The country’s hospitality industry tries to adapt to a war economy while the West offers food and job opportunities to refugees
Until a couple of weeks ago, Ukrainian gastronomy was experiencing a promising awakening on the international scene. The breadbasket of Europe and one of the great vineyards east of the Danube was bustling with a scene populated by young chefs, burgeoning wineries and innovative businesses that were capturing critical attention, with Michelin and 50Best exploring the region for the first time. That illusion suddenly vanished on February 24. While the country fights for its survival, the hospitality sector is at the service of a war economy. “All the restaurants in Ukraine have closed, most of them to become soup kitchens – says chef Vova Tashaev, owner of 5 establishments in Kiev and 4 in Kharkov – the chefs prepare thousands of rations every day for hospitals, the army or bomb shelters and vendors are providing food for free or at nominal prices.” However, “no one knows how long this situation can last”, supply problems will soon begin and the war threatens to intensify in urban centers.
Vova speaks from Berlin, where he sought refuge with his wife and 6-month-old son shortly after the bombing began. “The night of the 25th we slept in the restaurant and the next day we went out in search of a safe place. A journey of 8 hours by car cost us more than two days due to the collapse of the roads. Born in Russia and raised in Israel, he knows that “the consequences of an armed conflict are unpredictable and the situation can change in a matter of hours.” Judging by the “nightmare” scenario that has unfolded in Ukraine, “I think we did the right thing,” he excuses himself. From Germany, however, he maintains a frenetic activity to try to help other colleagues in the profession.
Together with the gastronomic journalist Julia Aurora Ogorodnyk, she has set up a platform to provide job opportunities for Ukrainian workers -men are already prohibited from leaving the country- in hotels and restaurants throughout Europe. “A hotelier friend contacted me and I thought if there was a business willing to help, maybe hundreds or thousands could join later.” In a matter of days, chefs, journalists, agencies and event organizers from France, the United Kingdom, Germany, Austria or Spain have joined. “The goal is to set up cells in each European country or even worldwide,” explains Aurora, who draws a tattered gastronomic fabric from Ukraine. “Right now 75% of the refugees are women, among them there are a large number of hospitality professionals, chefs, bakers, sommeliers, waitresses… Most of them resist being refugees, but want to continue working in their specialties and be able to support their families. Our goal is to find them a job that matches their training.”
In a couple of days they have received a great response from establishments around the world and according to Vova there are already about 50 firm job offers on the table. Some of them from Spain, where Paco Roncero, Enrique Valentí, Vicky Sevilla, Alejandro Serrano, Fierro or the Kabuki group, among others, have already offered to collaborate. Tomorrow, coinciding with March 8, a global campaign will be launched to try to add hundreds more allies through the @ChefsforUkraine social media profile.
The initiative is not only humanitarian, but they hope that it will have positive consequences for the sector in the medium and long term. “Our hope is that through these collaborations the world will get to know Ukrainian cuisine better and that perhaps, when the war ends with our victory, we will be able to organize ‘pop ups’ of the best restaurants in the world in Ukraine,” says Aurora. . “Sorry to get emotional, right now it’s the only way to cope with this.” That passing enthusiasm does not make them forget that, “although many of these professionals have dreamed all their lives of cooking in London or Paris, the reasons why they are forced to travel now are dramatic,” warns Vova.
An army of cooks to feed the refugees
Meanwhile, on the borders of Ukraine, an army of cooks feeds thousands of refugees every day. The organization
World Central Kitchen, led by Asturian José Andrés, has deployed hot food distribution points at seven border crossings through foodtrucks, improvised dining rooms or relying on the infrastructure of local restaurants. Within 24 hours of the start of the conflict, they had already distributed 2,000 rations and are about to set up a large central kitchen on the border with Poland with the capacity to dispatch 60,000 meals a day.
The organization of the last Princess of Asturias Award for Concord has proved to be one of the most effective when it comes to rescuing victims of natural disasters or armed conflicts. “It lacks its own structure and relies on the professionals of the place where it is deployed, which guarantees its agility and means that 95% of each donation materializes in food,” explains Patricia Mateo, from the Mateo&Co agency, ambassador of World Central Kitchen in Spain and one of the people who is leading fundraising in our country.
Less than a week ago, together with a group of chefs, journalists and gastronomes – including well-known faces such as Carlos Latre or Tamara Falcó – he launched a platform to raise funds under the slogan ‘Peace & food’ (donate.wck. org/fundraiser/3742175). They have raised more than 160,000 euros through social networks, but it is likely that the flow of donations from Spain is much higher, since anonymous contributions are made through Bizum (sending a sum from 2 euros to 03843) or directly on the World Central Kitchen website (donate.wck.org).
50 Best removes all Russians from the list
The losses for Russian gastronomy, which was experiencing a moment of international splendor, are measured in economic and reputational terms, but unlike Ukraine, customers continue to sit down at the table. Twins Sergey and Ivan Berezutsky run Twin’s Garden, which with two Michelin stars is one of the most successful restaurants in Russia. Until a few minutes ago he was ranked 19th on the list of the 50 best in the world. The 50 Best organization has just informed you that it is removing all Russian establishments from its lists of bars and restaurants. If two weeks ago the entity announced that it was moving the celebration of the gala -scheduled in Moscow for the month of June- to London, this new measure, communicated to the interested parties this morning, adds Russian gastronomy to international ostracism.
This newspaper has contacted the Berezutsky brothers, but they prefer not to make political statements. After Putin’s latest legislative changes, which have caused the disarray of the international press, freedom of expression in Russia is practically a pipe dream. “They are devastated, they have very close ties with Ukraine, their grandmother lives there and a good part of their team is Ukrainian, they do not understand that a war with which they do not agree ends up splashing them in an unfair way,” says their international manager, the Spanish Susana Nieto. The Berezutskys had become regular figures on the international circuit – they were at Madrid Fusión in 2020 – and they are probably the main ones affected by the cancellation culture that many other figures in Russian culture are suffering.
50Best’s decision adds to the one communicated by Michelin last weekend to suspend all its recommendations in Russia. There will be no stars in a country that was one of its emerging markets and where it has just landed with the first edition of the red guide last October. The measure also affects other international chefs with interests there, such as the Peruvian Virgilio Martínez, who had just opened a restaurant in Moscow in January, coinciding with the cycle of international culinary events that the Russian capital was about to experience.
“Olluco is still open at the moment, but we are reflecting on the possibility of closing,” explains the chef from Barcelona, immersed in an international tour cut short by the conflict. “We have suspended a trip for the entire team to Moscow, but whoever operates the establishment there considers that it should remain open and we want to give ourselves a few days before making a decision that would affect our workers above all.” In any case, the panorama since the inauguration has changed radically in a couple of months. “We open in a growing market, very interesting at the level of chefs and producers, I doubt that this climate will continue in the future, but we also believe that there are many people in Russia who are paying the piper“.
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