Café Oshqozon
(from 27 September to 20 November 2025)

Café Oshqozon gets its name from the Uzbek anatomical word for ‘stomach,’ ‘oshqozon’, which also means  ‘vessel for cooking’, imagining the biennial as a living body nourished by shared meals. Inspired by Ibn Sina’s recipes for physical and emotional healing, international and Uzbek chefs create new recipes for mending broken hearts, developing new menus that are accompanied by storytelling.

Rooted in Uzbekistan’s deep culture of hospitality—where food is a mainstream language of care—this curatorially developed restaurant treats cooking and eating as more than a source of pleasure and more than a source of nourishment. It becomes a way to connect, reflect, and heal.

Throughout the Biennial, the restaurant is active with a Brutalist Bukhara menu emerging from the collaboration between Carsten Höller and his Brutalist Kitchen Manifesto, brought to life through a recipes and ideas exchange between chefs Coen Dieleman, Bahriddin Chustiy and Pavel Georganov.

Bukhara Biennial’s Recipes for Broken Hearts and Carsten Höller’s Brutalist Kitchen Manifesto both transform food into a nexus of science, art, and emotion. Brutalist cuisine follows a strict rule: each dish must be made from a single ingredient, to which only water and salt may be added. Höller’s Brutalist manifesto explores sensory perception and psychological impact through radical simplicity, connecting to how the Bukhara Biennial frames food as an emotional medium and vehicle for storytelling and memory making.

Through Höller’s manifesto, traditional Uzbek dishes are reimagined with unexpected precision, allowing guests to “taste Uzbekistan brutalistically.” Culinary traditions from across the whole of Uzbekistan are used to reimagine how key products of Uzbek cuisine, like lamb, tomatoes, quince, basil, pumpkin, and many other ingredients are used. The menu will change across the biennial to bring in seasonal delights.

MENU

Apricot Sherbat
Uzbekistan’s original Brutalist Drink

Brutalist Uzbek Breads and Spreads
Buckwheat. Sorghum. Sourdough: stamped with Uzbek bread seals

With Brutalist Uzbek Ghee 
Durda clarified butter with katyk

Brutalist Uzbek Tomato Tower
Fermented tomato juice base, pickled tomato, tower of tomatoes, tomato skin, sundried tomatoes

Vaguri
Marinated tender lamb still on the bone – a Bukharian speciality

Brutalist Beet Dolma (vegetarian option)
Beet leaves, diced beets, fermented beet juice, beet chip, beet stem

Palate cleanser
Brutalist Melon Moment
Made from the melons of Slavs and Tatars installation for Bukhara Biennial

5x Carrot
Served with a glass of fermented fermented carrot juice – an Uzbek specialty

Brutal Three fingers (Uch-panja)
Kebab made by layering meat and tail fat on three skewers

Pumpkin Pumpkin Pumpkin (Vegetarian option)
Pumpkin purée with pumpkin strips and seeds on a pumpkin ring

Brutal Waters
Local Trout & Zander garnished by their eggs

5x Quince
Roasted Quince
Quince Jam
Quince Sorbet
Quince Jelly
Quince Chip

Attendance is strictly by reservation, as places are limited. 
You can book your table through the website or by sending us an email: rsvp@bukharabiennial.uz