Parfyonov family. Leonid Parfenov's wife fears for his career

Elena Chekalova infects with her interest and thirst for life. Elena doesn’t just cook - she studies where the dish came from, how to adapt it to our products - and talks about it with passion and pleasure. Elena is also the wife of the famous TV journalist Leonid Parfenov and the mother of 25-year-old Ivan and 21-year-old Masha. That's why we talk about steaks, and about schools, and about politics.

— Cooking is only one part of life, I have many other interests. For example, traveling is something you absolutely cannot do without in life. I’m also very concerned about social life: it’s sad to look at what’s happening to us now. Well, literature, history, my children - there is a lot of things in life besides cooking.

“Try the cheese pie and the cottage cheese casserole,” Elena fussed, taking out more and more dishes from the refrigerator. I agree with gratitude: “How delicious everything is!”

- In our house you will always be fed and even given something to drink. This is probably why we have many friends. The children's friends also come; everyone loves family gatherings around the big table.

— Young people now more often prefer to sit in a cafe.

- Yes, they go to some cafes where they can afford, but they never miss our gatherings.

- “Can they afford it”? So you don't spoil them?

- No. Of course, if you have normal income, then creating artificial conditions, some kind of deficit in the lives of children is strange. I believe that there should be a measure in everything. True, my husband and I never spared money on our children’s education. A good school, courses are welcome. Some rags, clothes - that’s not it. But they are not rag pickers, they rather like to travel. The son first studied in England, graduated from school in Germany, and then entered the Faculty of Economics of the famous Luigi Bocconi University in Milan.

Masha studied here in a private school because she has very severe dyslexia - and she could not study in a regular school. After all, what is dyslexia? This is when a person does not master written language, when he can make 26 mistakes on one page. The teachers told me: “Your girl is mentally retarded, she needs to study in a special school.” And the girl is wonderful. By the way, Leonardo da Vinci and Princess Diana were dyslexic. In the West, where this has long been diagnosed, every school and university has special programs for dyslexics. During exams, they are not limited in time, and spelling mistakes are not considered mistakes - after receiving the conclusion of the medical commission, such students are given special stickers that they paste on their work so that the examiners can see that the child has a disability.

Masha and I worked a lot - with psychologists, speech therapists - and gradually pulled it out. She finished 11th grade here as an external student, and at the age of 16 she went to study in Italy. We considered that boarding school (a residential school) was too expensive for us, so we sent her to a day school, and she lived in the same apartment with Vanya. My son was a great help: he went to parent-teacher meetings at school, helped his sister with her homework, and they are only 4 years apart!

Later, Masha entered City University in London without exams. I defended my diploma in May, and now I’m going to work - for now on a very small salary. I don’t help her financially, but she has a boyfriend, they live together. Vanya is also in Moscow.

With husband and children

— And you didn’t want the children to stay to work - and live - where they studied?

— My children are terrible patriots. They want to live here, be useful, they simply adore their country. And they believe that it is dishonest to abandon her in difficult times. They make me happy: they do not live solely by material interests, they are not ready to make moral compromises for the sake of comfort. Neither for us nor for our children the criterion of “circle”, “useful acquaintances” has never been of much importance. As you know, my husband Leonid is from the village of Uloma, Vologda region. His mother still lives there, and the children always spent a lot of time there. And one of my Vanya’s close friends is from there. For me, these “circles” meant absolutely nothing in life. And those who pay attention to this are not interesting to me.

Here is our close friend, musician Vasya Oblomov - an incredibly talented person, he writes amazing poetry, he still doesn’t have an apartment in Moscow, nothing. He is from Rostov-on-Don, from a completely ordinary family - but he is so well-read and writes such wonderful poetry. Unfortunately, our system, including the educational system, is designed in such a way that it is becoming more and more difficult for people without connections to get through.

With daughter Masha and Boris Akunin at a rally in support of Alexei Navalny

— Just when the Unified State Exam appeared, it was declared that this would equalize the chances and allow children from the provinces to enter the best Moscow universities.

— What is happening with the Unified State Examination is a disaster. These scams, these answers on the Internet, this manipulation. My Masha passed the exam and received her grades - she was a sick (then) child with dyslexia! But there were children who took absentee ballots and, together with their tutors, went to the village to take the Unified State Exam - it was easier to “agree” with everyone there. And a C student from one famous family received a very high score. Five years have passed since then, and corruption has become even worse. And what do you want? The education system, like a drop of water, reflects the situation in the country. If lies permeate everything, if the main people - those who are taken into account - are officials, and everyone else is cattle - then that is you and me.

