Julia Vysotska - The Chef Who Makes People Sail Across the Adriatic

As the first guests watch the sun slowly rise over the Adriatic over their morning coffee, the smells of freshly baked bread, homemade pastries, butter, herbs and freshly prepared specialties are already wafting from the ship's galley. A few hours later, those same smells will be replaced by the aroma of lightly grilled fish, rich sauces, meats cooked for hours at low temperatures and desserts that look as if they have just arrived from the showcase of a top pastry shop. On luxury cruises, gastronomy is an important part of the experience, but on the Ave Maria it has become much more than that. It is one of the reasons why guests return and one of the most talked about topics after disembarking.

All you have to do is walk among the tables during dinner to notice an interesting scene. Before they even pick up their cutlery, many will reach for their mobile phones. Photos of the plates will end up on social media before the first bite is gone from the plate, and conversations will very quickly turn into a question that is repeated week after week. "Who is the chef?" The answer lies just a few meters away, behind the door of the kitchen where a perfectly organized rhythm reigns. Julia Vysotska, a Ukrainian chef who has been running the Ave Maria kitchen for the fourth season and who, quite quietly and without much fanfare, has become one of the faces of this luxury ship, dominates.

After just a few minutes of conversation, it becomes clear that Julia doesn't cook just to prepare a meal. She cooks to tell her guests a story – a story about Croatia, about local producers, a story about the ingredients she finds every day at the local market. And a story about how traditional flavors can look modern, elegant and at the same time remain completely authentic. There are no unnecessary accessories or complicated decorations on her plates that distract attention from the food. Everything has its purpose. Every element on the plate is carefully thought out, every color creates balance, and every flavor complements the previous one. Perhaps that is why guests often say that on the Ave Maria they experienced not just a superb dinner, but an entire gastronomic journey through Croatia.

Julia Vysotska's career is proof that sometimes the best professional paths happen when we dare to change direction. Although she graduated from the Faculty of Landscape Architecture, she quickly realized that her true passion is cooking. She made the decision to enter the professional kitchen with courage, and she got her first job without a trial period. The next four years were her greatest school - she learned through practice, perfected techniques and built experience working with experienced chefs. In order to upgrade her practical knowledge with theory, she also completed culinary school and earned a professional diploma.

During her career, she worked in restaurants and hotels in Ukraine, the United States, Germany and Croatia. Each kitchen she worked in shaped her style and broadened her view of gastronomy. From American work organization, to European precision to Mediterranean simplicity, she took the best from each experience. Today, in her cooking, she combines international experience with local Croatian ingredients, creating dishes that respect tradition, but follow modern gastronomic trends in appearance and execution. Since 2022, she has been a member of the crew of the Ave Maria, where as a chef she creates a menu every day that provides guests with an authentic gastronomic experience of the Croatian coast, confirming that knowledge, dedication and a constant desire to learn are the keys to a successful culinary career.

"Croatia has everything a chef could wish for - top-quality fish, quality meat, excellent olive oil, truffles and fantastic seasonal products. My goal is not to change their flavors, but to present them in an elegant way," she explains, adding that she also really likes the dynamics of her job. Every week she meets new passengers from all over the world, which means that every week she starts from scratch. There is no routine and this is exactly what motivates her.

In addition to the dynamics of the work, she particularly emphasizes the atmosphere among the crew members. On the ship, she says, everyone depends on each other and that is why mutual trust is extremely important. She also has great support from her assistant chef Veljko Blagojević, with whom she shares the demanding pace of work every day. Their cooperation is based on good organization, mutual respect and a shared desire for every guest, regardless of whether they are coming on board for the first or fifth time, to receive an equally high-quality gastronomic experience.

It is precisely this teamwork that is one of the reasons why the Ave Maria kitchen functions almost flawlessly, even during the most demanding services, such as the iconic Captain's Dinner. Then Julia shows what she can offer - as a gastronomic hit, she serves an appetizer with plum wrapped pancetta and sour cream sauce, a steak mosaic and a cake for which guests almost always ask for the recipe.

Foto: Nikola Zoko