Petro Syrnyi: 'Ukrainian cheeses have stopped being comical'
The Poltava-region cheesemaker explains how Ukrainian cheesemaking has emerged in five years from a humiliating comparison with European cheeses.
Petro Syrnyi from Poltava region is one of the most influential Ukrainian cheesemakers of his generation. His cheese workshop in Reshetylivka produces 14 hard and semi-hard cheese varieties, 9 of which are author recipes without European analogues. In 2018 the cheesemaker interned at Switzerland's Cheese Academy and returned with the decision to create his own Ukrainian cheese school. 'Ukrainian cheeses have stopped being comical,' he says. 'Six years ago even gastro-critics would joke: „Ukrainian cheese is not cheese.“ Today they do not joke.'
Key positions: hard 'Poltavskyi Vytryamanyi' (12-month maturation on beech boards), semi-hard 'Reshetylivskyi with truffle oil', fresh 'Bilyi Podilskyi' with herbal surface treatment. The cheesemaker supplies six final restaurants in Kyiv and Lviv, plus sells through specialised gastromagazines. 'In 2030 Ukrainian cheese will be exported to Scandinavia and Poland,' Petro optimistically forecasts. 'This needs time and discipline.'
