The original Chef restaurant in Almaty, Kazakhstan, has spent 11 years serving dishes from an 1881 recipe book. Its second address, Chef Medeu, carries that historical fixation into the foothills, close to the city’s celebrated high-altitude skating rink. Here, the 1881 date has become a design brief. Alexandra Tsipkun of Tsipkun Interiors has shaped the 112 sq m restaurant as a 19th-century country estate – domestic in scale, layered with collected objects and unmistakably Almaty in its details.
Wallpaper* dines at Chef Madeu, Almaty
The mood: snow leopards by the fire
The compact main room accommodates 32 guests across sofas, armchairs and tables of varying sizes. An eight-seat communal table stands at its centre and can be divided into independent groups, giving the floor plan several seating arrangements while preserving comfortable circulation. A chandelier, wall lights and illuminated shelving provide pools of warm light, supported by discreet technical fixtures directed towards tables and circulation.
The main event is a 2.6m ceramic fireplace created specifically for the restaurant. Conceived as an enlarged version of a traditional tiled stove, it was assembled from tiles formed and painted by hand by ceramic artist Svetlana Plotnikova. Snow leopards, apples, swallows, horses and poppies appear across its saturated blue, green and red surface, translating the landscape and symbols of Almaty into architecture.
Across the room, the custom bar combines metal, bevelled mirrors and an oak marquetry panel. Open shelving incorporates glassware, tableware and collected objects into the composition, while lime plaster marked with patina and craquelure sits alongside brushed timber, rough-sawn decorative beams and hand-painted window reveals.
The food: like 1881
The 1881 cookbook provides the historical thread; the menu itself ranges widely. The clearest regional notes appear in a game assortment of air-dried and lightly smoked roe deer, venison and saiga antelope; pelmeni filled with veal and horse meat; and horse rib marinated for 24 hours in spiced broth before being cooked for eight. Oxtail receives a contemporary treatment, cooked sous-vide, finished on the grill and glazed with an 18-hour veal jus.
Breakfast brings pancakes, gravlax, red caviar, whipped butter and scrambled eggs arranged on a silver tray with a glass of sparkling wine. Later in the day, the restaurant’s take on a ‘happy meal’ combines a truffle burger, potato boats, truffle sauce, sparkling wine and fresh truffle shaved over everything. Kazakh tea with milk and roasted millet, conifer tea made with spruce-cone preserve, and house infusions ranging from sea buckthorn to horseradish and garlic complete the picture.
Chef Medeu is located at 582/3 Kerey-Zhanibek Khandar Street, Almaty, Kazakhstan