Ievgen Klopotenko (Ukrainian: Євген Вікторович Клопотенко; 23 November 1986, Kyiv, Ukraine) is a Ukrainian chef, television presenter, entrepreneur and culinary expert. He is the founder of the social project "Cult Food", co-founder of the restaurant "One Hundred Years Ahead" in Kyiv, and author of Ukrainian culinary site klopotenko.com.
Ievgen Klopotenko was born in Kyiv, Ukraine. His mother is a head teacher at school, his father is an engineer.
At school No. 123, where Ievgen Klopotenko studied, there was an exchange program for students from other countries. He took part in the program and in 1995 flew to Italy.
Education
After school, Ievgen entered the Kyiv University of Tourism, Economics and Law at the faculty of international relations and he got the opportunity to practice abroad.
In 2016, Ievgen Klopotenko went to Paris where he studied at the French culinary school "Le Cordon Bleu".
Career
After graduating from the Kyiv University of Tourism, Economics and Law, Ievgen began to organize his own show "CookWars" with friends.
In 2011, Ievgen Klopotenko opened a company for production of preserves "Gastronomic Workshop Confiture" (Ukrainian: «Гастромайстерня Confiture»), together with Denis Slivnov.
In 2015, Klopotenko took part in the 5th season of the cooking show "MasterChef Ukraine", he became the winner of the show and declared that he intends to change the food culture in Ukraine.
After graduation, Ievgen Klopotenko returned to Ukraine and began working on changing the country's food culture. First, he created his own cooking website klopotenko.com, where his author's recipes are published. Then he began to publish his culinary articles in such media as Novoye Vremya, Channel 24, Obozrevatel, Elle, Marie Claire Ukraine, and others.
Ievgen Klopotenko also runs his own YouTube channel, where he publishes video recipes, as well as reviews of restaurants of Kyiv and gastronomic services.
In 2016, Ievgen Klopotenko launched the project "Cult Food", which deals with changing the nutrition in Ukrainian school canteens, as well as the reform of cookery education in one of the culinary colleges in Kyiv, which in the future will become an example for changing other similar educational institutions.
In April 2017, he released on the educational platform Eduget.com own online cooking course "Think like a cook".
In 2017, Klopotenko's team received a grant from the Auchan Foundation for youth to create new recipes for food in schools in Ukraine. The result of the project, based on the feedback of more than 1,500 parents and students, was the development of 110 unique recipes, which were later included in the collection.
In December 2018, the State Service of Ukraine for Food Safety and Consumer Protection issued a conclusion of the state sanitary and epidemiological expertise, which was granted permission to implement the program.
In February 2019, a press conference was held to summarize the interim results of the "New School Nutrition" program, and the collection was published on the project's website cultfood.info. Immediately after the publication of the introduction of the new school menu, some cities such as Poltava, Kremenchuk, Rivne, Ternopil, Kakhovka announced the introduction of a new school nutrition. Preparations are underway for the introduction of new school nutritions throughout Ukraine now.
In 2019, Ievgen Klopotenko became a co-owner of the restaurant of modern Ukrainian cuisine "One Hundred Years Ahead" in Kyiv. In October 2019, National Geographic selected the restaurant for the filming of a story about Ukrainian cuisine and borsch.
Also, he was included in the list of top 10 stylish men by the Elle Man Awards 2019.
In 2020, Klopotenko signed a memorandum of cooperation with the Ministry of Education and Science of Ukraine and became an ambassador of vocational education reform. As part of the collaboration, Ievgen contributes to improving the training of chefs. He also founded a non-profit organization to advance borscht as the national food of Ukraine.
Social projects
In 2017, Ievgen Klopotenko founded Cult Food, a social project to improve food culture. The project team is currently developing three areas:
Changing nutritions in school canteens — The goal of the program is to increase and expand the level of healthy food culture in educational institutions;
Reform of culinary education — The goal of the program is to improve the training of chefs;
Reform of vocational schools — The project is currently under development.
