Dream ticket: Olga Tsybytovska and Yurii Kovryzhenko have opened Mriya on Old Brompton Road
(Picture: Photography by Natasha Pszenicki, assisted by Monty Vann)While brushing leaves off a table in his new restaurant’s courtyard, Yurii Kovryzhenko points out a wooden bannister in the corner. The celebrated Ukrainian chef tells me that it was salvaged from an affluent home in Lviv that is now rubble. Presented without pomp or grandeur, it is just one of the things which has found refuge at Kovryzhenko’s first London restaurant, Mriya. The Chelsea bistro is set to be the capital’s new focal point for celebrating Ukrainian culture, both a spot for discovering the country’s cuisine and a home away from home for displaced nationals. But for the stranded chef, it is a source of purpose and salvation.
Kovryzhenko has spent the last 12 years travelling the world as a cultural diplomat. He came to London in February to run a cookery masterclass for Ukrainian students but plans changed overnight when war broke out. “We made around 700 dumplings for the students and then the next day, we were feeding them to volunteers,” he remembers. Since that first shift of gears, Kovryzhenko and his partner Olga Tsybytovska have worked non-stop to support Ukraine.
