Yaroslav BalenCommunity profile

Yaroslav Balyon showed an interest in cooking from a young age, and it was then that he realized what he wanted to be in the future. In 2010, he enrolled in the Kostanay College of Service Industries, and in 2013, while studying in his third year, he became the best young chef in the Republic of Kazakhstan.

The next stage in Yaroslav's career was a move to Moscow in 2014, where he started as a sous chef at Jamie Oliver's restaurant, Jamie's Italian. In 2015, he took on the position of hot kitchen chef at Twins, which was gaining recognition in international rankings at the time.

His debut as a head chef came in November 2015 at the wine bar 13°. After that, Yaroslav participated in the opening of several projects in Kaliningrad, launched gastronomic dinners on the ship "Vityaz," and in 2016, he moved to Germany to work as a hot kitchen chef at the renowned two-Michelin-starred restaurant, Residenz Heinz Winkler.

Returning to Moscow in 2017, he had time to work as a sous chef at the restaurant Stories, opened his first personal project – the mobile burger restaurant WDBurgers, and also became an ambassador for Russian cuisine in Switzerland and Russia at the annual private aviation exhibition Gallery 2 fly. In 2019, Yaroslav became the brand chef of the True Cost Bar & Grill restaurant chain, and in 2020, he joined Grand Café 12.

In November 2023, he was invited to work as a brand chef at the Main Wine restaurant, specializing in авторская (author's) and Far Eastern cuisine, in Khabarovsk, where he hosted gastronomic dinners and masterclasses. At the beginning of 2024, he moved to Dagestan for six months, where he held the positions of concept chef and commercial director at the projects Teato and Nomad.

In December 2024, Yaroslav was invited as a head chef to Sansa, an elegant three-story premium restaurant on Prechistenskaya Embankment, with a Mediterranean resort concept.

"Style in food is like style in life," Yaroslav believes.