Biography of Arkady Novikov
Arkady Anatolyevich Novikov is the founder of the Novikov Group restaurant chain in Russia and abroad, TV presenter of the Candidate culinary show on TNT, Masterchef on STS, twice winner of the Person of the Year award according to the men’s magazine GQ in the category “Restaurateur of the Year” (in 2004 and 2015).
His restaurant empire, which includes more than fifty conceptual gastronomic projects, which have consistently been accompanied by success, in 2016 turned 25 years old.
Childhood and family of Arkady Novikov
The future owner of fashionable metropolitan restaurants was born on July 25, 1962 in Moscow. His father was a design engineer, quiet and intelligent person. The mother is full of energy, a businesslike and determined woman who passed these qualities on to her son. To look after her child, she took a job at his kindergarten. The parents divorced early, and the boy was raised by his mother (sometimes using a belt) and grandmother. They lived on Plyushchikha.
During his school years, Arkady often got sick from his peers. He was offended both morally (for example, with a mocking rhyme, as an overage lover of fairy tales – “Novikov-Jew” all blush and whiter), and physically (he was the weakest and smallest in the class). In order to rectify the situation, he even enrolled in the karate section.
In early childhood, Novikov wanted to become a policeman, dreamed of riding a motorcycle, like law enforcement officers. At school, however, he did not think about a possible profession, but studied mainly at the “C”.
After receiving secondary education in 1979, the young man tried to enter the Institute of Road Transport, but failed the entrance exams. Then, on the advice of his mother’s friend, a catering worker, he entered the culinary school. He did not know how to cook before, but with pleasure he began to master the wisdom of cooking, eventually turning from a C to an excellent student.
Then he served in the army, where “oddly enough” (in his words) he never had any problems because of his Jewish nationality. He was a leader (guide) of service dogs in the security company of the aviation unit in Georgia.
The beginning of the career of Arkady Novikov
After the army, the future “pancake baron”, as he is called abroad, worked for 5 years as a cook in the “University” restaurant. To grow professionally, Arkady Novikov entered the Institute of National Economy. Plekhanov for evening training. Simultaneously with the acquisition of new theoretical knowledge, he polished his cooking skills in practice in the restaurants “Havana”, “Olympic Lights”, “Victoria”.
Arkady Novikov about his first restaurant
In 1992, his first brainchild Sirena appeared, a fish restaurant, the halls of which were decorated with aquariums. 1994 saw the opening of the pompous “Club T” with French cuisine, in 1996 – the “Grand Opera”, reminiscent of a stage with a velvet curtain. Then the restaurant “Tsarskaya Okhota” was opened in the spirit of a hunting lodge with pickles on a “cart”, where Boris Yeltsin himself dined with Jacques Chirac after their dishes were thoroughly tested – for a month they were tested in the kitchen by experts with test tubes and pipettes.
In 1997, Arkady Novikov opened the legendary White Sun of the Desert restaurant, on the interior of which (based on the film of the same name) the best masters of Uzbekistan worked, then the great idea of a network of inexpensive catering establishments arose – “Yolki-Palki”, “Sushi Oars” – and then, approximately every year, he launched a restaurant with a composition and setting, as in a play. Among them, lounge establishments (“Biscuit”) that have become a Mecca for gourmets, places for adherents of the atmosphere of vintage (“Attic”), fashion trends (Vogue Cafe), business meetings (GQ Bar), for Bolshoi theatergoers with the practice of discounts for ticket holders to the Bolshoi Theater, Fauchon gastronomic boutiques, where you can order food from any part of the world.
In 2005, the owner of the largest restaurant holding company expanded its scope of activities. He became the host of the Candidate TV show, and also created the Agronom farm to provide his establishments with an uninterrupted supply of fresh and organic fruits, berries, vegetables and herbs. Later, the products grown there began to be sold under the Novikov brand not only in restaurants, but also in stores.
Personal life of Arkady Novikov
The restaurateur has been married since 1990 to Nadezhda Advokatova, she is 5 years younger than her husband. The girl was a friend of his friend’s wife, and they often met in the same company. Closer communication happened when he invited her to visit the first McDonald’s to open in Moscow, and they had to stand in line at the entrance for several hours. A week after that, they applied to the registry office.
Soon they had a daughter, Alexandra, then (6 years later) a son, Nikita. Nadia took care of the home and raising children. When they grew up, with the aim of self-realization, she became the owner of the floristic salon “Studio of Flowers 55”. In 2007, as an exemplary mother, she moved with her children to the United Kingdom to be with them, since her daughter entered the PR department at the University of the Arts in London. In the British capital, Nadezhda opened her own SPA-salon.
In 2008, the millionaire restaurateur purchased Villa Fontanelle, previously owned by Gianni Versace, for 33 million euros, located 50 kilometers from Milan on Lake Como. Until the death of the Italian designer in 1997, such celebrities as Princess Diana, Sting, Elton John, Madonna were frequent guests of this mini-palace.
In 2011, while vacationing on the Italian island of Sardinia, where their family has another, not so famous mansion, daughter Sasha met Roman Abramovich’s son Arkady. Since 2013, young people have lived together in London. In 2015, there were rumors about the breakup of their relationship, denied in the press by a familiar couple, model Anna Kuznetsova.
In the same period, it became known about the romance of Novikov’s 18-year-old son with Yevgeny Kafelnikov’s daughter, 16-year-old Alesya. Together with their parents, the young people spent August 2015 at Fontanelle. However, in February 2016, it became known about the end of their romantic story.
In addition to beautiful real estate and picturesque corners of nature, the restaurateur adores fine arts. He does not consider himself a collector, but he is the owner of about a hundred works (landscapes and still lifes) by the artist Viktor Dynnikov.
Arkady Novikov today
In 2011, the Arcadia empire went beyond the borders of the country. He opened his flagship restaurant Novikov Berkley, serving Asian and Mediterranean cuisine in the capital of Foggy Albion. Despite the fact that the reviews about him in the local press were, to put it mildly, not the best, and this businessman’s project was successful. A year later, Brompton by Novikov was opened in Chelsea, and another 7 months later – Rextail on Albemarle Street, where an emphasis is placed on meat and fish dishes that are not geographically tied to a specific country or cuisine.
Interview with Arkady Novikov
In 2012, his quasi-Soviet projects were launched in Moscow – the sausage “Kamchatka” and the restaurant “Country that does not exist”, in 2013 – the network of the famous American donut krispy Kreme, as well as the media platform “Novikov TV”, where there were themes of leisure, fashion , travel and, of course, food.
In 2013, the restaurateur began to broadcast the MasterShef TV show on STS. In 2015, he launched the # FARSh burger on Nikolskaya, another Novikov Restaurant & Bar with Asian cuisine in the stylish Sheraton Grand Hotel in Dubai (United Arab Emirates), and was also actively expanding on the Internet.
The success story of Arkady Novikov
In 2016, the Novikov Group offered visitors to a number of its establishments a live broadcast of football matches from France, cheese lovers – samples of this food product made under the guidance of Italian cheese makers in the new Syrovarnya restaurant, and for lovers of simple food – its options in the newly opened establishment on Tsvetnoy Boulevard Valenok. In parallel, Novikov began developing a project to create a restaurant in Miami, which is scheduled to open in 2017.