Foodie culture is obsessed with authenticity.
But when we get Moroccan honey,
San Marzano tomatoes,
that means shipping food,
carbon emissions,
plenty of waste,
and excess packaging
for food that, sometimes, not even as fresh or as delicious.
Adding COVID-19, and you have a whole new problem:
frozen supply chains
or closed borders.
That's changing how we eat and forcing us to also look at what's local.
Some countries, like Russia, have a lot of experience with this.
MADE IN RUSSIA
(Alec) Jay Klouz has been a nightclub promoter in Spain,
a tour boat owner in France,
and a celebrity chef in Australia.
Now, the American lives in Russia
where he's added cheesemaker to the list.
(Jay) Every person has a different hand,
and this hand makes cheese.
You could be more aggressive,
and you'll have another cheese.
You could be more careful,
and you'll have another cheese.
You can even be half a degree higher,
and you'll have another cheese.
(Alec) Klouz uses local ingredients to make European favorites
like feta, gouda, and ricotta.
Flavors that began to make their way here after the fall of the Soviet Union.
(Alec) So, I grew up in Wisconsin,
and we've always had cheddar, pepper jack, all sorts of--
you know, real sharp cheeses.
Love this stuff.
And then I came to Russia,
and it was like, cheese was white and didn't taste like anything.
Tastes like plastic.
What made you decide to start making your own cheese?
You know, one thing you learn in Russia, the winters are rough.
The Russians prepare for winter
so, being prepared means, also eating good stuff.
(Alec) For years, Russia imported as much cheese as it produced
until 2014.
Russia annexed Crimea.
The US and the EU slap sanctions on Russia,
and President Putin responded by banning food imports from those countries.
Cheesemakers like Klouz saw sales go way up.
Russian production increased by at least 50%.
(Klouz) Please don't forget to return my spoon.
(Sofia) Yes, return the spoon. Thanks.
After Russia stopped purchasing cheeses abroad,
the cheese market changed a lot.
So we started buying here.
We are very satisfied with the price and quality.
(Alec) And how have the current sanctions changed the industry?
(Klouz) With the sanctions there's more interest in the people making cheese.
Like, "Oh, we don't need you, we have Jay."
I'm like, "Yeah, right."
Fifty kilos a day, how am I going to feed Russians?
"Jay will save us!"
I'm like, what? (laughter)
People are funny here.
(Alec) But some people are more confident in local producers' ability
to fill the giant cheesy hole left by the counter sanctions.
Klrill Sharshukov imported Italian cheese
until the food embargo forced him to start making his own.
(Sharshuko) Here we have Caciocavallo cheese.
A classic Italian Caciocavallo cheese.
It is fermented for about 6 to 12 months
and has a specific, light taste.
And here we added fenugreek seeds.
Tastes like cheese with with walnut,
kind of a sweet dessert-y crunch.
It doesn't have nuts?
No, no. This doesn't have any nuts, but is has that flavor.
I don't know if this is allowed on TV,
but these seeds are healthy for men, apparently.
So this is delicious and healthy for me? (laughter)
(Alec) After the embargo,
the government started giving out subsidies and tax breaks
to boost domestic production.
Something Sharshuko believes
is giving Russians a chance to catch up to the world's cheesemakers.
(Sharshuko) The longer this goes on, the more experiences we have.
We reproduce Italy's cheeses here,
replace its classic cheeses, and produce them.
So it would be very difficult to return.
But the Russian cheese revolution isn't for everybody.
Imported foods were always too expensive for most Russians.
Meaning locally-made burrata will probably never be on their shopping list.
And economists are skeptical
that the people who could afford fancy cheese
are going to see local versions
as anything other than a secondary substitute.
When we imported cheese, it had quality.
We, the small portion of affluent people, got used to it.
When that cheese disappeared,
those people stopped buying Russian copies of cheese
because they don't trust the quality.
Well, I hear from the cheese producers--
Russian cheese producers--
who say sanctions have been a huge help.
Those you spoke to are very few because, as a matter of fact,
90% of the Russian cheese market
is mass market cheeses.
I wanted to ask what will happen
to Russian cheesemakers if sanctions are lifted tomorrow?
There will be competition again for 15 to 20%
of wealthy people in Russia.
People who have invested in cheese production
will be hit hard.
(Alec) The drive for food Independence has protected Russia
from supply disruptions during the pandemic, the government says.
It's also helped a fledgling, farm-to-table movement here.
- Five more minutes. - No, two and a half.
(Alec) Ivan and Sergey Berezutskly have their own farm to produce ingredients
for their restaurant,
which in 2019 was named one of the best in the world.
It's a simple dish: potato with caviar.
Here you are.
The majority of our guests need healthy and fresh food.
This is a development Russia and other countries have come to.
The sanctions have accelerated the process.