By Marianna Martynova "Ararat" - this word is sacred to every Armenian. Ararat is the biblical mountain; it is also the name of a football team that once became famous all over the country, as well as of a company producing excellent brandies. "The best things, all that is dear to one is called by this name in Armenia," I thought as I noticed the name "Ararat Hall" on the restaurant located right in the center of Yerevan. "A Meeting Place of Old Good Friends" was written on the translucent glass of the entrance door. It was so sincere and plain that I was tempted to go inside. So I made the acquaintance of Mr. Sedrak Mamulian, the chef (also the director) of the restaurant. It turned out later that this smiling and hospitable man is also the chairman of the Organization for Development and Preservation of the Armenian Cuisine and the author and host of a cooking show on Armenian television. The conversation with S. Mamulian was quite interesting - just as any contact with a wise person and a professional greatly devoted to her (his) favorite activity. Mr. Mamulian, Ararat Hall comprises a caf? and a restaurant. The halls have different names. Why? In addition to the caf? where apricot hues prevail, we have three restaurant halls. The pomegranate hall is the main one. There are also a fig hall and a walnut hall. The first thing that you have to decide when establishing a restaurant is to determine its style and, accordingly, design. The pomegranate is the symbol of the Organization for the Development and Preservation of the Armenian Cuisine. Another reason why the biggest hall was called a "pomegranate" hall is that pomegranate is a special fruit revered by the Armenians. The next is the fig hall. As is known, the fig-tree is a biblical tree, a tree of paradise so we decided to pay tribute to fig. These halls can hold 50-70 people. Sometimes people want to spend time in a small company, and the walnut hall (with 6 seats) is designed for such occasions. We chose walnut symbolically. It is a strong, firm tree that benefits people. Despite the fact that Ararat Hall is a restaurant specializing in national cuisine and despite the names of its halls, it is noteworthy that the restaurant has a modern appearance. The vivid paintings on the walls, the hues of tablecloths and the soft furniture upholstery, the tableware, ashtrays and even napkin holders perfectly match the theme of the hall and combine very well with the modern types of overhead illumination providing bluish-violet light. The modern design harmonizes well with the national flavor of the halls. When and how did the opening of the restaurant take place? I think it was an interesting ceremony. The restaurant opened quite recently - on 12 June 2009, so there will be a holiday soon. We organized the opening ceremony together with the Institute of Ethnography and with a bit of support of the RA Ministry of Culture. It was "a bit of support" because at that time our organization was little known and people treated our ideas rather skeptically. On the opening day we hosted a presentation "Bread in Mountains": there is a painting of the same name created by the famous Armenian artist Grigor Khanjyan. With great skill, the painter depicted a young woman carrying a newly baked lavash - Armenian national bread. We set up several pavilions, each dedicated to an ethnic holiday such as Trndez, Vardavar, Easter, Navasard, Christmas, and Barikendan (Pancake Day). The painter Lusik Aguletsi made the sketches of all symbols. Graduates of Yerevan State University's Chair of Ethnography gave us considerable help. Standing at each pavilion, they were informing our guests about the significance of the given holiday and the treats which are usually served on that day. Armenia's First Lady Rita Sargsyan attended the presentation. She expressed satisfaction and offered her help in the holding of such events… We had mobilized 13 restaurants as we marked 13 national holidays. What is the difference between the menu of Ararat Hall and the menus of other restaurants offering the Armenian national cuisine? 80% of our menu is the result of my "processing", with both new cooking technologies and our traditions being taken into account. Old traditional dishes in a new form make up 20% of the menu. There is no such thing elsewhere. What dishes do you consider original? It is a difficult question for me. The most original dish is Artsakhian Tapaka. It is served in a special flat earthenware bowl resembling a frying pan or a tray, with a small candle on a wooden rest. Through special holes made in the ceramic lid, one can see the tips of fried mutton ribs. They look tantalizing. Hohob is an interesting and healthy dish. It is made from chicken meat, walnuts and pomegranate. It is also served in an earthenware bowl. Telbats kubati - a dish consisting of fish baked in batter. The fish is flavored with spices and covered by a net made from batter. It is an old Nakhijevan dish. What drinks are available in our bar? To develop Armenian national cuisine, we should return to our roots. Our ancestors used to drink wine. They drank vodka too, but they took it mainly as a medicine. Our bar lays great stress on local wines and fruit vodka. Mr. Beglarian, the owner of our restaurant, promotes wine-making in the Nagorno Karabakh Republic. In general, Karabakh is famous for its good wine-making traditions. The Stapanakert Brandy and Wine Plant supplies our restaurant with high quality drinks such as the brandy "Gandzasar" ("Treasure Mountain") and the wines "Khndogni" ("Laughing") and "Berdashen". We have various kinds of these wines. What kind of music is played in your restaurant? It is mostly background music intended as an unobtrusive accompaniment. Visitors can enjoy jazz and pop arrangements of Armenian national tunes, sometimes also foreign pop music. Does your restaurant provide any additional services? We offer a stand-up meal consisting of Armenian dishes. It is an original service not available in any other restaurant of the city. How are ethnic holidays marked in Ararat Hall? On such days we create a relevant atmosphere, that is, music