Ilya BurnasovCommunity profile

Ilya began his career in small cafes, working as a cook, sushi chef, and bartender. His first major project was the "Terrasa" restaurant (GinzaProject), where he joined in 2007. After a year and a half, he was invited to a new Ginza project, "Baranka," and also participated in the opening of restaurants such as "Volga-Volga," "Moscow," "Plyushkin," and "Mishka's Bakery," among others.

In 2012, he became the head chef at the "President Hotel" in Zelenogorsk. Two years later, he became the head chef at the Goose-Goose restaurant. This is where Ilya's journey with Italy & Co began. Starting as the head chef of a single restaurant, he grew to become the brand chef for the entire restaurant group (Hitch, Goose-Goose, Apres Ski, Atelier "Tapas&Bar"). He also worked as a concept chef at PioNero and later opened his own pizza chain, Pizza Point. While developing his chain, he met Maxim Zhukov and Alexei Kopyrin, with whom he co-founded the Italian bistro Figata.

From a young age, Ilya was fascinated by various cooking shows, such as "Smak." He often watched children's cooking programs, writing down recipes in a notebook or cutting them out from television broadcasts. Due to his poor performance in school, he decided to attend a vocational school or college after the 9th grade. From the list of options, he chose the one that offered training in mechanics. However, his mother intervened: "Ilya, you've always wanted to be a chef!"

At that time, he lacked experience – his family didn't often go to cafes or restaurants. In Ilya's mind, a chef was a woman in a blue apron from the school cafeteria. He hadn't considered that a man could be a head chef. However, during an open day at the St. Petersburg Lyceum of Professional Culinary Arts, he saw many young men. His doubts disappeared, and Burnasov enrolled in the institution. He completed his studies with only one "C" grade.

He participated in various gastronomic festivals, including "Oh, Yes, Food!", Gastreet, "Breakfast with the Chef," and others. In 2017, he took second place in the all-Russian competition for young chefs, "At the Highest Level." In 2018, Ilya Burnasov became a participant in the largest gastronomic congress, Madrid Fusion.

Ilya completed internships with renowned chefs and restaurateurs in Moscow and abroad. He also traveled extensively, exploring lesser-known regions of Europe, meeting with local cooks and housewives, and learning their most authentic and unusual recipes.

Ilya Burnasov is passionate about implementing new and unusual ideas. He specializes in preparing meat dishes and Italian cuisine. He focuses on developing "comfort food" – familiar and delicious dishes made with a small number of ingredients.

His signature dishes are pasta and risotto. His favorite combination is Prosecco with Limoncello, just like the hospitable and emotional Italians!