Tastes of Ukraine

After the emotions of the first day, here we are again at the Olympic stadium in Kiev for the second half of the first fine dining congress on Ukrainian grounds. It’s Lorenzo Cogo’s turn, from el Coq in Marano Vicentino, the only Italian this day. This guy (who has not yet turned 30) got on the stage after a great lesson given by Jean-Pierre Gabriel, the Belgian food photographer who charmed the hundred or so guests in the room with a series of beautiful shots (a statement to remember: «For portraits, it’s always best to choose black and white, it’s more powerful»).

«To get to these beautiful photos», Cogo began right after him, «you need lots of work, our work. In my case, this commitment is made more intense by my young age. I try to face it with the only weapons I have at my disposal: culture and strain». The young Ukrainian chefs in the audience don’t even get the time to take notes that el coq shows off four dishes full of “instinctive cuisine”, «By the way», the chef from Vicenza points out, «I call it like this because I had to self-label it for my safety: I didn’t want others to do it».

So here comes the Asparagus, green almonds and Matcha tea; the Pancake with wild garlic, walnuts and wild herbs; the Bigolo, with salsola-soda and parmesan and the dessert made with Strawberries and violets. These are seasoned with concepts that we at Identità know well. Above all: «In my opinion, chargrilling is an ingredient, not a cooking technique». Or «Adding is not always necessary, sometimes to make a great dish, only two ingredients suffice». A useful tip for chefs who, due to exceeding passion or enthusiasm, are often more tempted to squeeze things together rather than removing them.

By the way, were you to happen in the near future in Kiev, keep in mind, first of all, that this town is lovely and most of all peaceful. Of course, when passing by Majdan Nezaležnosti, “Maidan” as Westerners simply call it is it impressive to count the candles shining for the hundreds of citizens who lost their lives between November 2013 and February 2014. And in the Eastern part of the country, especially between Donetsk and Luhansk, they are still fighting.

Yet this doesn’t hold the people of Kiev from looking for joy around the table, the usual refuge between one invasion and the other. So note down these three places. Meat is made magnificent thanks to perfect cooking (and not too daring sauces) at Syto-Piano in the Darnitskiy district, the other side of river Dnepr: there’s beef, chicken, pork a go-go for the families. But also surprising and elegant mussels in a coriander broth (a fetish spice) and even bruschetta with squid and cheese on top, wrapped in a fog of liquid nitrogen.

The Georgian dishes that roll in in abundance, one after the other, at the Shoti, on Mechnykova, are delicious. Hinkali (majestic, large meat dumplings), a fabulous home made bread, Smoked trout and pomegranate, fresh water fish and crème fraiche, aubergines in all forms. In a scenic setting that, were Michelin inspectors to cross the old Iron Curtain, they would have a star shining above it.

The final mention goes to the last dinner of these three days, at Yuri Priemski’s Odessa, a 10 minutes’ walk from the Olympic stadium: elegant setting, shot glasses of kvas rolling in (made with vegetables of all sorts, slightly fermented and alcoholic) and the attempt to redesign, in a new form, a cuisine which, given the palpitating circumstances, has never enough time to re-interpret itself. Yet maybe that time has come.