Kitchen (TV series)

Kitchen (Кухня) is a Russian sitcom, broadcast on STS from 2012 to 2016. The show focuses on the comedic events that unfold in a fictional restaurant in Moscow called Claude Monet. Since season 5, the events unfold in the Victor restaurant of the Eleon boutique hotel.

Plot
The show is set in Moscow and mainly focuses on the young and enthusiastic Maxim "Max" Lavrov, who dreams of becoming a renowned chef one day, so after graduating from a culinary college in his home town of Voronezh and completing his army service, he applies for a job in one of the most expensive restaurants of Moscow Claude Monet, owned by Dmitry Nagiyev, a famous Russian actor and TV host. The show includes other characters like Max's best friend bartender Konstantin, his love interest (and later wife) Viktoria and his boss Viktor Barinov, the head chef of Claude Monet.

Since Season 1

 * Mark Bogatyryov as Maxim "Max" Lavrov, the main character of the show. He is an enthusiastic young man who came from Voronezh to Moscow in order to become a chef. Max is quite a charismatic character, easily wooing women. He is resourceful and inventive, but also frivolous and weak of character, which is why he often gets into difficult situations. At work, he is usually called by the nicknames "Rookie" (by his boss), "Appendix" (by Senya and Fedya) and "Pencil" (by Sasha).
 * Dmitry Nazarov as Viktor Barinov, the head chef of the restaurant Claude Monet and later Victor. Although he is a highly skilled chef who has worked in Paris for several years, he has a very nasty attitude and is generally rude to everyone, especially Max, and suffers from alcoholism and ludomania. He is a huge fan of the football club Spartak Moscow. He has been divorced three times and has two daughters from different marriages. Since season 2, he has been dating Elena Sokolova, the head chef of the rival restaurant.
 * Yelena Podkaminskaya as Viktoria "Vika" Goncharova, the art director of the restaurant Claude Monet and later Victor. She is a strong and independent woman and a talented manager. Vika has been Max's girlfriend since season 1, although they have broken up several times. She married Max during The Kitchen in Paris, but they got divorced in season 5. She came to Moscow from Kaliningrad.
 * Dmitry Nagiyev as Dmitry Nagiyev, the owner of Claude Monet and later co-owner of the Eleon hotel. He is a popular Russian actor and TV host. He is a friend of Viktor's, and often turns a blind eye on his bad temper and drunken antics. However, he fired Viktor after he criticized Nagiyev on television. During the show, he was married to Kristina, who used to work in Claude Monet as a promotional model, and Eleonora, the co-owner of Eleon. He also had a platonic relationship with Vika during season 3.
 * Viktor Khorinyak as Konstantin "Kostya" Anisimov, the bartender and later sommelier of the restaurant Claude Monet and later Victor. He is Max's best friend. Kostya is a simple good-natured man who doesn't know how to lie. Despite being quite attractive, he has problems communicating with women. Since season 1, he has been dating waitress Nastya, and he married her in season 3. He came to Moscow from Krasnoyarsk.
 * Olga Kuzmina as Anastasia "Nastya" Anisimova (née Fomina), a waitress in the restaurant Claude Monet and later Victor. She is a vegetarian and an animal rights activist, and also helps homeless people. Despite being somewhat naive, sentimental, and romantic, she appears to be a strong matriarch. Nastya was in love with Max in the first episodes, but later started dating Kostya. She married Kostya in season 3 and gave birth to their son Stepan. She came to Moscow from Podolsk.
 * Sergey Yepishev as Lev "Lyova" Solovyov, the sous-chef of the restaurant Claude Monet and later Victor. He is a polite man and a big pedant who suffers from stuttering. Lyova is Viktor's best friend and right-hand man. When Viktor left his apartment to his ex-wife and had nowhere to live, the sous-chef put him up and since then Viktor has lived with Lyova and his mother. He is a native Muscovite of German descent.
