In the midst of the peaceful woods of Kyiv Oblast injured soldiers at military barracks A 2923 were in store for something special on Aug. 20.
Waiting for them in the Soviet era dinning hall was a spread of foods prepared by some of the best chefs in Kyiv for an event known Gastrosreda, or culinary Wednesday.
As the injured soldiers entered the hall and began lining up to choose food from the buffet, mellow beats filled the room.
“The food is really different from what we get. During my year and a half of service I haven’t gotten to have anything like this,” said Ruslan 21, who declined to provide his last name.
Ruslan was being treated for an issue with his lungs and said he would soon be sent to relieve soldiers at the front.
The food on offer ranged from British-style meat pies to sushi, and from Japanese ice cream to patriotic Ukrainian cakes.
The event not only showed how Kyiv’s culinary culture has been changing in general, but also how it, and Ukrainian society, have been changed by protests and war.
“It all started five years ago when a group of crazy people who all loved to cook came together,” said organizer and founder Victoria Parkhomenko of the supper club.
Then it was all about meeting and enjoying food with some people bringing dishes they had made and others bringing the wine. All of that changed once protests started on Kyiv’s Maidan against President Yanukovych.
“Then we opened a kitchen on Maidan, and when the war started we asked ourselves what we could do,” said Vadym Gruzyn, a veteran cruise ship chef and businessman, who was wearing a t-shirt with a popular expletive about Russian President Vladimir Putin.
“We wanted to help the wounded and not just by bringing them food, but also by communication,” he added.
The food Gastrosreda serves to wonded Ukrainian soldiers comes from both restaurants and the personal kitchens of foodies, who are on hand to serve it and make sure it gets put to good use.
“Our restaurant opened in January, which was a difficult time, and already in February we were participating in Gastrosreda for the first time,” said Marisabel Hulko of the restaurant Engineer, which she runs with her husband Mikhaylo.
For the dinner on August 20 they prepared the traditional stuffed peppers every Ukrainian knows, but with a twist: they were stuffed with jambalaya. Marisabel says it was important for to make something for the soldiers reminiscent of home.
As the young soldiers, most of whom are fulfilling their mandatory military service, filled their plates, the smiles were easy to see.
“It is the first time we have seen anything like this. It is like being home,” said Ihor Myronikov, 21. “We get a lot of traditional food borsch, soup, kasha, and seasonal things.”
Though Myronikov was smiling today, it was also clear that he has not had an easy road. Before being brought to the military hospital he had been fighting in Slovyansk.
“People hadn’t seen death before and weren’t psychologically prepared for it,” he says of the recruits on the front lines during the early days of the war. Because of that unpreparedness and outrage from relatives, he says commanders think twice before sending new recruits to fight.
Though the main gathering is in the dinning hall, the food does not just stay there. Taking plates, pitchers, and cups in hand, the cooks and helpers headed to the hospital.
There they argue with doctors and nurses to enter the rooms of those who can’t walk in order to make sure they get something to eat as well, and a little conversation.
“It is a good hospital; only one or two people per room,” Olga Sokalska says after leading the food procession, making it clear she has seen far worse.
Back at the dinning hall the soldiers have begun to clear out as they prepare for roll call and they are plied with food to take with them.
As they leave, at one of the tables sits Anatoliy Oprishenko, 87, a retired colonel originally from Donetsk, wearing a Hero of Ukraine medal.
“I want the government to make peace. Enough blood has been spilled,” he said.
Kyiv Post staff writer Ian Bateson can be reached at [email protected]. Follow him on Twitter @ianbateson.