And it’s not easy for my children. We taught them, as Alexander Isaevich Solzhenitsyn said, not to live by lies. I always think about how to educate today? This is very difficult, because parents do not have the right to teach bad things.

Parental mistakes and children's talents

— What should parents do first of all, in your opinion?

— The mother’s task is to find what is special in the child. Do you know what the most common mistake is? When you start comparing your child with others, this is the worst maternal trait. Here is Petya, he... And you, how lazy you are, why can’t you, you need to study." At this moment you are ruining all the talents that the child has! And the fact that every child has something... something special, I am now 1000% convinced. And, basically, mothers and fathers make their children wingless - because they tell the child: “This is how you are - but you should be different!” They begin to fit him into a fictitious, dreamed-up image - instead of to follow his abilities and characteristics. There are no untalented people, it’s just that one’s talent is mathematics, and the other’s is hairdressing. There are stars in every profession, it’s just important to let the child find himself, to express himself as an individual.

In Boris Akunin's novel "Aristonomia", which I really love, the story is about how a person must understand himself. And the task of parents is to help do this. For example, my son says to me: “I really wanted to play sports, but it always seemed unimportant to you.” Yes, it seemed to me that this was nonsense, such a waste of time, I focused on science. And he admits: “You forced me to study mathematics, which I hate.”

And only later, after the passage of time, do you realize how much trouble you’ve made. Yes, almost all parents are very cruel to their children. You can't go to extremes. Now I understand that children should not be forced to study, but should be exposed to the benefits of education: that it is interesting, that you can become a more meaningful person, that your life will be more versatile. We need to offer them to do different things, because what they teach in schools is very boring.

Kitchen and science

— How do you think modern cuisine differs from what our grandmothers and mothers cooked?

— Now the kitchen should be lighter and simpler. If you offer a modern woman old recipes with 12 steps, no one will do them. And I don’t blame anyone - there’s just not enough time!

With celebrity chef Gordon Ramsay

- Why was it enough before? Is the rhythm of life different?

— Yes, and there was more time: people could have huge dinners and sit at the table for hours. Reading memories of the 19th and early 20th centuries, I am generally amazed at how much faster we live now. I don’t know whether this is good or bad: people manage to do a lot of things, but it’s not always clear why.

Nowadays there are a lot of all kinds of technical devices and new products, I like to experiment with them. I cook with slow cookers regularly and am currently making a series of recipes for them. I really like the low-temperature mode - it's so healthy and tasty. For example, I bought a thick edge for a steak, made a marinade... By the way, they used to think that the best marinade was an acidic environment. But now gastronomic chemistry has proven that acid (vinegar, wine, lemon) destroys and indeed slightly softens the upper layers of muscle tissue, but at the same time it draws liquid from the meat and makes it drier.

It's a completely different matter if you use pickling. Initially, “marinade” comes from the word marina - sea, that is, sea salt. How does salt work? It’s like heat: it penetrates into the very thickness of the meat, and the liquid also penetrates with it. If we weigh a piece of meat before and after marinating in a saline solution, we will see that it has become heavier. During cooking, less moisture is lost, and if we know the temperature at which protein coagulation begins, but the muscles do not yet contract, the result is more tender cooking.

So, I take a steak, immerse it in brine - the main thing is that the amount of salt and time are calculated correctly - and then cook it in a slow cooker at a temperature of 60ºC. If you want a beautiful crust, then I quickly fry it, turning the meat over to the other side every 15 seconds so as not to dry out the top layers.

—You have such a scientific, such a conscious approach! But there probably aren’t very many chefs ready for this...

- No, now there are more and more people who are ready to study and immerse themselves in this whole science. They understand perfectly well that today this is not the explanation - “because my grandmother did it that way.” And grandma could be wrong, after all!

— What is the current culinary boom connected with?

— I am often asked about this. I answer with the lines of Evgeny Boratynsky:

I've been deceived by my heart,
I've been deceived by my mind,
But never before, friends,
I was not deceived by my stomach
Everyone must admit that
Lover, or poet, or warrior, -
Just a carefree grocery store
Worthy of the title wise.

I think this is also because very few people have creative jobs. But by nature, it turns out that this is necessary and important for a person - to do something of his own, to create, to invent, to try. Especially with the advent of the Internet. I believe that the culinary boom and the Internet are interconnected because every person wants applause. If before everyone aspired to be an actress, now girls know that you can cook a delicious dish, take a beautiful photograph - and they will applaud you and say that you are great. A person is designed this way, he wants approval, recognition, he wants to feel significant - and it’s great that people find all this by blogging. Sometimes, however, in the culinary environment this takes on very aggressive forms. I'm amazed when people start insulting each other if someone fry or bake something wrong. Although now it seems to me that it has begun to subside. In general, I’m interested in being present on the Internet, I’m ready to communicate there, but I’m not technically advanced enough - but I’d like to learn.

