"Online is a challenge": Yurii Kovryzhenko on how to be a brand chef in SMILEFOOD online restaurants

Богдан Петришин

New Asian dishes have been added to the SMILEFOOD online restaurant chain in the "Rice and Noodles" menu section. The changes took place at the suggestion of the SMILEFOOD brand chef and the ambassador of Ukrainian cuisine in the world, Yurii Kovryzhenko. With their multifaceted taste, these dishes excite the taste buds of even the most sophisticated gourmets. The new rice and noodles combine the incomprehensible: spicy, sweet, sour. The taste enhances the abundance of spices, sauces, and seasonings, which are traditional for Asian cuisine. We talked to Yurii personally about new dishes, restaurants in the post-like era, culinary philosophy, and more.

— Since February 2021, you've become the brand chef of SMILEFOOD. What does this mean to you and why did you decide to cooperate with this restaurant?

— Being the chef of an offline restaurant is one thing: you see people, their eyes, you immediately hear feedback, you're on the ground and always control what goes out to the guests. Online is always a challenge. The challenge is whether you can embrace immensity. For me, as a chef, the challenge is to try working online, not offline. A very interesting experience in the sense that you can observe how the system works, how the implementation and development take place online. In any case, the whole world goes online and this is the future.