2004 Press Releases
Russian-American Culinary Event in Yekaterinburg
May 18, 2004
On May 17th, the American Center hosted a cooking competition at a local Subway restaurant in Yekaterinburg. Five teams - U.S. Consulate General; American Councils for International Education; Quality School International; Institute of International Affairs; and the OK Production Studio - cooked and presented famous Russian and American dishes. Participants and guests were able to experience the flavors of chili, casserole, pancakes, apple pie; chicken pie, and doughnuts
The celebrity judges for this event included two guests from the U.S. Embassy Moscow, David Marks, Deputy PAO and Eric Johnson, Regional Library Officer as well as Dmitry Pobedash, a professor at the Urals State University, and Andrey Sabel'nikov, the Subway manager. Despite claims of impartiality by the jury, the chili dish prepared by the wives of U.S. Consulate staff only tied for first in the "best taste" competition.
This controversy aside, the event united around 40 children, University students, USG program alumni, and educators in an enjoyable event which proved that the sharing of national traditions and cuisines breaks down all language barriers.
The event was covered by the majority of the local TV stations: Vesti Ural, Channel 4th, TVC, CTU, ATN, Studio 41 as well as in the print media by Delovoy Ural.
