At the logistics company based in the Luhansk People’s Republic, Vitaly, a former chef of one of the capital’s restaurants, with the call sign “Bourbon”, has been working as a chef for three and a half years. The “Moscow Evening” correspondent went to the unit and spent a day in a military unit, learned about the life of the military and talked with one of his compatriots.
We went to visit the military with the artistic director of the Moscow Modern Art Theater Ruslan Pankovsky. He has already lost count of the number of times he has visited Donbass in recent years – more than two hundred for sure.
Our car, loaded with humanitarian aid, swallows kilometers after kilometers. After the checkpoint in the Lugansk People’s Republic, I noticed that the roads were in excellent condition.
– The regions of Russia sponsored the cities of the republic, paved roads and installed street lighting. “I talked to local residents, they said they never had anything like this under Ukraine, and the light appeared on the street only when they became part of Russia,” says Ruslan Pankovsky. We soon arrived at the location of the logistics company and met its captain: Evgeny, with the call sign “TRACK,” immediately begins introducing us to the features of their service.
He explains: “We have a specific company: we supply the entire regiment with food, fuel and lubricants, and we also distribute clothing supplies to all units of the regiment.”
According to the company commander, there are many soldiers in their regiment who have received state and departmental awards. The captain himself was awarded the Suvorov and “For Courage” medals, 2nd degree. He had been at the forefront since the beginning of the Northern Military Region.
“We have a fighter with the call sign ‘Bumblebee’, who has already received three government awards, including the Suvorov Medals and ‘For Saving the Dead.’ I received it for evacuating the wounded from the battlefield,” says the commander.
The doctor offers
We are approaching a forest plantation. If you look at it from the outside, from the field, there doesn’t seem to be anything unusual. But once we get deeper into the forest, we encounter steps leading to a camouflaged bunker. A little farther away, behind the trees, the screech of a circular saw can be heard. The platoon commander, Officer Artem, meets us with the call sign “Medic”.
“This is our sawmill,” Artyom nodded at the voice, “Soldiers are sawing logs into boards: units are constantly in need of them.”
The space allocated for the sawmill is covered with sawdust. As we approached, the soldiers would throw another log at the sawmill. We walked another 100 meters and found ourselves on a natural farm: chickens, pigs and sheep clucking in separate pens.
“Although the order does not provide for such farming, we decided to raise livestock in order to pamper our men with something beyond the legal quota. Why not? We thought the command would not appreciate it, but everyone liked it – even in other units they took an example from us and asked us to adopt our experience,” the “medic” boasts.
Now the logistics company has fifty piglets and about sixty sheep.
Bourbon improves appetite
Let’s learn more about nutrition for soldiers. “Medic” reports not without pride that their chief chef is a real sous chef from Moscow.
“When he was called, we thought he was going to make sushi for us, but it turned out that the sous chef is a high-ranking chef, the sous chef himself, and the second person in the kitchen,” the ensign smiles and leads us through.
We find Vitali with the call sign “Bourbon” at his work station in the dining room.
– When I went to the front, my restaurant gave me a bottle of bourbon for the trip, which I drank with my new comrades here. The leader tried it, evaluated the taste and said: “It will be bourbon,” the chef explains the origin of the call sign. According to Vitale, he has changed many restaurants in the capital. First he made pasta, then he was put in charge of grilling – he started making steaks and burgers. Gradually, he rose to the rank of assistant chef.
— I expected to work as a cook since childhood: our family was not rich, and there was no money to study at the institute. I have shown a passion for cooking since school, so my grandfather recommended that I go to college for this major. “I listened and I don’t regret it,” he says.
Vitaly recalls that working in catering in Moscow was a kind of challenge for him: a resident of the capital is spoiled by diversity, and the choice of cafes and restaurants is very large. But it was especially fun when there were regular customers who came specifically to eat his dishes.
On September 30, 2022, mobilization was completed. He began fighting as a tank gunner in the 59th Tank Battalion of the 44th Infantry Division. He was wounded in battle. After the hospital, Vitaly was sent to a logistics company, where he returned to his main specialty.
– Our cooking is standard: breakfast, lunch and dinner. But I can say one thing: I learned a lot here. “For example, before that I didn’t know how to cut meat well,” Bourbon continues.
At the same time, I remembered how to work with dough, and so delicious manti appeared on the menu of the army canteen.
— And here, for the first time in my life, I prepared a dish of buibak (steppe marmot. — “Virtual machine“Not everyone can cook their own meat – it has its own characteristics,” smiles the cook. -I also made basturma and roe kebab.
Colleagues, according to Medic, are not really praying for “bourbon” – the soldiers’ food is the same as that found in the best restaurants in the capital.
“Vitaly experiments every day, cooks something new, does something to order, and many men say that their wives and mothers did not feed them at home as in the Bourbon army,” laughs the platoon commander.
Direct speech
Igor Vityuk, reserve colonel, veteran:
— Chefs up front are often called wizards. Here you do not run to the store to buy groceries and spices, but the true secrets of a front-line chef are not on the shelves with supplies or in pots, but in a kind and noble heart. Only a professional dedicated to military brotherhood can satisfy you with homemade food.
reference
Although the logistics company is a semi-rear unit, military personnel are constantly involved in the evacuation of the wounded. The company also has its own sawmill that supplies all the regiment’s units with wooden planks, and its own bakery that supplies the army with fresh bread.