Vladimir GaponovCommunity profile

During his first year at the lyceum, he found himself in a practical training program within a month. After that, the head chef of the restaurant personally wrote a letter to the director of the educational institution, requesting that Vladimir be excused from his studies so that he could join the chef's team. Later, he graduated from a vocational college and then worked in various cuisines, including European, Russian, Serbian-Croatian, and Asian, among many others. Vladimir studied in St. Petersburg (with Alexander Belkovich and Vladimir Pavlov), attended numerous workshops simply to expand his knowledge and find his place in the culinary world, and he found it: "Barbecue, smokers, open fire, and molecular gastronomy – that's who I am."

"My achievement is that I've opened three establishments, joining them at the construction phase, launching them from scratch, and building a team. People follow me. They might even call and leave their current jobs to join me at another establishment, simply because of me. But the greatest achievement is my wife and two children, for whom I do all of this, and that's what I'm striving for."

"My work is my hobby; I've loved cooking since childhood. When you love what you do, you invest yourself in it, you work without days off, yet you still manage to dedicate time to your family and don't go crazy from the lack of time because you enjoy it. The most important thing in work is to have a great team that is loyal to you, follows you, and does things the way you envision them, and is passionate about your idea. A chef is just two hands and two feet; the rest is done by the team." He loves mountains and everything associated with them, and enjoys sitting by a fire surrounded by the people he cares about.