Kyiv native Yan Nguyen, who has Vietnamese roots, long devoted himself to dance. Today he is a chef at the Carte Blanche group's Arena Beer House, Decadence House and Martini Terrazza.
Do you remember the well-known Sting song “Englishman in New York”? I could easily sing it about myself, a Kyiv native with Vietnamese roots. You would expect someone about to turn 33 to think about enduring values, but I'm still that little Kyiv boy.
My name is Yan Nguyen. I'm happy to live and create in a city of chestnut trees and endless embankments along the blue-gray Dnipro River. Did I dream of becoming a chef in a toque? Of course not: I was an ordinary mischievous kid, as mischievous as a monkey and full of brilliant ideas.
But I always knew what I wanted, and I wanted to dance. For a long time my life was connected with the art of movement, and that is definitely my element. Thoughts about food and creating it took shape in my crazy head mostly through bright images from my childhood.
Here is my father cooking sweet-smelling prawn pancakes, and there are the red lanterns of chili peppers he used to cherish on the windowsill. And here are my brother and I making slightly clumsy cakes and cookies out of a gray, sweet, sticky mass. The failed “masterpieces” went straight out of the window without a second thought. Carpet bombing, so to speak!
As a teenager, I used to deliver lunches. That was the first time I saw cooking from the other side, and I got lost in it. Daring and inquisitive by nature, I met every new challenge by learning like crazy.
What was I learning? Practically everything: the combination of tastes, colors, smells and visual elements, and the physical and chemical side of creating food.
Food must be tasty, otherwise there's no point in it. Life should be made up of a mosaic of pleasant moments and a few edgy emotions, just like any good dish.
My life is full of love. Love for my wife and daughter: these amazing women create incredible comfort and are very caring. Love for my brother, who is a great chef, my companion and my best friend.
Love for my work: I'm a chef at the Carte Blanche restaurant group, namely at Arena Beer House, Decadence House and Martini Terrazza. And, finally, love for food! Love keeps inspiring me with brilliant new ideas, and thanks to love I'm always ready to conquer new peaks of the Culinary Olympics.
