Author:
Alberto Ruiz
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Tetyana Verbytska‘s late entry into the pastry vocation has not impeded her to reach high professional and educational levels. The chef comments within the pages of So Good.. magazine the sweet revolution she experiences in her country, Ukraine, and of which she is undoubtedly protagonist. ‘If we compare pastry in Ukraine 10 years ago and what it is know, we can see a huge progress and it does not stop growing. I am happy with this progress and invest all my passion for pastry to encourage it”.
Right after studying Economics, she realized what truly made her happy was patisserie. Seven years ago, after the birth of her second son, she put her career on hold and became a successful blogger, writing about her pastry ideas. She obtained an academic degree in the trade and attended a master class by the World Champion, Patrick Casula, “my world turned upside down with the new, work-quality standard he presented us. I came to France a few times to learn in pastry schools. It was not easy financially, so I decided to invite French chefs to Kiev. The first one was MOF Nicolas Boussin. I am very grateful to this chef for trusting me and for his high work standard. His words ‘Your line is too thick’ allowed me to make my line fine and enter the pastry profession in the end”, says Tetyana Verbytska.
“If we compare pastry in Ukraine 10 years ago and what it is now, we can see a huge progress and it does not stop growing. I am happy with this progress and invest all my passion for pastry to encourage it”
This is how the Kiev International Culinary Academy was born. “We propose three-day demo classes to our students to be carried out by the best French chefs, MOFs and world champions that we invite to Kiev every month. Starting from March 2015 we propose on-line live demonstrations of those classes with a translation in English. This way, we have a real global presence in each of our classes. We also have one-month practical classes that I carry out as a teacher. Students work in a small group and do every recipe on their own. I am often astonished and proud with their exam work and how fine their lines are inside and outside of their work. The school is well equipped with necessary, modern, powerful, high-quality machines, small instruments brought from France and Japan. The school maintains working conditions the way a world-class French pastry chef or like a junior who feels real pleasure working here in KICA”. The School responds to the enormous and growing interest in Ukraine and other countries for good French-style pastries. They open new pastry shops and a new ingredient, utensil, and equipment business emerges. There is a real fever. And all this despite the complicated political and economic situation in the whole area. Evolution is evident.
But Tetyana Verbytska is not only an excellent patisserie professor. She is also the tireless creator of her own recipes, with a style she has been honing and defining alongside great chefs who visit the school periodically “My creations should bring a real pleasure for those who will be looking at and tasting them. Usually those who taste the creations are our students, who are mostly women. Those who look are visitors to our online platforms. Visually, there is always a fine line of femininity and beauty. At the beginning of the work, it is not conscious. I love elegance. I love to wear my creations in beautifully designed clothes. In terms of taste, I love when it is easy to feel and know which flavors the creator had in store for you. The surprise may come from the texture’s variety. In my schools and with my teachers, I learned about the importance of using just a few flavors, but instead using a variety of textures” she concludes.
