The 35-year-old loves travelling. A friend once told
him about an opportunity to open a restaurant
in Georgia, so he did. “There is always something
new to see, new people to meet, experiences to
discover,” says Chef Kovryzhenko, excited. “And
experiences are the best way to create a new
dish.” Aside from visiting the local markets, he’d
also climb mountains to find wild honey, and meet
the people who make local meats, and cheeses.
Traditional Ukrainian dishes, such as potato and
pork dumplings topped with sour cream, or Borsch
soup made from beef bones and beetroots, tend to
be hearty and filling. Chef Kovryzhenko, and others
of his generation, are thinking out of the box and
creating something new and never seen before.If you wonder why his fingers seem to have been
dyed pink, it’s because he loves working with
beetroots, carrots, purple potatoes, and berries.
In the summer, he has a garden in the restaurant
from which he picks edible flowers, such as
chrysanthemum and nasturtium, to garnish his
plates. “But you must understand the taste of
flowers,” cautions Chef Kovryzhenko. “For example,
begonia has a sour taste.Vintage Nouveau | Staroievreiska Street, 25, L’viv, Lviv Oblast, Ukraine, 79000 | Tel: (380) 3 2235 6834
So I might use it in place of lemon for a white fish.”
In the winter, he crafts blossoms from ingredients
such as onions, carrots, and celeriac. The ‘petals’
taste natural – plain, even – but when eaten
with the well-seasoned stewed duck, and the
flavoursome beetroot cream, one can’t help but be
in awe of Chef Kovryzhenko’s artistry. “For me, the
appearance of a dish holds equal importance to its
taste,” says Chef Kovryzhenko. “Having said that,
you have to consider the flavours as well, and the
chef must have a wide palette, or musical scale, of
taste experience.” You must understand how one
ingredient will taste with another. The problem
with just watching Jamie Oliver or Gordon Ramsay
on the television and replicating their recipes is
that any cook can do it. But a chef must create.
“Taste everything!” If Chef Kovryzhenko were a
musician, I’d say he not only plays the organ, but
also the clarinet, the flute, the drums, hand bells,
and perhaps even the banjo. If he were a painter,
he must have a 119-colour set of pigments, from
which the possibilities are almost limitless. So, go
ahead and collect your own spectrum of flavour
profiles! QL跨
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共
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The art of
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