"Food is always about pleasure". Golden Chef of Ukraine Taras Shevchenko about local products, a childhood dish and the Italian mentality
Despite Russia's full-scale invasion of Ukraine, chefs and other representatives of the gastronomic sphere continue to work on the development of gastronomic culture.
How has the full-scale invasion affected your work?
In the first months of the full-scale invasion, until July 2022, my team and I were just volunteering. At the time, I was working at the Avalon restaurant in Kyiv, we were preparing food for the military and the only goal was to feed as many people as possible. We returned to work in the summer, but everyone understood that things would never be the same as they were before the war. So now we are not talking about any celebrations or big plantings, loud dinners. People even celebrate their birthdays in a completely different way than before. I still hope that someday this whole atmosphere will return and we will be able to fully enjoy life again.
Do you have a dish associated with your childhood that you still love?
Oh, yes! It's very simple - fried potatoes with onions and bacon, a slice of white bread and a glass of tomato juice. If you combine all three of these elements, you get a real explosion of flavour in a laconic simplicity. I still enjoy this combination. By the way, a tip from the chef: if you want to understand whether the food served in a restaurant you are visiting for the first time is delicious, order one of the cheapest items on the menu. Why? It's simple: it is through this dish that you will see how the restaurant treats the products it works with and how professional the chef is. If the preparation of even the simplest dishes is treated responsibly and they are delicious, you are in a great place, and vice versa.