Children’s gastronomic festival at the National Centre RUSSIA creates a Recipe for Unity among the country’s peoples

---

A shared table and family recipes passed down through generations bring together people from different regions and cultures. This idea inspired the All-Russian children's gastronomic festival "GASTRO Tours of the Peoples of Russia". It was held on 14 October at the National Centre RUSSIA as the final event of the project "Children Visit Children: The Gastronomic Map of the First". Fifty finalists from different regions of the country came together at the National Centre RUSSIA. Working alongside chefs, the children took part in culinary battles, shared family stories and combined traditions from different regions into a "Recipe for the Unity of the Peoples of Russia". In 2026, the initiative of the All-Russian Youth Council for Tourism, now in its sixth year, brought together more than 10,000 young people across the country. The project is supported by the Movement of the First.

The project "Children Visit Children" centres on a story-based game: the metaphorical Evil Spirit of Division tore apart the Cookbook of the Peoples of Russia, scattering five magical artefacts symbolising hospitality across the country. By joining forces, the children were able to retrieve them and restore the book, strengthening friendship between peoples and creating a Recipe for Unity.

"For me, the most important outcome is the response we received when we launched the project. We did not expect so many families and individuals to join us in such a short time. All 89 regions took part, and we were able to collect recipes and family traditions from across the country. As a result, we will be publishing a cookbook of the peoples of Russia, 'Children's Flavours', which we will present very soon. But what matters most to me is bringing families together and the story the children built into the project. Today's festival marks its culmination, with all the pages of the book brought together," said the creator of the project "Children Visit Children", Chair of the All-Russian Youth Council for Tourism and founder of the All-Russian Centre of Expertise for Career Guidance, Ksenia Vedernikova.

She added that the festival's value lies primarily in bringing families together, and that unity between peoples begins around a shared table, including internationally. 

"I also took part in this expedition and saw how engaged the children were in their research: they met food historians, took part in workshops, talked to chefs and filmed some very interesting content, which we will make available to all educational institutions in the country. The project is now in its sixth year, and next year it will become international: we will continue to focus on gastronomy and introduce a project on culinary diplomacy. It is very important to us that young people from our countries become friends, because the adults in our project are simply there to help, while the children and young people devise, create and carry out everything themselves," she noted.

The Deputy Chair of the Council of the regional branch of the Movement of the First, Olga Gomzyakova, explained why the movement supported the project. 

"The values of the Movement of the First are simple and clear to everyone: friendship, helping others, a strong family, and respect for our country's traditions and history. The project 'Children Visit Children' embodies these values perfectly. It was also initiated by children: they devised the expedition format as a way to discover the cultures and traditions of different regions. Through recipes, we learn about family histories, and through national dishes, we discover cultural traditions. Each of us has a dish that brings back warm memories of home. Our shared task is to create opportunities for children to become researchers, storytellers and custodians of traditions, bring together families from different regions and produce something as valuable as a recipe book and a geographical map of our vast country's cuisine," said Olga Gomzyakova.   

Project participants explored the culinary traditions of the peoples of Russia, collected family recipes and the stories behind them, and completed challenges in "The Great Game: The Artefact Hunt". The game took place during the All-Russian Youth Council for Tourism's expedition exploring food and ethnic traditions across five Russian regions: the Murmansk Region, the Perm Territory, the Udmurtian Republic, the Republic of Buryatia and the Republic of Tatarstan. According to one of the expedition participants, a member of the All-Russian Youth Council for Tourism, Daniil Zyazev, the most important outcome was that the young people fell in love with their country all over again and realised that gastronomy is an important reflection of the regions' history, traditions, culture and distinctive character. 

"When you are sitting in a geography lesson or scrolling through videos on social media, it is impossible to imagine how vast and diverse our country is, or how many cultures, peoples and traditions coexist within it. We were able to see this for ourselves and talk to people from these communities. I had never understood the expression 'get a taste of a region', and I think the expedition gave us something essential: a sense that food and gastronomy reflect a people's culture and character. What people eat in a particular place can help you understand their centuries of history, explore their traditions and immerse yourself in that history. We also greatly improved our media skills: over the two months of the expedition, we filmed more than 100 videos, wrote more than 200 posts and spoke extensively to the media. This experience will certainly help us later in life and in achieving our career goals," shared Daniil Zyazev. 

The festival participants included the chef of "Orda" ("Horde") restaurant, Alexei Babich (Ulan-Ude–Moscow); the chef of "Bobrovaya Dolina" ("Beaver’s Valley") restaurant, Alexei Murashev (Izhevsk); the owner and chef of "Permskaya Kukhnya" ("Perm Cuisine") restaurant, Alexei Subbotin (Perm); a Tatar cuisine workshop leader at the "Echpochmak" House Museum, Rozalia Seifulina (Kazan); and the chef of the mobile Arctic kitchen "Arctic Moon", Andrei Vinogradov (Murmansk). Together, they represented the five regions visited by the project's young participants during the expedition exploring food and ethnic traditions. A third-generation chef, Alexei Subbotin, discussed how gastronomy becomes a family vocation and a reflection of a region's history. 

"My grandfather worked as a cook in Perm back in tsarist times, and my father devoted his entire life to catering and collected recipes from across the region. In 1979, he wrote the recipe book 'Perm Cuisine'. You could say that this was when the very concept of regional cuisine emerged in our region. It developed under the influence of the peoples who lived in the Perm Territory: East Slavic, Finno-Ugric and Tatar peoples. Each contributed something of their own, creating a story of many nationalities: Russian cabbage soup, Tatar honey-coated fried dough, Bashkir meat with noodles and Komi-Permyak dumplings. Today, that book is like a bible to me: I cook from it, adapting some recipes to new technologies and ingredients," said Alexei Subbotin.

The festival became a culinary dialogue between generations, regions and cultures, with children taking part as researchers, co-creators and active participants as well as spectators. The programme comprised two rounds. In the first, a knowledge round, the children identified the regions' "secret ingredients" and presented original recipes with a fresh interpretation: three family stories that continued the conversation about traditions and continuity between generations. The second round saw the creation of a symbolic "Recipe for Unity", a joint creative endeavour by the project participants and chefs representing the expedition's five regions. The festival concluded with a symbolic ceremony to restore the Book and the presentation of commemorative gifts to the project participants.