Ukrainian chef to launch London restaurant staffed by refugees

(CNN) — Deemed a “culinary ambassador” for Ukraine, renowned chef Yurii Kovryzhenko has spent yrs championing the nationwide gastronomy of his property place about the globe.

Now Kovryzhenko, who’s beforehand run dining places in South Korea and Georgia, as very well as Ukraine, is making ready to open up a neo-bistro-design institution in London that will be staffed by Ukrainian refugees.

He and his companion Olga Tsybytovska will launch Mriya in London’s upscale Chelsea neighborhood later on this thirty day period. But to say this most up-to-date venture has arisen out of complicated conditions is one thing of an understatement.

The couple have been traveling to the Uk funds from Kyiv for an event at the Embassy of Ukraine when Russia invaded their homeland back again in February. They’ve been in the city ever considering that.

“When I was closing the doorway of my apartment, I believed that I would be back again in 10 days,” Tsybytovska, who previously worked in restaurant marketing, tells CNN Vacation. “But lifetime is so unpredictable.”

Championing Ukrainian cuisine

Mriya will serve Ukraine’s nationwide dish borsch, a soup made with beetroot, which was lately included to UNESCO’s record of intangible cultural heritage in require of urgent safeguarding.

Elena Bazu and Dmitriy Novikov

Soon after paying months teaming up with famed British cooks, which includes Richard Corrigan and Jason Atherton, to increase funds for these afflicted by the war, they resolved to start Mriya.

The cafe will supply vintage Ukrainian dishes this sort of as borsch, (or borscht) with a modern day twist, as properly as specialties like fermented watermelon and golubtsi (cabbage rolls) designed from courgette flowers.

“I want the persons who appear here to truly feel like I do when I’m in a [food] market in other countries,” clarifies Kovryzhenko, a primary determine in the sluggish food items movement.

“I want them to uncover anything new — a new flavor. I want them to slide in like with Ukrainian meals.”

Kovryzhenko takes advantage of nearby solutions relatively than importing foodstuff products from Ukraine to be certain that there’s some familiar tastes for diners.

When Mriya opens its doorways, he’ll be serving up Ukrainian food items produced from British items with a “contact” of the influences he’s picked up in other countries.

In accordance to Kovryzhenko, Ukrainian foodstuff has a great deal of similarities with British food items, this kind of as a lack of “intense spices,” as properly as a fondness for pork, dill and horseradish.

“The taste and the flavor are really related,” he says. “But at the exact time, the [cooking] techniques are completely different. So I feel it will be really attention-grabbing.”

The major menu is to consist of all over 25 dishes, even though a tasting menu will also be available, along with the choice of an infused vodka or wine pairing.

Fermented vegetables and fruits, heavily applied in just Ukrainian delicacies, will be highlighted drastically — the cafe has its very own dedicated fermented space.

Shared dream

Ukrainian chef Yurii Kovryzhenko and his partner Olga Tsybytovska at their London cafe, Mriya.

Elena Bazu and Dmitriy Novikov

Kovryzhenko and Tsybytovska say they chose the name Mriya, which suggests “aspiration” in Ukrainian, for a multitude of factors.

Created in the 1980s by the Antonov Structure Bureau in the Soviet Union, the airplane had long been a resource of countrywide pleasure for citizens of the place — Ukrainian plane engineer Petro Balabuyev was the direct designer for the undertaking.

“It [the aircraft] means a ton to Ukrainians,” states Tsybytovska. “It demonstrates how proficient Ukrainian persons can be.”

Of class, Mriya also displays the simple wish for peace and the restoration of daily lifetime that they and Ukrainians like them share.

“A lot of Ukrainian families are now dwelling aside in different parts of the world,” suggests Tsybytovska. “And they dream of coming back again home and sleeping under a protected sky. Of finding their houses again, restoring the place, and to come back again to a former existence.”

The pair hope that the restaurant will turn out to be a assembly level for Ukrainians and other refugees in London, and prepare to use a section of the downstairs space as a mingling location on Fridays and Saturdays.

Aside from common cuisine, Mriya will also showcase art and furniture by Ukrainian artists and designers.

“We will give the place a Ukrainian touch and fill it with Ukrainian energy as a great deal as we can,” adds Tsybytovska.

Each believe that Ukraine has the probable to turn into a major meals travel location, and are vastly psyched about showcasing their national cuisine in a gastronomic funds like London.

‘Gastronomic embassy’

Kovryzhenko states he needs the cafe to turn out to be “the food embassy of Ukraine in the United kingdom.”

Elena Bazu and Dmitriy Novikov

In reality, Kovryzhenko aims to provide Ukrainian cooking masterclasses at the location, located a short drive away from the Embassy of Ukraine, in the foreseeable future.

“I want to make this area a gastronomic embassy of Ukraine,” he states. “The foodstuff embassy of Ukraine in the British isles.”

Because advertising for team on different social networks, they’ve been inundated with requests from Ukrainian refugees in London who are determined for do the job.

Even so, numerous of all those who’ve responded do not speak substantially English, even though some are even now waiting to for their official paperwork to arrive through, so it truly is proving to be a problematic method.

“It is incredibly unfortunate to speak to individuals folks,” claims Tsybytovska. “For the reason that some of them are instructors, some of them are medical practitioners and dentists, but they will not talk English and their levels are not acknowledged right here [in the UK].”

Even with these complications, the couple say they stay fully commited to staffing the cafe with displaced Ukrainians.

Despite the fact that Mriya is proving to be a optimistic distraction, the truth of what is taking place again home is never much from their ideas.

“My mothers and fathers and my brother stayed in Ukraine,” states Tsybytovska. “So I are not able to be calm any longer.”

Fermented fruit and greens will be a distinguished fixture on the menu.

Elena Bazu and Dmitriy Novikov

If and when Mriya turns a income, a share will be donated to charities supporting those people influenced by the invasion of Ukraine.

While their extended stay in London was unplanned, each say they come to feel incredibly lucky to be the place they are and have been overwhelmed by the outpouring of enable and guidance they have been given.

“I’m not certain that there is certainly everywhere else in the environment wherever we would have had the option to do so lots of issues,” admits Tsybytovska.

Although the few say they have uncovered not to strategy as well far in advance, they hope to return to Ukraine when it is really safe to do so, and probably even open up up a further Mriya in excess of there.

For now, they are concentrating their energies into the new restaurant, which is scheduled to open on August 2, and on the lookout ahead to welcoming their initially diners.

“We want to generate a little something really, really new,” suggests Tsybytovska. “It has roots in our culture, but for locals it will be a little something new for sure.”

Mriya, 275 Old Brompton Road, London SW5 9JA

Top picture credit: Elena Bazu and Dmitriy Novikov