Munchies: Alexei Zimin

All the stories you hear about Russians and drinking are true; anyone who says otherwise is a liar. And most of the stories you hear about chefs and drinking are true, too. With that in mind, Moscow's Alexei Zimin was everything we hoped a Russian chef would be. We had a free night in Moscow after shooting an episode of Far Out in Siberia, so we got in touch with Alexei and he said to come by his restaurant, Ragout. There are actually two Ragouts: the smaller, original location, and the second one, near Prospekt Mira, next to one of the stadiums from the Moscow Olympics. That's where this Munchies episode begins.

To call the new Ragout a mere restaurant would be an understatement; it's a fine dining room, a casual cafe, a cooking school, a bookstore, and more. Alexei studied at Le Cordon Bleu in Paris and worked under chefs like Michel Gerard and Raymond Blanc before opening Ragout with fellow cook Ilya Shalev. They filter French technique through their Russian sensibilities and take influences from their travels for everything they do—which, in Alexei's case, also includes being the editor of Eda, a great Russian food magazine, organizer of the Moscow Festival of Food, cookbook author, and television show host. It's hard to imagine how he does it, if the hangovers he gave us were any indication. Here's what we can remember: after Ragout we went to Bar Bontempi and met the owner, Mitya Borisov, a semi-legendary figure with eyes the color of Merlot. Then it was off to 32.05, a cafe/bar in the middle of a park where Alexei showed us his amazing singing voice, and then to Noor Bar, a cocktail bar as good as any in New York. At that point things become hazy, but we can recall one of Alexei's friends knocking out our field producer with one punch, and the night ending over bottles of vodka at Jean-Jacques, a great late-night bar, neither of which are on camera, unfortunately. Be careful when you go drinking in Moscow.