 * Sergey Lavygin as Arseniy "Senya" Chuganin, a meat-specializing chef in the restaurant Claude Monet and later Victor. He suffers from kleptomania and often steals food from the kitchen. He is also actively involved in pranking his fellow chefs during working hours along with his best friend Fedya. He came to Moscow from Smolensk.
 * Mikhail Tarabukin as Fedor "Fedya" Yurchenko, a fish-specializing chef in the restaurant Claude Monet and later Victor. For a long time he lied that he had worked as a ship's cook, although in fact he suffers from seasickness. Together with Senya, Fedya is the main pranker of the kitchen. According to forged documents, he is a citizen of Moldova, but he actually came to Moscow from Vladivostok. When all chefs passed a polygraph test, it turned out that Fedor was not his real name, and he may have once murdered a man.
 * Nikita Tarasov as Louis Benoît, the pastry chef of the restaurant Claude Monet and later Victor. He is gay. Louis likes to chat on his mobile phone, while often quarreling with his lovers from France. However, after breaking up with another boyfriend, he spends a night with a woman (season 6). He came to Moscow from Provence.
 * Ekaterina Kuznetsova as Alexandra "Sasha" Bubnova, a waitress of the restaurant Claude Monet. She is the main gossip girl of the restaurant. Sasha was Max's girlfriend during season 2, until she cheated on him with her ex-boyfriend Ilya. She came to Moscow from Kharkiv.
 * Marina Mogilevskaya as Elena Sokolova, the head chef of the rival restaurant Arcobaleno, later an author and a restaurant critic. She has lived and worked in India for a long time. Despite a grudge match with Viktor from the first sight, they soon developed feelings for each other and started dating. Elena married Viktor in season 6.
 * Zhanyl Asanbekova as Ainura Kenensarova, a migrant janitor in the restaurant Claude Monet and later Victor. She has worked in Russia without a work permit for many years. Ainura came to Moscow from Bishkek.
 * Maria Gorban as Kristina Nagiyeva, a former promotional model of the restaurant Claude Monet who married Nagiyev shortly before the start of the show. She became the co-owner of the restaurant in season 2. She was appointed as the art director of Claude Monet in episode 56, but left immediately, having previously stolen all Nagiyev's money from the safe, thereby putting the restaurant at risk of bankruptcy. She came to Moscow from Dniprodzerzhynsk.
 * Konstantin Chepurin as Rodion Sergeyevich, a bum who lives in the backyard of the restaurant Claude Monet and is on friendly terms with the restaurant staff. He is an intellectual, a great connoisseur of French cuisine, and turns out to have great cooking skills. In season 3 it turns out that his is in fact a prominent businessman from St Petersburg, who received amnesia and had gone missing three years ago.
 * Elberd Agayev as Timur, the supplier of Claude Monet, Arcobaleno, and later Victor. He is Viktor's old acquaintance and is able to supply anything, even something illegal.
 * Elena Chernyavskaya as Angelina Smirnova, the promotional model of the restaurant Claude Monet.
 * Lyudmila Maksakova as Vera Ivanovna, Lyova's mother, a retired cardiologist.
 * Yulia Takshina as Tatyana Goncharova, Viktor's ex-wife and Vika's sister.

Since Season 2

 * Aleksandr Ilyin as Stepan Fomin, Nastya's father and the owner of a sausage factory in the Moscow Oblast. He had served a prison sentence in the 1990s. He loves his daughter very much despite all the differences between them, and tries to help her financially, although Nastya doesn't accept money made "on blood".
 * Andrey Burkovsky as Ilya, a waiter in the restaurant Claude Monet, who had also worked there before the start of the show. He is Sasha's ex-boyfriend and Max's rival during season 2. He was trying to get Max fired, which accidentally led to Sasha's firing. Ilya was fired by Nagiyev in season 3. He came to Moscow from Novosibirsk.

