Luxury restaurants in Kiev exchange caviar for free food

Dozens of oysters abandoned in a corner of the Chernomorka seafood restaurant in Kiev are all that remains from the gastronomic effervescence of the Ukrainian capital until the Russian invasion, almost a month ago.

Now, this trendy downtown venue, decorated like a blue and white lighthouse, serves free food to the inhabitants of Kiev, who are slowly surrounded by Russian forces.

Chernomorka is one of the restaurants involved in the war device, to help people who have trouble finding food.

“This is what we can do,” says Dmitro Kostrubin, 42, who is responsible for the development of the establishment, while several older people are eating on polystyrene trays.

Blinis with trout caviar, pike caviar with green onions or mussels with Thermidor sauce have disappeared from the menu since the restaurant closed on February 24, the first day of the Russian invasion.

People who are now going to the Chernomorka are given a hearty dish of rice with chicken.

There is also no champagne and food is served with a glass of orange juice. The sale of alcohol has been banned in Ukraine since the beginning of the war.

Although everyone can go to the restaurant, most people who come are older, Kostrubin explains.

“Some of them order food for neighbors who can't go out or are in bed. Obviously we trust them and we give them too,” adds the official, who managed to return to Ukraine from abroad last week.

- “A good idea” -

Until now, the Ukrainian capital has not been bombed by the Russian army as Kharkiv, the country's second city, or Mariupol, the strategic port on the Azov Sea, whose siege Ukrainians compare with that of Leningrad — now St. Petersburg — during World War II.

However, there is a shortage of fresh produce in shops and long lines form.

“It takes strength to stand in line for food,” says Minuar Barisbekova, a retired accountant from a construction company, as he picks up a packed lunch.

This woman learned about the existence of this free food distribution thanks to an email. And he decided to come here to “unnumb the legs.” Otherwise, “I stay home from morning to night turning my fears around,” he added.

“I was thinking of volunteering, but they didn't want to accept me, I'm 74 years old,” she explains.

Mila Anderson accompanies her 83-year-old mother Liudmila. This helps, in the “stress” of living in a city with daily bombing. “It's a good idea,” says this English teacher.

“I had never come here but had heard of this fish restaurant (...) Now they don't have all these things, but hopefully this will all be over soon,” he adds.

The free meals are distributed in coordination with the Kiev Food Market, founded by Ukrainian restaurateur Alex Cooper, who owns a number of restaurants throughout the country.

An army needs to eat and numerous restaurants in the capital are also mobilizing to feed the fighters. Pavlo Chevtsov, at the head of the Molodist of the Food Market, indicates that he has already prepared about 6,000 meals for “our men”.

“We know how to cook,” he says. “Maybe we don't know how to fight, or carry medicines, weapons or ammunition. But we are there and we do what we can,” he said.

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