Karo Guyumjyan was born and raised in Yerevan and is the chef at Salon, an authentic Armenian restaurant, where he works to find and restore Armenian cooking traditions.
It’s impossible to know everything, to manage everything, or to try everything. Still, I fill my life with plenty of new knowledge, work, and flavors. I’m neither a revolutionary nor an innovator. I’m Karo Guyumjyan, an Armenian and simply a good guy, and my guests keep telling me that I’m an awesome chef at Salon restaurant.
I was born and raised in the ancient and magnificent city of Yerevan. One could talk about it endlessly: its history and culture, its people, its politics, and its atmosphere. But for me personally, Yerevan is a source of strength, a part of my spirit, and my native soil. Am I a patriot? Absolutely, and I’m very glad that the city takes me, a bold guy, into its warm and spicy embrace.
I love to cook, and I always have, but my dream was to dance. Other boys were into sports or math, while I dreamed of the stage and bright costumes. Well, these days I get more than enough applause and compliments from my audience, because in a way I’m a culinary maestro in my own kitchen.
In my youth, despite some doubts, I graduated from a well-known culinary college. I have to confess there wasn’t much romance in it: it was more about discipline, education, and maximalism. After college and the army, I started working at an Italian restaurant.
Pizza, the most famous edible symbol of that festive country, played an important role in my career. For 5 years I sharpened my skills as a pizzaiolo, growing and dreaming of something more. In 2008, having also gained deep skills in French cuisine, I became a chef. My sensei, Daniel Garibaldi, helped me enormously to understand what it means to be a real chef and to acquire the skills it takes, and I’m very grateful to him for that.
I was living my life and would have gone on that way if the HMG company hadn’t offered me the job of chef at Salon, an authentic Armenian restaurant. We have been friends with the company for more than 10 years, and all my previous restaurants belong to its friendly gastronomic family. But Salon became something special for me.
A sense of my calling, my experience, and new opportunities help me find and restore Armenian cooking traditions as accurately as possible. My great wish is for every dish I create to carry both the taste and the spirit of this amazing country.
That’s why all my interests and hobbies are devoted to searching for, tasting, and restoring Armenian cooking culture in our restaurant. Like a devoted neophyte, I travel passionately to villages and the most remote corners in search of my culinary treasures.
I truly believe that I’ll have followers with the same passion who will keep developing my findings. This way, we’ll show how delicious Armenia is and, at the same time, create its gastronomic history for future generations. The mission is challenging, and I have to get to work on it! Meanwhile, please enjoy the veal in sparkling pomegranate sauce, the trout fillet with flavorful apricot sauce, and the cream salad made of the most tender eggplants.
