In season with chef Vladimir Hristov at Ozone Skybar & Lounge

Time to rise above autumn in Sofia.

The panoramic views are reason enough to come up here, but the food gives you every reason to stay. Behind the kitchen at Ozone Skybar & Lounge is chef Vladimir Hristov, whose experience takes in the renowned Lenôtre institute and luxury four- and five-star hotels across Sofia and Bulgaria. Today, he's welcoming us with a new autumn menu that brings familiar flavours into a contemporary city setting, perfectly in tune with the room around it.

What's your philosophy when putting together a seasonal menu? What guides you?

Seasonality, the quality of the ingredients and a balance between traditional and modern cooking come first. I like combining familiar flavours with something that takes you by surprise. For this menu, for instance, we started with the familiar Bulgarian dish mish-mash, but gave it a different form, with a poached egg and a homemade bread roll. That's the most interesting part of creating a menu for me: taking something people know and giving them a reason to see it differently.

Which ingredients have you brought into Ozone Skybar & Lounge's new seasonal menu? Are there any surprises or unusual additions?

I wanted the menu to feel recognisably Ozone while offering our guests something new. There are all sorts of flavours in it, but

one of the more interesting touches is the activated charcoal in the wild mushroom toast.

It gives the dish a different look, but an ingredient like that should never be there just for effect. Flavour and the overall balance always have to come first.

How do the kitchen and bar work together on a seasonal concept? Which cocktails complement the new menu?

The kitchen and bar need to be talking long before the menu is finished.

When we're working on a new concept, we discuss which flavours and aromas should lead, and how the food and drinks can complement each other. Brunch is particularly interesting because it gives us so many directions to explore, from savoury and spicy to sweet and fresh. Cocktails such as the Ube Cloud Latte and Blood Orange Spritz add to the experience, letting guests find a different side to the menu depending on what they order.

Where does the idea for a new dish begin? What inspires you when it's time to create a new combination?

Sometimes I start with an ingredient; other times, with a dish we all know. That's exactly how Mish-mash 2.0 came about. We took that familiar Bulgarian starting point and began thinking about how to turn it into a brunch dish without losing the flavour that makes it recognisable.

For me, a combination shouldn't be unusual just for the sake of being different.

Everything on the plate needs a reason to be there. If it surprises the guest but still feels completely natural, we've achieved what we set out to do.

How have your training at Lenôtre and your experience in different professional kitchens shaped the way you create new dishes?

Lenôtre gave me a very strong foundation: discipline, precision and respect for ingredients. It's where I learnt that technique should serve flavour, rather than the other way round. Working in different kitchens afterwards taught me that each has its own character, ingredients and way of doing things. You can take something away from every one of them.

Which dish from the new menu would you recommend to our readers?

I'd recommend the wild mushroom toast. It's one of those dishes with lots of different textures and flavours, all in balance. There's Parmesan cream, sautéed wild mushrooms, sourdough and a poached egg, with activated charcoal giving the toast a character of its own. I like it because the idea is simple, but the execution keeps it interesting. I think it's a great brunch choice, especially if you enjoy deeper, earthier flavours.

Grand Hotel Millennium Sofia, 89B Vitosha Boulevard
088 325 3600
www.grandhotelmillenniumsofia.bg

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