The exposition" Worontsovskaya kitchen"
in the Utility building
The exposition “Worontsovskaya kitchen” in the Utility building
The exposition “Worontsovskaya kitchen” is located in a separate kitchen building of the Economic Yard. This part of the palace complex, which included extensive services and living quarters for servants, was built in 1838-1844. The general character of the architecture of the Economic buildings corresponded to the unified artistic and compositional integrity of the ensemble and was designed in the style of medieval English castles of the 16th century. Currently, the interior of the palace kitchen has been recreated in three rooms of the former kitchen building, where the Tudor style is guessed in the laconic design of a deep hearth built into the southern wall and the paving of the floor with roughly treated stone slabs. In general, the kitchen has a “Victorian” appearance and is designed like the kitchen of the royal palace in Brighton (England, 1815-1822, architect John Nash).
The first hall is a spacious room with an area of more than 60 square meters, arranged to a height of two floors. The cast-iron stove, corresponding to its English counterparts, is the central exposition of the Worontsov Kitchen. Its design consists of two furnaces, a fireplace grate, an oven for baking bread, an open surface of a stove for cooking and a shelf for heating it. The water heating tank is mounted in the stove. The monolithic chimney and numerous plate doors are decorated with stylized cast ornaments.
The upper hoods are decorated with metal carved details. Hanging lamps, a large wooden sideboard and two cutting tables that make up the interior of the hall are made according to Brighton patterns.
The expositionfeatures a wide range of dishes used in kitchen use: copper pots, pans, vessels, bowls, ladles. Game, fish, herbs, vegetables and fruits are laid out on the tables in a variety of earthenware dishes and metal trays. All this creates the impression of a bright, colorful still life.
Plates of English and German production from the middle of the XIX century are on display on the sideboard. Tall water jugs with the coats of arms of the owners and a four—sided salad bowl are from the Worontsov collection.
In the pantry, a large sink preserved from the old days attracts attention. Samovars typical of Russian life are also demonstrated here, two of them are made at the Tula factories of Batashev and the Shemarin brothers. Antique cookbooks are displayed in the windows.
The third room is a storeroom filled with food supplies and various items related to kitchen life.
By the XVIII — XIX centuries, the production of gingerbread was already flourishing in Perm, Arkhangelsk, Kursk, Kharkov, Ryazan, Kaluga, Tver, Vyazma, Tula, Novgorod and Gorodets. They also knew about Russian gingerbread in Western European countries: for example, Tver gingerbread men kept shops in Berlin, Paris, as well as in London, where, as is known, M.S. Worontsov spent his childhood and youth.