Restaurants give a very clear picture of culture because “the most natural thing for people to do in society, around other people, is to eat,” believes Dasha Malakhova, a 40-year-old restaurateur, actress and former culinary TV host.
Her restaurant Kartata Potata in Kyiv, named after the culinary TV show she hosted, closed on Dec. 31. She says she gained a clear understanding of patterns and needs of the Ukrainian restaurant business from the experience and will open a new venue soon.
She’s lived in Britain for 10 years, studied at Royal Welsh College of Music and Drama in Britain, with actor Antony Hopkins as her course director. Also, the globe trotter used to own a restaurant in Wales.
Whether visiting new places, or observing people in her own restaurant, she pays attention to details.
“For example, in Israel you see people eating from each other’s plates and understand how open they are,” Malakhova says. “In Austria or France you’d never see people sharing food.”
A rude gesture that she says is typical for Ukrainian restaurants, which she also noticed in the United Arab Emirates, is snapping fingers and calling a waiter loudly over the whole room. She calls it bad manners and a sign of a “slave mentality.” But that’s not the only thing she wants Ukrainians to get rid of.
“One of the biggest problems is that we are way behind world’s trends,” she says. “Burgers were popular 10 years ago, and we started having burger restaurants only five years ago. What’s trendy in the United States soon becomes trendy in Ukraine and we are not innovating, we’re just imitating.”
Kyiv restaurants, Malakhova says, have an easily recognizable set of tools, which are usually based on a geographic theme: Japanese, Italian, or Greek cuisine, but “we do not have restaurants based on other qualities, for example, very small vegetarian or organic restaurants.”
Ukraine also has few middle -class restaurants. While launching a restaurant, owners aspire to be exclusive and open up luxury places with high prices, she says. She cites her closed Kartata Potata as a failed example to operate a middle-class restaurant.
Kartata Potata
Malakhova tried to set moderate prices and serve decent but simple food to create a cozy place. But it was hard to keep low prices and a high level of service.
Another problem was that farmers were not quick on delivering enough products for the restaurant.
“A farmer can give me only 200 chickens a month because he can only produce 200 chickens,” she says. “But I based my menu on a farmer chicken (ecologically clean and fed with organic products), so I needed to go to the market and buy non-farmer chicken and tell you this was a farmer chicken.”
Malakhova did not want to lie to her clients, also contributing to her decision to close the place.
Many Ukrainians still only visit restaurants for special occasions, while she strived to create an atmosphere for people to take in a quiet dinner after a long tense day.
Malakhova says her next venue will be the combination of a restaurant, a cooking school and a place to gather old friends or to network.
Idea for 20 is born
Malakhova came up with the idea about a week ago. Her new restaurant, which will be called 20, will be opened only one Thursday every two weeks and will work only in the evening. Guests will buy a ticket for 50–80 euros and come to a dinner served with 20 dishes for 20 people who will sit at one big table. The cuisine could vary: Mexican, Italian, farmer’s food. Gests will not only try high-quality food, but will also learn how it was cooked.
“We take the best chef, and we communicate,” Malakhova says. “We explain how and why we cooked this food.”
Aside from planning the new restaurant, Malakhova is an actress at Kyiv Academic Drama Theater on Podil, teaches people cooking at her school and raises two children. After a divorce in 2015, she married Ukrainian athlete Sergey Sulim in 2016.
She says she doesn’t plan to return to TV screens and does not believe that being recognized on the streets helps to make a restaurant popular.
“To a certain extent, if you are famous, it’s easier to have a PR campaign,” says Malakhova. “But it’s a very short span. People coming to an opening of the restaurant and people spending time in the restaurant are totally different people.”
