Ilya ElefteriadiCommunity profile

Chef Ilya Elefteriadis, a Greek national, set out to conquer Russian gastronomy. Today, he is a successful chef with numerous prestigious awards, experience working in high-end restaurants alongside renowned chefs from Russia and around the world, but his journey to success was not immediate.

Initially, Ilya enrolled in university to study transportation engineering and management. However, fate intervened, and at the age of 18, he found himself working at "Yakitto," the first Japanese restaurant in Kaliningrad, and realized that cooking was his true calling. After graduating from university, he pursued further education and earned a diploma as a cook. This marked the beginning of his career in the culinary world. Chef Elefteriadis continuously learned and developed his skills, which allowed him to become the head chef at the Kaliningrad restaurant-brewery "Hercules" at the age of 25. Later, he moved to St. Petersburg, the gastronomic capital of Russia, where he interned at the renowned restaurant SOSO. He then joined the restaurant HUNT as a sous chef and, after six months, became the head chef.

In parallel with his work, Chef Elefteriadis won various cooking competitions (Crimean Chef Battle, a competition organized by Unox). He also collaborated with and hosted dinners with many chefs from Russia and Europe, including Anton Ishakov, Vasily Emelyanenko, Viktor Beley, Dmitry Trushkin, Valery Poryadin, Frédéric Simon (a Michelin-starred chef from Paris), and Tim Butler (from The World's 50 Best Restaurants).

In gastronomy, Ilya Elefteriadis favors Mediterranean cuisine with Asian influences. His childhood and youth spent in Kazakhstan had a significant impact on this preference. His experience living in that country not only brings vibrancy and diversity of flavors to the chef's menu but also the most important ingredient: love in every dish.

"The most important thing in my work is to make people happy with my food. My plans and goals are to bring joy and love to people through food: to reveal and showcase the entire gastronomic potential of our region, and to use as many local, seasonal ingredients as possible," says Chef Ilya Elefteriadis.