With Take Me Back, they decided to tap into food memories, rather than their respective origins. Still, some of the dishes at the first event had a distinct Slavic vibe. The seafood doughnut, a fried ball topped with a mix of crab and shrimp, featured dough that was akin to yeasted pirozhki, and the potato puree accompanying a dish of lamb and morels was buttery like a Russian babushka’s. While the Russia-Ukraine war is, of course, on their minds — Prokopenko is from Kryvyi Rih, a Ukrainian city that has suffered many missile attacks — the duo prefer to focus on the bright side. “We are not politicians or activists, and we are not trying to turn our project into a public statement,” Kvasov says.
Instead, he says, the pop-up celebrates creativity and “the belief that even in the darkest of times — in moments of fear, uncertainty, and pain — you can still find a way forward, a sense of solace, in the simplest things: in the crisp toast with duck confit, in homemade tarragon butter, in a shared meal.”