Yurii Koshyk

If there was ever a challenge to a chef’s expertise, it comes at Yurii Koshyk’s Pretty High Kitchen restaurant in Lviv. Forget a menu – customers just talk directly to the chefs about what they’d like to eat and the meal is created for them!

It’s a daring and unique concept, but one which Yurii believes that helps to “fully grasp the needs and preferences of the guest.”

Initially planning to be an architect – and also with a time as a rugby player for the Ukranian national team - Yurii decided instead to follow his passion for food, starting working in kitchens with no experience or training.

"One day, I made the decision to try to make a difference and do something I would really like,” he said.

It’s a living, breathing example that talent will out, with Yurii making contacts in the culinary world and successfully making that transition from keen amateur to committed professional.

He found a mentor in chef Ivan Shyshkin, who travelled to Lviv to start his own restaurants, who guided him through his culinary adventure. “Ivan taught me to consider things from other perspectives, to consider things that don’t exist or have never been done before, and to experiment with them.

He was a guide to a different world of cooking,” explained Yurii.

The goal of Yurii Koshyk is to alter Ukrainians’ attitudes towards food and raise their gastronomic consciousness. “We are accustomed to consuming what is readily available rather than what tastes good. I want to fix this with all of my physical and moral power,” he said.

While there’s no doubt his skill in creating a fine dining experience, Yurii’s heart lies with straightforward, honest home cooking. “No one has created a dish that, in my opinion, tastes better than homemade chicken in homemade broth,” he said.

“But we also need to evolve from the past, to reflect what is really happening in our country in our food.