Gastronom: the Magazine, the Website, the School, the Brand

Russia's first glossy culinary magazine, Gastronom, which was launched in 2001, also happens to be the most treasured by Russians. According to a TNS Gallup Poll, it is No. 1 in its class in terms of readership in the Russian market.

"Gastronom has had a strong readership from the beginning in 2001," says Andrey Zakharin, editor-in-chief. "We really filled a niche in the culinary press." Circulation today stands at 190,000 for the monthly magazine, published by Bonnier Publications who bought the magazine in 2008. During the recent downturn, circulation was at 160,000 copies, so things are looking bright.

Gastronom also has two sister publications - Shkola Gastronoma (the School of Gastronomy) coming out 17 times a year and with a circulation of 150,000, and Kollektsia Retseptov (Collected Recipes) coming out every other week with 205,000 circulation. "Each magazine has its own style and provides something unique," says Zakharin. "At Gastronom, we are constantly in search of new hot restaurants with the best food, the most interesting travel destinations and the best and healthiest food and drinks. Versus Shkola Gastronoma, which is more practical-minded, with whole week's worth of menus and suitable and affordable ingredients. Or Kollektsia Retseptov, which collects recipes by theme and gives step-by-step instructions."

But the Russian food titles are more than just magazines. The Gastronom brand extends to a range of other services and products, including a cooking school, cook books - naturally - but also a huge photo archive of stock photos available for purchase, the website gastronom.ru with 3.5 million pageviews per month, and more.

"We were the first to offer a cooking school for amateurs in Moscow," says Zakharin. "And I'm proud to say we're still the biggest seven years later." Some 6,000 students attend yearly, and the school offers 30 different courses covering everything from traditional national ethnic foods such as Indian, Japanese, Italian and others, to food for special occasions such as weddings, birthdays, a picnic, Christmas, etc.

Perhaps the most unusual offering that Gastronom provides is a wide range of business-to-business services for customers ranging from food companies Nestlé, Parmalat and Unilever to kitchen utensil specialist Hackmann. "We provide everything from concepts for books and brochures, including recipe layouts and proofreading and editing, to cooking and testing the dishes," says Zakharin. Naturally, Gastronom also can take photos, as well as produce videos. "With our expertise from producing the magazines, we can provide knowledge and a quality that no one else can. After all, we already collaborate with the best chefs, pastry-chefs and barmen. And we are constantly testing food, gadgets and tools to find the best of everything for our readers, so why not provide that for businesses as well?"

But what really makes Gastronom a success is the team, says Zahkarin: "Our unique editors, observers, columnists, our chefs - we have three of our own chefs on staff - all these people are food lovers, kind of fanatics really, who dream of explaining to the world how to cook good and very tasty food."