With mother Anzhelika Yakovlevna at the celebration of her 90th birthday

Diets and weight loss

— In Massimo Montanari’s book “Hunger and Affluence in Europe,” it is written that previously it was always believed that a person’s stout figure was a sign of his wealth, but after the Industrial Revolution of the 19th century, it became fashionable, on the contrary, to be lean and active. How do you feel about this “requirement of the era”?

— Of course, you need to take care of yourself, but diets, in my opinion, are nonsense. My friends and I tried very different diets - none of them worked. But diet for me in general is like a red rag for a bull. One of my very close friends was barely saved after she became addicted to this diet. After all, what happens when a person eats so much protein? Monstrous slagging of the body. I tell everyone that in the Middle Ages, when they wanted to kill a person to a slow, painful death, they put him on boiled meat.

The Dukan Diet really works for very young people, as long as all organs are healthy.

I believe that there should simply be a healthy, proper, balanced diet. If you really want to eat in the evening, you can eat a small piece of lean meat. I serve meat with vegetables in the evening. And for breakfast, my husband really likes porridge and smoothies with added grains.

It is very important to understand what you can eat when. I eat almost everything, but little by little. I just don’t eat sugar in its pure form. And I try not to add sugar or sweeteners to desserts, but to prepare desserts with a lot of fruits and dried fruits, sometimes, if the berries are very sour, I add agave syrup. If you add sugar to the filling of berry pies, then always add a little and taste - we have become unaccustomed to the natural taste of fruit, we must try not to overwhelm it, stop when this richness of taste, aroma, and not just sweetness is still felt. In a classic cake, where there is sponge cake, cream - there is nothing but sweetness. It seems to me that this is not interesting - and that we are depriving ourselves of such a variety of tastes!

At the end of June, the son of Leonid Parfenov and the famous cook Elena Chekalova, Ivan, got married. His chosen one was Maria Broitman, to whom the young man became engaged this year, on Valentine's Day. And already in the summer the marriage was registered.

The groom’s mother, congratulating the newlyweds, then happily wrote on her page on the social network: “Husband Parfenov + Wife Broitman = Broitman-Parfenov Family! Thank you all, everyone, for your congratulations and kind words!!! We are very pleased and we are incredibly happy!!! We are waiting and preparing for the Jewish Chuppah in September” (hereinafter, the spelling and punctuation of the authors have been preserved - approx. WomanHit).

It is worth explaining that Chuppah is a wedding ceremony according to Jewish traditions. Literally, “chuppah” means the canopy under which the couple stands during the ceremony, and is considered a symbol of the future home of the young family. And yesterday, Sunday, the couple Ivan and Maria held a Jewish wedding ceremony.

Marianna Maksimovskaya published photos from the wedding on her microblog. “Leonid Parfenov and Elena Chekalova married their son Vanya. But I remember him when he was very young)) Masha and Vanya, advice and love!” — the TV presenter wrote.

She came to the wedding with her husband Vasily Borisov.

Presenter's wife Channel One's Leonid Parfenov, Elena Chekalova, admits that he may be fired by the television company, Gazeta.ru reports. The reason for this may be his diatribe against the politics of Russian television.

Thursday evening On November 26, Leonid Parfenov received the Listyev Prize. It was established in the spring of 2010 by the Academy of Russian Television Foundation and Channel One and is awarded to the person, project or team that has become the phenomenon of the year in Russian television.

TV journalist criticized from the stage Russian television, which, in his opinion, has completely become controlled by officials.

"After real and imaginary sins In the 90s in the 2000s, in two steps - first for the sake of eradicating media oligarchs, and then for the sake of unity of ranks in the counter-terrorism war - federal television information was nationalized. Journalistic topics, and with them all of life, were finally divided into those that are passable on TV and those that are impenetrable on TV. Behind any politically significant broadcast one can discern the goals and objectives of the government, its mood, attitude, its friends and enemies,” said Leonid Parfenov.

According to him, federal officials became for television journalists not newsmakers, but bosses of their bosses. Thus, journalists themselves found themselves in the position of officials. The speech was not shown on Channel One.

"You saw that many didn't even clap after his speech, they sat with their eyes downcast and left dejected and sad. And when the speech ended, there was silence, a pause, people did not know how to react to this, especially officials. Yes, the same Shvydkoy or Seslavinsky may come up later: “Lenya, how great you said everything.” But no one knows what will happen next. After all, if something happens, no one will support you. This is the whole horror of our society,” says Elena Chekalova.