appropriate to the occasion is played, the relevant items are on the menu, and games are organized. We marked Surb Khach in September. A lot of foreign guests came and we tried to teach them Armenian dancing. You should have seen the British ambassador dancing Kochari with obvious pleasure. Do you serve lunch? Yes. We serve lunch on working days, 12.30 am - 3 pm. Each day we change the items on the menu. How do you plan to celebrate the first birthday of your restaurant? When organizing the opening ceremony, we set a very high standard, and now we need to maintain it. This year we are going to hold a contest of two or three ethnic dishes. Senior students of culinary vocational schools will take part in the contest. Of course, we would like to have a bonus fund, at least a small one. Why do you want to mark the restaurant's birthday in such a peculiar manner - by holding a contest instead of giving a birthday party? Because Ararat Hall is not only a place where you can enjoy yourself, have a meal and mix with others. Our restaurant is also a center for the development of the national cuisine. Its budget allocates sums for new developments. The Armenian government has proclaimed tourism one of the priority sectors of the country's economy. We seem to be doing everything in order to attract tourists. But is it correct to serve foreigners with their own cuisine? After all, can we make Japanese dishes as well as they are made in Japan itself? We lack, for example, the necessary types of fresh fish, simply because we have no sea. Or, say, can we surprise an Italian by offering him a pizza? Our citizens may find it interesting and enjoyable to visit restaurants that specialize in foreign cooking. Tourists, however, would be interested to taste "strange" ethnic cuisine. No doubt the foreigners would be interested, but are our compatriots familiar with our national cuisine? They know the most popular dishes like khorovats, dolma with wine leaves, khash, and kololak. Yet there are many other delicious Armenian dishes. It is not the only problem of your restaurant, is it? Of course, it is not. Another serious problem --today is that it is the visitor who dictates taste, which is quite inadmissible. The taste, the style and the level shall be dictated by the chef, which is common in the best restaurants all over the world. In Armenia, we quite often have restaurants with ethnic names, but with "gilded" walls. Yet another problem is that as a rule, the kitchen is assigned a place somewhere in the basement. They want to achieve good results in a small room with old equipment. Besides, our elite want nothing but barbeque (because they don't properly know many national dishes), and everybody wants barbeque to their own taste. The catering trade is rapidly developing - a fact to be reckoned with. According to international standards, a kitchen shall occupy 50-70% of the service area and be equipped with high-quality equipment. Thanks to its owner Mr. Barsegh Beglarian, Ararat Hall is the only Yerevan restaurant to meet almost all the criteria of catering trade. It is an exceptional case in Armenia and it certainly produces results. The concept of our restaurant was introduced by experts and our chef. The interior, menu, tableware, services - the taste is dictated by the chef, with the preferences of visitors taken into consideration. Tell us about your plans for the future, please. We have great plans regarding the development of the traditional Armenian cuisine and the catering trade in the country. Both in Soviet times and now, few restaurants offer Armenian cooking in the traditional sense. There is a notion of "home dinner" in Armenia. Catering facilities where you can have a good time are no substitute for your home. We want the day of our restaurant's opening (when we presented our rites in a new way to the guests) to be marked as Cook's Day. We will submit this proposal to the Armenian government. Negotiations are being conducted with the appropriate organizations with the aim of founding Courses for Prospective Mothers and Housewives and a School of National Cuisine. The point is that our organization aims to restore the Armenian national nutrition system that existed several thousand years ago and was lost, unfortunately. Why did you decide to open these courses? For a long time I worked as a chef at the American University of Armenia. Students would ask me to teach them to cook Armenian dishes. Having spent much time on studies and achieved good results in their profession, they cannot make national meals. The paradox is that while learning to cook various pizzas, etc, they unwittingly lost their Armenian line. It is my conviction that the sooner we return to our roots, the easier it will be for us to find ourselves. What about Courses for Prospective Mothers? Are there any special Armenian baby foods? There are a lot of healthy Armenian dishes, which are natural and easy to digest. Why not remember them and include these dishes in the daily diet of babies. Take pokhindz (a porridge made from roast wheat flour), for example. Nowadays, not many mothers give this porridge to their babies. Yet it is much more beneficial to health than all those foreign milk formulas. We never ask ourselves the question: why do so many prominent scientists, painters and actors come from villages where children live in harmony with nature and eat natural ethnic foods? Perhaps it is somehow related to the nutrition system. The words "A Caf? of Old Good Friends" are written on the glass door of your restaurant. Is that your motto? Something like that. Mr. Beglarian is a busy man, and he very seldom finds a moment to meet with his old friends and forget temporarily about his business affairs. So he decided to open this restaurant as a meeting place of old good friends. The Armenian writer Leonid Gurunts wrote in one of his miniatures: "If an eagle leads a flock, the flock will soar upwards". I think this phrase explains the present popularity of Ararat Hall and is also a guarantee of its prosperity in the future. The Noyan-Tapan Highlghts

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