Chef and Gastro – a culinary challenge for professionals
An interview with the creators of Chef and Gastro, a culinary portal for professional chefs and restaurateurs.
Chef and Gastro is a culinary information resource for professional chefs and restaurateurs. It covers restaurant and kitchen management, recipes, product information, culinary tools, cost calculations, kitchen management spreadsheets, culinary guides and menus.
The website’s founder, chef Georgi Kotev, explains:
“We strive to be a professional website for everyone interested in gastronomy, where they can expand their professional knowledge and find reliable information. Our goal is to provide culinary resources for restaurateurs, chefs and food enthusiasts. The site contains culinary information and recipes, as well as useful information on running a restaurant successfully. Chef and Gastro offers new and varied information every week.”
How did Chef and Gastro begin?
Chef & Gastro appeared in early 2020. Georgi was working in Switzerland when the long pause caused by the COVID pandemic inspired the idea of a Bulgarian-language culinary website for professionals. The founders have more than 25 years of experience in the industry. Their team includes Miroslava Petarcheva, a philologist, psychologist and copywriter with many years of experience. The beginning was difficult and the concept was not fully defined. After one year, the entire website was rebranded and restructured.
Who is Georgi Kotev?
He grew up in restaurants, both literally and figuratively, and has worked in several countries in Europe and Africa. At the time of this interview, he was based in Switzerland and responsible for the kitchens on five boats on Lake Brienz.
While studying in Switzerland, he found that the industry and culinary education in Bulgaria were still operating at a late twentieth-century level. Cooking and restaurant management have changed considerably in the twenty-first century. Georgi and his brother Stanislav decided to help change the status quo through their own work and resources, accompanied by a great deal of optimism.
Chef and Gastro – the challenge continues
The website’s tireless team continues to share information about gastronomy, kitchens and restaurants. It is aimed at professionals and students in vocational schools, with the goal of contributing to lasting improvements in culinary education in Bulgaria.
Georgi Kotev has more ideas he hopes to put into practice. He shares some of his plans:
“I hope we will have the opportunity to establish a truly professional organisation for chefs and restaurateurs, dedicated to improving opportunities for further training in the industry. We also hope to create a new collective labour agreement that reflects modern working conditions and the specific nature of the industry, and protects the rights of those working in it.”
We wish Chef & Gastro continued success in “cooking up” its website according to its own recipe: hard work, quality content and teamwork, seasoned with good humour and a boundless love of delicious food.