Aram Mnatsakanov (born November 20, 1962) is a

chef A chef is a professional Cook (profession), cook and tradesperson who is proficient in all aspects of outline of food preparation, food preparation, often focusing on a particular cuisine. The word "chef" is derived from the term (), the di ...

restaurateur A restaurateur is a person who opens and runs restaurants professionally. Although over time the term has come to describe any person who owns a restaurant, traditionally it refers to a highly skilled professional who is proficient in all aspe ...

television personality Celebrity is a condition of fame and broad public recognition of a person or group due to the attention given to them by mass media. The word is also used to refer to famous individuals. A person may attain celebrity status by having great w ...

, and the host of the Russian and Ukrainian versions of the TV shows ''

Hell's Kitchen Hell's Kitchen, also known as Clinton, or Midtown West on real estate listings, is a neighborhood on the West Side of Midtown Manhattan in New York City, New York. It is considered to be bordered by 34th Street (or 41st Street) to the south, ...

'' and ''

Kitchen Nightmares ''Kitchen Nightmares'', known in the UK as ''Ramsay's Kitchen Nightmares USA'', is an American reality television series originally broadcast on Fox, in which chef Gordon Ramsay is invited by the owners to spend a week with a failing restaurant ...

''. He currently owns and/or operates restaurants in Russia and Europe, such as Probka Restaurant Group and MINE in Berlin.

Early life

Aram Mnatsakanov was born in an Armenian family in

Baku Baku (, ; ) is the Capital city, capital and List of cities in Azerbaijan, largest city of Azerbaijan, as well as the largest city on the Caspian Sea and in the Caucasus region. Baku is below sea level, which makes it the List of capital ci ...

on November 20, 1962.

Television

In 2011, he acted as host on the Ukrainian TV channel "1+1" in the television project ''Pekelna Kitchen'' (Ukrainian ''

''). He spent three seasons on the reality show and received the following awards: National Television Award of Ukraine "Teletriumph" – "Best Reality Show" (2011); Best Chef of Ukraine according to ''Focus'' magazine (2011). In 2012, he hosted the show ''On Knives'' (1+1 channel), the Ukrainian version of the famous reality TV show ''

Ramsay's Kitchen Nightmares ''Ramsay's Kitchen Nightmares'' is a television programme featuring British celebrity chef Gordon Ramsay first broadcast on Channel 4 in 2004. In each episode, Ramsay visits a failing restaurant and acts as a troubleshooter to help improve t ...

'' by Gordon Ramsay. In 2012 and 2013, he spent two seasons on the Russian TV show ''Hell's Kitchen'' ( REN TV channel). In 2013, Aram Mnatsakanov and Olga Freimut were the hosts of the show ''War of the Worlds. The auditor against the Chef'' on the Ukrainian TV channel

Novyi Kanal Novyi Kanal ( , ) is a Ukrainian television channel. The channel is a part of the Starlight Media broadcasting group, created by Viktor Pinchuk. History The channel was launched on July 15, 1998. At first, it was broadcast only in Kyiv, but ...

. In 2014, he became the host of the original REN-TV series ''Realnaya kuhnya''. In 2019, he hosted the ''SuperChef'' show on Che channel (now Peretz channel), a version of ''Gordon Ramsay's 24 Hours to Hell and Back''.

Probka Restaurant Group

Probka Restaurant Group (

Russian Cyrillic The Russian alphabet (, or , more traditionally) is the script used to write the Russian language. The modern Russian alphabet consists of 33 letters: twenty consonants (, , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , ), ten vowels (, , , , , , , , , ), ...