When asked if Leonid Parfenov can to lose his job on Channel One because of his speech, his wife replied: “Anything can happen, and this is a completely possible option. We also discussed this. However, when Lenya was asked: doesn’t he think that he set everyone up, and He responded to this: “Well, then Mamontov could have been awarded.”

Head of News Broadcasting"Channel One" Kirill Kleimenov in an interview with the magazine notes that Leonid Parfenov "certainly assumed" that the head of "Channel One" Konstantin Ernst "could have problems because of this speech." “For me, a lot in this story remains unclear. Parfenov has always been quite aloof from politics, he is a person of exceptional creativity. Many times he had the opportunity in acute situations to declare his position, but he did not do this. And I wonder why now "Why did a man with a phenomenal memory, which the whole workshop knows about, read this speech from paper? And why did his hands tremble at the same time - although ethereal people know how to cope with excitement?" Kleimenov is perplexed.

Chekalova Elena Valerievna is a philologist, television journalist, host of a program about preparing delicious and healthy food “There is Happiness!”, writer, restaurateur, wife of a Russian television journalist. Elena was born on January 8, 1967 in Moscow in the family of Valery Chekalov, a journalist for Soviet Russia, and his wife, a literary editor and lexicographer. In addition to Elena, the family raised another daughter, who later received an engineering degree.

Since childhood, Elena dreamed of becoming a teacher and after school she entered the philological faculty of Moscow University. After graduating from high school, the girl got a job as a teacher of Russian language and literature for foreigners at the Geological Exploration Institute, as well as at the historical and literary school of Moscow, where she worked for a year.

In her youth, Elena developed another hobby - cooking. For the numerous guests who gathered at her parents' house, the girl always prepared unusual and tasty dishes. Having visited Tbilisi, where Elena’s university friends lived, the girl became interested in Georgian cuisine, after which she mastered Italian and French cooking traditions. In the 90s, Elena began to show interest in Indian, Japanese, and Spanish cuisines, the recipes of which she brought home from trips abroad.

Journalism

Elena Chekalova came to journalism as a freelance correspondent for the publication “Soviet Culture”, where a year later the girl was invited to host a television section. Later, Elena got a job at the Moscow News newspaper, and at the same time wrote a column dedicated to unusual recipes, “Food with Elena Chekalova,” in the Kommersant newspaper and a column about cinema in Nezavisimaya Gazeta.

In 1990, Chekalova became a co-author with Leonid Parfenov in writing a book about television journalism, “Our Portrait is Being Returned to Us: Notes on Television,” which was then included in the journalism course curriculum. Later, two more publications were published - “Before and after “Vzglyad””, “Night Air 1”.

"Happinnes exists!"

In 2009, Elena Chekalova appeared on the screen in the Good Morning program, where she hosted a four-minute column about nutrition, “There is Happiness!” In a short time, the journalist managed to prepare a simple but original dish and tell the story of its origin. Having appreciated Elena’s resourcefulness, he suggested that she expand the format and start producing a full-fledged program. In 2010, the premiere of the program of the same name took place on Channel One.

Each episode contained step-by-step preparation of delicious dishes using unique recipes from chefs from different countries. In order to look natural on camera, Elena took acting lessons from. Each lesson was held in front of a large audience, represented by Sovremennik artists. In front of everyone, Elena had to prepare the dish and teach the process in an interesting way. After the end of the lesson, the director pointed out the mistakes to the journalist.

In 2012, Elena Chekalova consolidated the success of the culinary show with the release of the book “World Cuisine,” which she wrote together with Gelia Delerins. The collection of recipes contained interesting information about the culinary traditions of various parts of the planet, and biographies of famous chefs. At the same time, another culinary publication called “Eat!” appeared from the pen of the journalist. with a collection of recipes for first courses, salads, pies and cakes.

In the program and books, Elena Chekalova always proclaimed her own credo - not to eat, but to try. According to the journalist, this approach to cooking helps to maintain a figure without the use of diets. In 2014, Elena officially completed her collaboration with Channel One. In the same year, together with her husband Leonid Parfenov, Elena opened the “Let’s Go” restaurant in Moscow, the menu of which regularly appeared on the establishment’s website.

Personal life

As an employee of the Moscow News newspaper, Elena became acquainted in absentia with the journalistic works of Leningrad University graduate, correspondent Leonid Parfenov. The journalist was originally from Cherepovets; the young man’s father worked as an engineer at a factory. After moving to Moscow, Leonid quickly became close to Elena, and in 1987 the young couple got married. At this time, Parfenov was just beginning his career in the youth editorial office of Eduard Sagalayev.

