Oleksandr Kovalchuk: 'The young chef generation is our chance'
A second conversation with the Mons Pius chef — on mentoring work with young cooks and the breakthrough Ukrainian gastronomy is making through generational change.
Our second meeting with Oleksandr Kovalchuk — at his gastronomic lab at Mons Pius, where every Sunday the chef runs free masterclasses for young cooks from Lviv, Ternopil, Ivano-Frankivsk. 'This is not altruism, this is investment,' Kovalchuk says. 'In 10 years these guys and girls will be chefs at leading Ukrainian restaurants. Every hour I spend with them today is our shared gastronomic quality tomorrow.'
Kovalchuk asserts that the young generation of Ukrainian chefs is qualitatively different from his own: 'They were born already in independent Ukraine; for them there is no „Soviet block“ in taste. They immediately think in the format „my country has its own gastronomic school“.' The last three graduates of Kovalchuk's programme — Daryna Kulynyak (currently sous-chef at Kyiv's Kanapa), Bohdan Hrabovetskyi (opened his own venue in Ternopil in 2025), Olena Chaban (chef's assistant at Dnipro's Reporter). 'By 2030 these three will become leaders of Ukrainian gastronomy,' Kovalchuk confidently says. 'And by 2040 one of them will get a Michelin.'
