keep the Christian one, in the Vedic tradition there is a fast called Ekadashi, on this day I tried to eat almost nothing, and for thirteen years I didn’t eat meat and fish.

Marusya Nizovtsova March 29 Good interview. golden mean, without fanaticism, neither one nor the other. I shake your hand
Valentin Tarasenko March 31 Thank you Marusya)

Rami Bleckt March 30 In my opinion, the person does not fully understand the topic, or the journalist did not write down everything verbatim or changed something. Meat is pure ignorance.
A raw food diet usually calms the mind. When I ate raw food, on the contrary, my mind calmed down and sleep was restored.
There are actually many wonderful cafes and shops in Moscow now, a great gift for those who follow a healthy lifestyle. Thank you very much for this and Valentin. Valentin Tarasenko March 31 Good afternoon! Of course, I don’t fully understand the topic, but I can say that for people who have a predominant air element, a raw food diet causes serious problems, maybe for those who have more of an earth element and can eat raw food for a long time, but even if they engage in meditation, they will begin to have serious problems. Valentin Tarasenko April 01 In Vedic times, the Kshatriya warrior caste deliberately ate meat before battle; in a state of goodness you can’t fight much))

Elizaveta Vorontsova March 30 Valentin, have you tried going down into the mine or standing by the open-hearth furnace? I should have looked at you when they presented you with an eggplant for dinner. Nina Lezhnina March 30 Dear Elizabeth, Russian peasants generally saw meat infrequently, because it was expensive, and the basis of their food was just products made from flour, cereals, vegetables - the same “cabbage soup and porridge”. And it’s okay, they went to field work, chopped wood, and looked after livestock. Valentin Tarasenko March 31 Good afternoon Elizaveta! I went down into the mine with my father, he then told me, my son, study well at school, I listened to his advice. But seriously, I have friends who do heavy sports and are vegetarians.

Vadim Irin March 31 Excellent material, thanks to the boss! jaai!)

Varvara Limanova April 03 Thank you! It’s very nice to read a clear and even attitude towards food and vegetarianism. And just as with Lent there are always extremes (gastroenterologists always have a lot of work after Easter), vegetarians protect animals so much that they might gnaw off their neighbor’s throat :) And sattvic food is, of course, the healthiest :)

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"Vegetarian food has the quality of goodness"