This is my first visit to Astana, before I worked in Russia, so I heard a lot about Kazakhstan. I lived in Moscow, St. Petersburg, Rostov-on-Don, and Novosibirsk. As I’ve been to different countries, I know six languages, including Russian. People understand my Russian, I make conversations and sometimes joke.
I spend most of my time working in the kitchen – it’s my life. In my free time I visit different restaurants, coffee shops, canteens in order to learn as many tastes as possible. I’ve got a tradition to visit a new place every Sunday.
I’ve tried your national cuisine and noticed that you adhere to the traditions in cooking and serving dishes. Preparing traditional dishes for Kazakh people, I try to modernize them, focusing on the supply. For example, recently I’ve cooked a lagman from three kinds of noodles: green, red and ordinary, and on top there was a quail stuffed with mushrooms and potatoes.
I know a little about the culture and traditions of the Kazakh people. I’ve heard of a holiday called Nauryz, I know about the Independence Day. Before arriving here I’d watched a video about how weddings are held in Kazakhstan on YouTube. Once we went to the countryside to have a team weekend, which you call “on shish kebabs” (на шашлыки). I liked such a traditional way of team building. It was very fun.
Kazakhstan is a young country, all citizens are rather open and want to learn something new. Kazakhstan welcomes innovations, therefore Expo-2017 will be held in your country but not in the other.
I believe there was no real winter in Astana both this year and the last one. It’s warmer than in Novosibirsk. In any case the cold is not a problem for me, since I grew up in Switzerland, which is called "European Siberia".
I love everything related to cooking: trying dishes, analyzing them, studying. If I do not know a product in the supermarket, I buy and try it. Probably, that's why my favorite spots in the city are markets, grocery stores, especially fish and meat departments in "Artem" market.
My main problem in Astana is connected with suppliers who sometimes deliver frozen vegetables, or do not pick up the phone. We need to look for a solution quickly. So I prefer going to the market and choose products on my own.
In my spare time I like to meet my friends and discover new places.
