On September 16, the Young Chefs 2025 Summit was held at Parkovy Convention and Exhibition Center: a nationwide event for restaurateurs, chefs, and gastronomy researchers. This year’s focus was the relationship between foodservice venues and urban identity — how a city’s history shapes its culinary traditions, and how restaurants, in turn, become hubs of social life. The event gathered over 700 guests and 30 speakers.
The third floor of the complex was fully engaged. As is customary for events of this scale, organizers used the
Convention and Concert Hall — a 750 m² venue. Here, participants spoke about food, cities, people, and the pulse of life that gives rise to new flavors. They also explored how a city’s gastronomic identity is formed — in markets, courtyards, memories, and people.
Headliners on the main stage included:
- Anton Yatsuk, Brand Chef at TONY;
- Yurii Bilen, Head Chef at La Luce;
- Oleksii Dvorkin, Brand Chef at Zelda, Negroni, and Spatium Rest; owner of the Lastivka grill truck;
- Danyil Onufriiev, Street Chef;
- Ruslan Miroshnychenko, Head Chef at Avtostantsiya;
- Nadiia Noskova, author of the Telegram channel “Food Amid Sirens”, Growth Manager at the 3+1 group;
- Illia Siomin, Co-owner and Chef at Food Spot, Pie Spot; Pizza, Pie Spot Burger Club, Thai Spot, Chica Poblana, SPELTA, SPELTA Zoloti, and Kyivkraut.
The hall also hosted the first-ever Pastry Jam Session, where gastro-industry experts created signature desserts dedicated to different cities across Ukraine.
Right next door, the
conference zones offered an intensive learning atmosphere. Organizers ran a Creative Lab and a Food Lab, where speakers shared insights on topics such as: “how to discover your strengths and turn them into a product,” “contemporary photography in gastro-communications,” “how imagination, branding, and collaborations transform a business,” “how to build a profitable mono-product business with a $100 starting budget, even without prior experience,” and much more.
Thanks to the venue’s unique layout, sessions ran in parallel, and guests could move conveniently between lectures. Speakers on the Creative Lab and Food Lab stages included:
- Polina Vyshnia, CEO of Vyshnia.agency;
- Olha Sosiura, food photographer and food stylist; currently working on a project about beans;
- Vlad Bolsun, Founder & CEO of the merch agency select form;
- Yevhen Menzelevskyi, Chef; Co-owner of Sushi Boys;
- Liliia Abdulkader and Dmytro Oseledets, Co-founders of the Japanese craft onigiri brand Kolobok Bo;
- Dmytro Kryvoshap, Head Chef at Bavovna;
- Vadym Herbut, Head Chef, Stories Cafe.
This year, Parkovy’s
summer terrace became a miniature street-food market — five stations with chef and top-venue pop-ups were open to visitors.
We thank the organizers for consistently choosing Parkovy to host the highest-caliber gastro events for several years in a row! And to see how previous Hoteliero events went — check below!
See you at Parkovy!