Since Season 3

 * Valeriya Fedorovich as Ekaterina "Katya" Semyonova, the molecular gastronomy chef of the restaurant Claude Monet and later Victor. She is the daughter of Viktor and Eleonora, and she uses her mother's maiden surname. Katya had studied molecular gastronomy in France, but got expelled from the culinary academy. Katya is a defiant and confident young woman and a member of a biker gang. Viktor didn't want to take his daughter into kitchen, but she was hired by Nagiyev. She was in love with Max, but they remained as friends. She has been dating Denis and later Nikita, trying to figure out whom she truly loves.
 * Irina Temicheva as Eva Beletskaya, a waitress the restaurant Claude Monet. She once had sex with Viktor, after which she lied to him that she was pregnant. The deception was uncovered, but without much consequence.

Since Season 4

 * Mikhail Bashkatov as Denis "Den" Krylov, Max's childhood friend. Unlike Max, he is a naive and kind person. He is a talented musician, but he had to work as a waiter and a cook before being appointed as a pianist in Claude Monet and later Victor. Just like Viktor, he is a keen fan of Spartak Moscow. He has been dating Katya in seasons 5 and 6.
 * Igor Vernik as Herman Land, the head chef of the restaurant Claude Monet after Viktor was fired by Nagiyev. He is a keen boxer. In any restaurant wherever he worked, he found himself a snitch. However, when he tried to do the same thing in Claude Monet, he failed. Herman persistently courted Vika, but she rejected him. As it turned out, he suffers from uncontrollable bouts of aggression, which forced him to constantly drink sedatives, which, in the end, was the reason for his dismissal. Due to anger issues, he was blacklisted in Latvia.
 * Anna Begunova as Marina Chuganina, Senya's wife and an accountant.

Since Season 5

 * Grigory Siyatvinda as Mikhail Jackovich, the manager of the Eleon boutique hotel. He is a fan of PFC CSKA Moscow, which causes his feud with Viktor. Just like the head chef, he is an alcoholic and a gambling addict, however, he manages to act a way more professional. He started his career in hotel business as a doorman. Mikhail was secretly in love with Eleanora until he found out that he was nothing more than a servant to her.
 * Yelena Ksenofontova as Eleonora Galanova (née Semyonova), the owner of the Eleon boutique hotel. She is mother to Katya and ex-wife to Viktor. Eleonora is quite popular with men. Her third husband died between seasons 4 and 5, leaving her a hotel chain. She is in a rather strained relationship with Katya and is trying in every possible way to improve it. Nevertheless, she is constantly trying to influence her daughter's personal life and even use it for personal gain. Eleonora has been married to Nagiyev in season 6, but later divorced him after finding out about his affair with Kristina. In the end of season 6 she starts dating Rodion.
 * Filipp Bledny as Nikita Dyagilev, a waiter and later art director of the restaurant Victor. He is a son of a billionaire who had decided to work as a waiter out of a desire for independence from his father. Eleonora, seeing in him a prospect for her own benefit, tried to bring him together with Katya. Secretly, he enjoyed the comprehensive help from Eleanora in the development of their relationship with Katya.
 * Feruza Ruzieva as Gulnara, a janitor in the restaurant Victor. She is Ainura's niece who also came to Moscow from Kyrgyzstan. She started dating Lyova, but suddenly went back to Bishkek, which caused Lyova reject the head chef appointment and move to Kyrgyzstan.
 * Timur Yeremeyev as Egor, the concierge in the Eleon boutique hotel.
 * Rina Grishina as Svetlana "Sveta" Alexeyeva, the concierge in the Eleon boutique hotel and Den's temporary girlfriend.
 * Daniil and Pavel Rassomakhins as Yaroslav and Pavel, twin bellboys in the Eleon boutique hotel.

Since Season 6

 * Viktor Bychkov as Timofey Ilyich, Kostya's biological father and a cardsharper, whom Nastya found and tried to reconcile with his son.