For the first years, Leonid and Elena lived in the apartment of the bride’s grandfather. In 1988, a son, Ivan, was born, and in 1993, his wife gave Leonid a daughter, Maria. Elena’s birth was difficult each time, with the use of a caesarean section. When Masha began to grow up, it turned out that the girl was developmentally delayed. She was diagnosed with a rare disease - dyslexia, inability to perceive written information. Elena had to leave her job and delve into raising her daughter. The children received a varied education: both studied painting, foreign languages, sports, and mathematics.

As a result, after graduating from the British Council school, Maria passed her exams with excellent marks and entered the Italian University of Restaurant and Hotel Business. Ivan also studied abroad: first in England, then in Germany, and later graduated from the University of Economics in Milan. The young man works at RIA Novosti and promotes Internet projects. In 2015, Ivan married Maria Broitman, who graduated from the architectural institute. Maria Parfenova married only at the end of 2016 to entrepreneur Andrei Muravyov.

In 2012, the family moved to a three-story country house, which the couple built to their own taste. On the ground floor there is a traditional-style kitchen with a barbecue and wood-burning stove, as well as a living room with furniture collected and restored from antiques. On the second floor, Elena and Leonid arranged bedrooms and a journalist’s office, and built a gym in the attic. Every year the relationship between the spouses becomes stronger. According to Elena, Leonid constantly organizes holidays for his wife and likes to give designer bouquets.

Elena Chekalova now

In 2016, Elena Chekalova closed the Let's Go restaurant. Now Parfenov’s wife is developing the official website, where she regularly posts new recipes.

Photos of dishes can also be seen on the gastronomic expert’s personal account online "Instagram", which has 4 thousand subscribers. Elena continues to write her own column in the Kommersant newspaper.

Projects

• The book “Our portrait is being returned to us: Notes on television”
• Book “Before and After “The Look””
• Book “Night Broadcast 1”
• The program “There is Happiness!”
• Book "World Cuisine"
• The book "Eat!"
• Restaurant "Let's go"
• Culinary column in the Kommersant publication

TV presenter, journalist, author of the projects “Namedni” and “Russian Empire” Leonid Parfenov and his wife, restaurateur Elena Chekalova, became grandparents for the first time. Their eldest son Ivan and his wife Maria Broitman had a son, Mikhail, on the evening of February 5th. The young mother herself and Leonid Gennadievich’s wife reported about the joyful event on social networks.

“Grandma next to grandpa. Yes, today there is happiness in our family: Mikhail Ivanovich Parfenov-Broitman was born. Weight 3940, 54 cm. I am a granny!” Elena Chekalova wrote on Instagram.

According to the happy grandmother, many of her friends prefer not to hear this title and ask their grandchildren to call them “Masha” or “Lena”: “But Lenya and I are just grandparents,” the restaurateur noted. The first grandson of the famous couple was born at the Perinatal Medical Center in Cheryomushki.

A post shared by Elena Chekalova(@helenachek) on Feb 5, 2018 at 12:13pm PST

Leonid Parfenov and Elena Chekalova

The happy grandmother addressed the young parents with heartfelt words and maternal advice: “This is what I want to wish Masha and Vanya and other young parents. Both be a Jewish mother, for whom her child is always the best. Don’t make your child fit the image you created for yourself. Don't compare your child with others - he is unique!

Be wary of what strangers, especially educators and teachers, will tell you about your child - they can be wrong, cruel, hypocritical and even ignorant.”

Elena Chekalova cited her youngest daughter as an example: “That’s how much they scolded my Masha at school: they say she’s lazy, doesn’t want to study, makes 20 mistakes in dictation. The trouble turned out not to be that my daughter was a bad student, but that I almost believed other people’s aunts. Masha turned out to have dyslexia, and she just needed a different rating system and even more love and support.”

Maria Broitman and Ivan Parfenov

Leonid Parfenov’s wife recalled that the main task of parents is only to love, always protect and give their child the opportunity to try himself in different ways in order to one day find his own: “He should know: you love him not because he behaves well and makes progress , but simply for anyone, even if at some point he did something not entirely worthy. Yes, you will worry, but you won’t stop loving?

It would seem funny to talk about such things when the child has only been in the world for two days. In fact, all this is important to understand even before his birth.

Yesterday and today, everyone wishes your baby happiness, and you yourself want your child to be happy. But your child’s happiness may not be what you think it is. Everyone has their own path, their own talents - help him find them and just love him. Only because he is yours,” the young grandmother concluded her appeal to her parents.