The Moscow Gastronomic Festival runs from October 10 to November 10, giving local gourmets the chance to try degustation menus at 50 venues – and vote for their favorites. Participating chefs are tasked with demonstrating an original touch, conceptual approach and skill at working with ingredients in creating the set meals, which are all priced between 1,000 and 3,000 rubles. For the full list of participatng eateries and other details, see www.gastronomic.ru

Berlin chef Holger Zurbrüggen – the world risotto cooking champion of 1999 – is the guest star at Kai from October 17 to 21. Owner of Balthazar restaurant on the fashionable Ku-damm, Zurbrüggen calls his gastronomic style “metropolitan cuisine,” defi ned as “self confi dent playing with global infl uences on a domestic, central European base.” At Kai he is presenting 1,800-ruble business lunches and a degustation menu with a range of dishes from 500 to 3,500 rubles, including Eastern-style risotto with rabbit, capers and cardamom; sweet potato soup with duck; salmon with caulifl ower, sesame and curry; and the intriguingsounding cigar-fl avoured chocolate torte with ice cream.