The best chef in the republic works in the school canteen of Novopolotsk
Master chef of OJSC "Bazis-Novopolotsk" Inna Krivko became the winner of the republican competition of culinary art and service, where 30 of the best specialists in the industry competed.
It is commonly believed that the best chefs work in prestigious restaurants. And our heroine has been tempted by similar offers more than once. But for 15 years now, she has been cooking for the most capricious category of the population – schoolchildren, showing initiative, creativity, and imagination. Currently, Inna Ivanovna manages the production of the canteen of Novopolotsk Gymnasium No. 1 and makes great efforts to ensure that children's meals are tasty, healthy, and varied. Children are offered up to 17 types of cold appetizers daily, 4-5 hot main courses, more than 30 confectionery and culinary products, including 6-8 types of homemade baked goods. You can also order stuffed cabbage rolls, dumplings, juliennes, as well as healthy sweet desserts. To interest the children, a bar called "Tetris" was opened at the gymnasium on the initiative of the administration, becoming the first such establishment in the schools of the Vitebsk region. Here you can celebrate holidays and birthdays, for which the school chefs (and there are three of them) will definitely prepare something special.
— It's nice," says Inna Krivko, "when students in the senior grades begin to understand the value of healthy eating. This means that our efforts to distract them from fast food are not in vain. Children like beautiful dishes, unusual presentation of food, and we try to interest them in every possible way.
Tatyana Skripkina, head of the school catering network of OJSC «Bazis-Novopolotsk», fully agrees with her colleague. She is confident that it is precisely the best masters of their craft who should feed children so that the country has a healthy future.
In the city's educational institutions, as the head explained, professional skill competitions and tasting exhibitions are constantly held. For example, 36 types of this healthy breakfast were presented at the kasha festival. No less than 50 dishes, including meat dishes, sweets, and cakes, could be tasted at the exhibition «Pancake Kingdom», and over 60 at the Belarusian cuisine day «Bulba – Queen of Delicacies». Special equipment has been purchased for educational institutions that allows for the preparation of healthy desserts: cottage cheese mousses, puddings, whipped cream, and jellies made from natural juices. Further development and improvement are planned. And Inna Krivko shows what heights can be reached in this field.
Smiling, friendly, talented, hardworking – this is how colleagues describe her. She started as a 4th-grade cook, then advanced to the fifth grade, earned the title of master, and was awarded the honorable city prize «Golden Hands».
When asked how to become a good cook, Inna Ivanovna replies:
«You just have to try, want to achieve something».What surprised the jury of the republican competition by Inna Krivko? She demonstrated true culinary art by preparing unusual fish and meat dishes in banquet style, as well as six restaurant appetizers served individually. Sturgeon stuffed in a royal manner, duck breast with marinated pumpkin, veal roll with morel sauce, quail legs with lingonberry sauce – these and other dishes impressed the experts with their appetizing appearance, originality, and artistic expression. And the milk-fed veal on the bone in almond petals was even recommended for a world-class competition.
Larisa Malashenya, "Vitebskiye Vesti"