Aleksey PolyakovCommunity profile

Alexey Polyakov is a chef with over twenty years of experience, a proponent of pure product flavors, and a follower of the Italian culinary school. He was born and raised in St. Petersburg. He received culinary training at the No. 140 vocational school on the Moyka River embankment. In 2005, while in his third year, he first worked in the preparation department of the Mama Roma restaurant chain, and in 2006, he joined Il Palazzo, located in the right wing of the Sheremetyev Palace, as an intern. At that time, the head chef was the Italian Antonio Lafuria. There, Alexey learned the fundamentals of the chef's profession, baking bread, and worked in the cold kitchen. Later in his career, he worked on several other Italian projects, such as Ristorante Italia on Razyezhaya Street, with a menu designed by Chef Vittorio de Villa. In 2008, he joined the kitchen of the Simple Bar project, which was about to open, where the brand chef was Walter Biasio, and the head chef was Gabriele Savigni, who was brought in from Italy. "Thanks to him, I fell in love with making pasta; it became my favorite process," says Alexey Polyakov. After a year of work, the restaurant closed for renovation, and Alexey became a chef at Probka. Shortly after, he had his first experience with Pan-Asian cuisine as a sous chef at the "Lapsa" project on Kadetskaya Line of Vasilyevsky Island, where the head chef was the Indonesian Tony Wi Rido. In June 2012, Alexey decided to join the new flagship Probka project in Moscow on Tsvetnoy Boulevard as a sous chef. After three years of working with Walter Biasio and Artem Dovlatyan, in 2016, he became the head chef of the restaurant. In 2020, he began working on another project as a chef: Maritozzo. In February 2022, he joined the Antonio Frezza company and returned to St. Petersburg for six months, where he helped launch Marso Polo and interned at Saviv. In September of the same year, he took over the kitchen at Saviv in Moscow, assembling his own team. After a year of work, he moved into consulting and private events. In the spring of 2024, he joined the team of ABC Coffee Roasters as a brand chef, redesigned the menu in Moscow, launched it in Dubai, and opened the first project in St. Petersburg in Andreyevsky Dvor in February 2025. In May 2025, Alexey Polyakov joined the team of the family Italian restaurant Zio Vini as a brand chef and completely revamped the menu in September.