Feel Good Friday! Ukrainian Celebrity Chef Serves Up Free Gourmet Meals for Refugees

For this week’s story, we head to Ukraine where we all know is in the middle of a war with Russia right now, and we shine a light on Levgen Klopotenko, who was the winner of Master Chef Ukraine in 2015 and is one of the best known chefs in the country. Klopotenko owned a restaurant in Kiev, but fled the day that Russia invaded.  Klopotenko can’t leave the country because he is a man of fighting age and will have to fight if called.  He says he’ll fight if he gets the call, but that he probably wouldn’t be much help, as he's not nearly as good with a gun as he is with a chef's knife.

Klopotenko is now in the western city of Lviv and has opened up a restaurant called “Inshni,” which means “others.”  But what makes this restaurant unique is that it offers free meals, no questions asked, to anyone who asks for menu #2.  And menu #2 is no ordinary meal…it’s a gourmet meal made by one of the best, in an act of kindness for his fellow countrymen and women.  His mission is to feed the refugees who have fled their war torn neighborhoods and in many cases, are on their way to Poland, with nothing to eat.  The meals are paid for Klopotenko, donations, and customers who order and pay for menu #1, which attracts people trying to support the cause, who also may want to meet the celebrity chef.

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