Travelling and studying are the perfect combination. Exploring new languages, cultures, and life styles, students have the ideal opportunity to get a clearer picture of the diverse beauty the world has to offer while studying abroad. And when it comes to studying the culinary arts, cross-cultural exploration is the ultimate terrain for new ideas and creative recipes. New-age gastronomy promotes fusion kitchens, which offers chefs complete freedom of creativity, as long as they are brave enough to show what they’ve got and curious enough to try new things. Along with a kitchen and all its appliances, a modern chef needs something else: a passport and the courage to step out into the world.
Culinary Institute Kul-IN has a new generation of chefs, and they all have that “something else.” This year, we have a group of international students who entered Kul IN and ALMA’s joint program for Italian cuisine: Tetiana Ostrogliad and Andrii Plotnikov from Ukraine and Yaqub Zeynalov from Azerbaijan.
Gastrovirgins
Andrii and Tetiana are a married couple from the city of Kharkiv in Ukraine. They don't just share mutual love but from recently they also have in common a passion for cooking. Their story is a perfect example how it's never too late to discover the real vocation in us. Tetiana was the owner of the marketing agency, originally a journalist by profession, and Andrii owned company for office furniture. As successful entrepreneurs they came to the personal and professional saturation and decided to completely change their lives and search for new challenges. They decided to replace busy city life, stressful business meetings with studying for Professional Cooks of Italian Cuisine at Kul IN and ALMA. Turning back to school was good for them so they could realize that their real true love is actually cooking. Since there is so much learning ahead of Tetiana and Andriia they calle themselves gastrovirgins. Although the gastrovirgins are at their fresh start they are so fascinated with cooking and Croatia that they decided after studies in Italy to come back and open their own restaurant. If you would like to follow Tetiana's and Andrii's studying in Italy and all their adventures and experiences from opening a restaurant in Croatia you can check out their facebook page called How we opened a restaurant in Croatia.
“Seriously, it is very cool to feed people!”
-Tetiana Ostrogliad
“It is so interesting. It has a lot creativity, difficulty but gives me real sastisfaction!”
- Andri Plotnikov
One boot journey
During the study of Economy and management in Lithuania, Yaqub has decided to take a year off to study Culinary Arts. As a young man who is still in search of his professional dreams, Yaqub decided to upgrade his knowledge in another profession. Having no previous knowledge in cooking, at every step he watched with excitement and absorbed all the knowledge. Although he still has a lot of work and learning in front of him, Yaqub has a more complete picture of himself.
“Professional cooks make amazing and tasty food. They also improve traditional recipes. I would like to get more experience in different cuisines and different regions as well, to improve my skills, then to bring it to my country and improve my national cuisine. Finally I want to open my own small and cosy café or restaurant to serve people and to give them tastes from all around the world. I want to use gastronomy to share knowledge.”
- Yaqub Zeynalov