: ресторанная группа Пробка) is a restaurant group that was founded by Mnatsakanov in 2001 with the establishment of the wine bar, Probka (

English English usually refers to: * English language * English people English may also refer to: Culture, language and peoples * ''English'', an adjective for something of, from, or related to England * ''English'', an Amish ter ...

translation: wine bottle cork), and the

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restaurant, Il Grappolo, in St. Petersburg. It now consists of nine Italian restaurants and one

Russian Russian(s) may refer to: *Russians (), an ethnic group of the East Slavic peoples, primarily living in Russia and neighboring countries *A citizen of Russia *Russian language, the most widely spoken of the Slavic languages *''The Russians'', a b ...

restaurant which are spread all over St. Petersburg. It consists of Ryba Na Dache, Probka, Mozzarella Bar, Gusto and Il Grappolo restaurants among others. The Probka restaurant network consists of a strict Italian cuisine. Although this is the case, the group is experimenting with

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n cuisine as well. To date there are three restaurants with the name "Mozzarella Bar," the last one having been opened in February 2010. These restaurants are among the most successful and popular in

St. Petersburg Saint Petersburg, formerly known as Petrograd and later Leningrad, is the second-largest city in Russia after Moscow. It is situated on the River Neva, at the head of the Gulf of Finland on the Baltic Sea. The city had a population of 5,601, ...

. Probka has become a very influential group in the Russian restaurant industry with mainly Italian cuisine.

History

In September 2001, Aram Mnatsakanov opened his first wine bar, Probka, in

. In 2012, "Probka on Tsvetnoy" was opened, the first restaurant by Aram Mnatsakanov in Moscow, at 2

Tsvetnoy Boulevard Tsvetnoy Boulevard (), called Trubny Boulevard before 1851, is a boulevard in the Meschansky District, central Moscow, Russia. Not a part of the Boulevard Ring, the street runs north/south from Petrovsky Boulevard and Rozhdestvensky Boulevard in ...

. In January 2017, Aram Mnatsakanov opened his first restaurant in

Berlin Berlin ( ; ) is the Capital of Germany, capital and largest city of Germany, by both area and List of cities in Germany by population, population. With 3.7 million inhabitants, it has the List of cities in the European Union by population withi ...

– "MINE". His son, Mikhail Mnatsakanov, leads a team of chefs with Artem Dovlatyan and Nicolas Lorieux. In March 2020, the MINE restaurant was included in the list of 33 restaurants recommended for visiting in the German capital by the

Michelin guide The ''Michelin Guides'' ( ; ) are a series of guide books that have been published by the French tyre company Michelin since 1900. The ''Guide'' awards up to three Michelin star (classification), stars for excellence to a select few restaurants ...

in "The Plate Michelin" category. The restaurant confirmed its status in 2021 and 2022. Next door to the restaurant "Probka na Dobrolyubova" on the Petrogradskaya side in St. Petersburg, Aram Mnatsakanov opened his first Georgian restaurant, "MAMA TUTA", in 2018. In July 2020, Aram Mnatsakanov and his team opened two new projects simultaneously in the center of Moscow on Patriarch Ponds: the second Georgian restaurant "MAMA TUTA" and the new Italian restaurant "MARITOZZO". In 2021, restaurant R14 (previously named "Ryba") was included in Guide to the Best Pizzerias in the World. In April 2021, the third Georgian restaurant, Mama Tuta, was opened on Bolshaya Morskaya Street; later, in 2022, it turned into the Italian restaurant Da Manu Pizza & Aperitivo. On September 5, 2021, the Italian-Lebanese restaurant Mina opened in Moscow on Malaya Nikitskaya Street. On May 8, 2022, two projects were opened in St. Petersburg in the same building on

Krestovsky Island Krestovsky Island () is a 3.4 km2 island in Saint Petersburg, Russia, between several tributaries of the Neva: the Srednyaya Nevka, the Malaya Nevka and the Krestovka. The island is served by the Krestovsky Ostrov (Saint Petersburg Metro ...

: the Italian-Lebanese restaurant Mina and the pizzeria Da Manu. The second Da Manu Pizza & Aperitivo Italian restaurant was opened on Bolshaya Morskaya Street in St. Petersburg, in the historical part of the city.

References

External links

Probka Restaurant Group Corporate Website
{{DEFAULTSORT:Mnatsakanov, Aram Russian restaurateurs Living people 1962 births People from Baku