Ukrainian chef Veronika Shlendek. (source: Courtesy of V. S.)
When Veronika Shlendek was growing up in Horishni Plavni, a large town on the Dnieper river in Ukraine, she always dreamed of being a chef when she was older.
“I remember how my grandmother baked bread. It was magical,” she tells The Slovak Spectator.
“There are three children in our family, so there was constant commotion in the house. But when she was baking, we fell silent. Grandma used to say that bread is a holy food, so there should be peace and quiet when it is being baked. She never let us come into the kitchen, she would always tell us: ‘you can’t go in there, a miracle is occurring’. But when I was nine, she finally invited me into the kitchen. I remember it like it was yesterday. It was the day I decided to become a chef,” the 30-year-old says.
But it was a long time before Shlendek, who today lives in Bratislava, fulfilled her dream. Having studied painting at college, she took temporary jobs for a while before working as a waitress in a cafe.
One day, the cafe’s chef quit suddenly, and because the manager knew she liked to cook, he offered Shlendek the job.
In the meantime, she had become an avid follower of the Ukrainian version of the international hit cooking show MasterChef, gaining inspiration for new dishes from the programme.
