Celebrated Ukrainian chef Ievgen Klopotenko is visiting Nottingham for an exclusive six-course gala dinner raising funds for charity. Theatre of Borsch serves up a secret menu for diners who attend the one-off event and promises to immerse people in Ukrainian culture and give a "taste of Ukraine".
Klopotenko's restaurant in Ukraine is called 100 Rokiv Tomu Vpered which translates at "100 years ago in the future". He is included in the list of 50 world leaders who shape gastronomy trends and the winner of the World Influencer and Bloggers Awards 2022. Ukraine's answer to Jamie Oliver, he launched an initiative to improve school dinners in his homeland.
The £75-a-head dinner is raising funds for humanitarian aid in Ukraine. It will take place at Strelley Hall, in Main Street, Strelley, on Tuesday, November 22, from 7pm. As well as a unique menu, guests will be treated to a performance by a Ukrainian folk ensemble and will be able to bid in an auction of unique lots. There will also be an opportunity to buy Klopotenko's cookbook with the author's autograph.
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Klopotenko's two main goals are to improve the food culture of Ukraine and to show it to the world. His love of gastronomy began with his travels to the UK and Italy, which changed his understanding of food and led to a career working as a server in restaurants in Germany, Ukraine and the US, before the transition to cooking.
In 2015, he won MasterChef Ukraine, a victory that gave him the platform for his current projects and the confidence to study at Le Cordon Bleu in Paris. He started a cooking website and a YouTube channel demonstrating Ukrainian recipes and in 2016 launched Cult Food, an initiative to provide better school meals.
With the support of the national Government, he also wrote a manual with more than 100 recipes for use in schools, and is currently campaigning to get Ukrainian cultural heritage status for the beetroot soup dish, borscht, whose provenance is hotly disputed with Russia. Ievgen’s work continues with a restaurant he co-founded in 2019, where he researches how his nation’s people used to eat a century ago and provides modern takes on those historic recipes.
He has written several cookbooks as well as launching online courses for amateur cooks and continuing his quest to put Ukrainian cuisine on the global gastronomic map. Tickets for the event can be bought here.
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