Notable guests

 * Sergey Burunov as Pyotr Lanovsky, the Federal Migration Service officer, known as the Migrant Hunter (a reference to Hans Landa from Inglourious Basterds) (episode 16)
 * Galina Stakhanova as the nurse who refuses to feed Viktor with meat (episode 33)
 * Irina Brazgovka as Jael Kopas, an elite film director from Romania (episode 39)
 * Sergey Sosnovsky as old man Kirill, an unfriendly retired KGB officer who lives on the floor above the restaurant (episodes 52, 56)
 * Mark Rudinstein as David Mikhailovich, "the meat oligarch" who lost to Viktor at the casino (episode 87)
 * Kira Kreylis-Petrova as Lyubov Lavrova, Max's grandma (episode 91)
 * Svetlana Goundarenko as Marina's mother and Senya's mother-in-law (episode 93)
 * Vladimir Simonov as Gennady Sokolov, Elena's ex-husband and an alcoholic painter (episode 95)
 * Valentina Talyzina as Elizaveta Genrikhovna, the deceased mother of Eleonora and Viktor's former mother-in-law (in fact, Viktor's hallucination) (episodes 101, 117)
 * Vladimir Sterzhakov as Daniil Alyokhin, Eleonora's business partner and Kristina's new husband (episodes 101, 102, 118)
 * Aleksandr Pankratov-Chyorny as Valentin Barinov, Viktor's older brother who lives in the US, where he owns a network of oyster farms (episode 111)
 * Aleksandr Yatsko as Anton Vladimirovich, the new head chef of the Victor restaurant who replaced Viktor during the latter's hospitalization (episode 119)

Cameos

 * Bianka (episode 19)
 * Vyacheslav Malafeev (episode 25)
 * Iosif Prigozhin (episode 89)
 * Leonid Agutin (episode 92)
 * Georgy Cherdantsev (episode 94)

Production
The filming began in July 2012. The show became one of the most expensive TV series in Russia, with a budget of US$200,000 per episode (about $8 million per season). The first episode aired on STS Channel on October 22, 2012, at 21:00.

The second season began filming on November 1, 2012, and was aired on March 25, 2013.

In summer 2013, filming for the third season began. In September 2013, the production team filmed a feature-length film named The Kitchen in Paris. The movie premiered in cinemas on May 1, 2014, while the third season began airing on March 3, 2014, following the airing of a documentary film The Kitchen's Kitchen (A film about the film) on STS on March 2.

At the end of April 2014, filming for the fourth season began, and the first episode was aired on October 13, 2014.

From January 26 to April 30, 2015, season 5 was filmed. It premiered on September 7, 2015.

From June 25 through til October 15, 2015, season 6 was filmed. It was announced as the final season. It premiered on February 29, 2016.

The show officially finished all filming on October 15, 2015. Fans, knowing about the ending of the show, created a site in support of recommencing filming. On the site, more than 1 million signatures were collected by January 2016. The ending of the show was connected with the completion of the plot line for the main characters.

On May 27, 2014, work began on a new full-length film called The Kitchen: The Last Battle. In June 2015, official preparation for filming began. The filming took place from September 17, 2016, through till February 2017. It premiered in cinemas on April 20, 2017.

From July 4 to September 23, 2016, a spin-off show was filmed called Hotel Eleon. It premiered on STS on November 28, 2016. The Director, Anton Fedotov, also directed the final 3 seasons of The Kitchen. The new show also included some of the characters from The Kitchen (For example, Senya and Marina, Kostya and Nastya, Michail Jekovich, Eleonora Andreevna, Kristina, Nikita, as well as a number of secondary actors. Likewise, in the second season there are appearances from Louis Benoît, Ekaterina Semyonova, Rodion Sergeevich and Ainura Kenensarova).

Films and spin-offs

 * "The Kitchen in Paris" (2014)  first feature film
 * "Hotel Eleon" (2016-2017)  sitcom, spin-off of the series The Kitchen
 * "The Kitchen: Animated Series" (2016)  animated version of the first season
 * "The Kitchen. The Last Battle" (2017)  second feature film
 * "The Kitchen on departure" (2017)  two-part play, based on the series The Kitchen
 * "Grand" (2018-2021)  sitcom, spin-off of the series The Kitchen and Hotel Eleon
 * "#SenyaFedya" (2018–2022)  sketch comedy, spin-off of the series The Kitchen and Hotel Eleon
 * "The Kitchen. War for the Hotel" (2019-2020)  sitcom, spin-off of the series The Kitchen and Hotel Eleon
 * "Hotel Belgrade" (2020) third feature film, spin-off of the series Hotel Eleon and Grand

"Kitchenverse"

 * Chronology of events:
 * "The Kitchen"  Season 1 (TV Series 2012-2016)
 * "The Kitchen: Animated Series"  Season 1 (Animated TV Series 2016)
 * "The Kitchen"  Seasons 2-3 (TV Series 2012-2016)
 * "The Kitchen in Paris" (2014)
 * "The Kitchen"  Seasons 4-5 (TV Series 2012-2016)
 * "How I Became Russian" Season 1 (TV Series 2015)
 * "The Kitchen"  Season 6 (TV Series 2012-2016)
 * "The Kitchen on departure" (two-part play 2017)
 * "Hotel Eleon"  Season 1 (TV Series 2016-2017)
 * "The Kitchen. The Last Battle" (2017)
 * "Hotel Eleon"  Seasons 2-3 (TV Series 2016-2017)
 * "Grand"  Season 1 (TV Series 2018-2021)
 * "Grand"  Season 2 (TV Series 2018-2021)
 * "#SenyaFedya"  Seasons 1-3 (TV Series 2018–present)
 * "The Kitchen. War for the Hotel"  Season 1 (TV Series 2019-2020)
 * "Hotel Belgrade" (2020)
 * "Grand"  Season 3 (TV Series 2018-2021)
 * "The Kitchen. War for the Hotel"  Season 2 (TV Series 2019-2020)
 * "#SenyaFedya"  Season 4 (TV Series 2018–present)
 * "Grand"  Seasons 4-5 (TV Series 2018-2021)
 * "#SenyaFedya"  Season 5 (TV Series 2018–present)

Rating and adaptation of the series in other countries
The show has been very successful in Russia and in other countries of the former Soviet Union. The show made the channel STS the number 1 channel in the "21:00-21:30", surpassing Channel 1, HTB, Russia-1 and other channels. Adaptation of the series in other countries:


 * Since 2016 the series has been shown with Serbian subtitles on the Serbian and Montenegrin channel Prva Srpska Televizija.
 * Since 2015 the series has been shown with Mongolian voiceover on the Mongolian TV channel Edutainment TV.
 * The Georgian adaptation of the series premiered in 2015 on GDS TV.
 * In Greece, the adaptation titled Μάλιστα, σεφ! (Yes, boss!) was aired on Mega Channel.
 * There was also an adaptation in Estonia around 2016.
 * in Portugal, the adaptation series Sim, chef (Yes, boss) were aired on the channel RTP1.
 * In the US, the first season of "Kitchen" can be ordered on Amazon under the name "The Kitchen" since 2015.
 * Since 5 June 2017, the series is shown with Croatian subtitles on the Croatian channel RTL Televizija under the name Kuhinja ("Kitchen").
 * In Slovenia, the adaptation series Ja, Chef! were aired in June 2021 on the streaming service Voyo (by Pro Plus).
 * In Poland, the adaptation series Kuchnia were aired in polish TV Polsat in September 2021.
 * In Hungary, the original aired with Hungarian voiceover under the title Igen, séf. A Hungarian version aired on March 19, 2022, as A Séf meg a többiek.