About us
The Association was the brainchild of two restaurant chefs, Valius Cepanonis from Le Meridien Villon, and Stanislav Kizenevich from Sarunas. The necessity to create it arose almost naturally, as the chefs of the major restaurants of Vilnius had been maintaining relations for quite a while already. In the neighboring countries associations of restaurant chefs have been active for a fairly long time, say, in Finland one was established as many as 65 years ago, and in Poland 17 years ago. The World Association of Cooks Societies (WACS) has also been functioning. To cooperate with associations of the neighboring countries, first of all we had to establish an association of our own. Therefore in August 2000 the decision was made to set up the Lithuanian Association of Restaurant Chefs and Confectioners (LRVVKA). Chefs Gintautas Zuikaitis from the restaurant of Radisson SAS Astorija hotel, Valius Cepanonis from Le Meridien Villon, Arnoldas Cizas from the restaurant of Centrum hotel, Stanislav Kizenevich from Sarunas, and Aldona Geciene from Zemaiciu smukle restaurant were the founders of the Association. Gintautas Zuikaitis was elected its president.
On October 4, 2000, LRVVKA was registered at Vilnius Municipality.
The first general meeting of the Association took place ten days later. The would-be members, sponsors and the media representatives were acquainted with the statute of LRVVKA and its objectives.
In 2000-1, twenty-four representatives of Lithuania's restaurants, cafes, and training centers joined the Association. Now it boasts 40-odd members.
In 2001-2, the Association arranged more than 10 meetings/presentations at which such companies as ZUB Nematekas, UAB Olvic, Nesse Baltija, etc. presented their products, services and equipment. It has become a tradition to hold the Association meetings in Klaipeda in the spring and in Kaunas in the fall. Geras skonis (Good Flavor) magazine is the media sponsor. We are glad to be cooperating with the Hackman Metos Company, jointly with which we have published two issues of Virejo kepure (Cook's Cap) magazine. The Company also greatly contributed to organizing a trip of the Association members to Finland in 2002.
LRVVKA has established contacts with cooks associations of Latvia and Estonia, and chefs associations of Poland and Finland. In December 2002, the Association's confectioners attended master classes in Poland. In March 2002, 50 cooks and confectioners from Lithuania visited Finland, where they had an opportunity to see the specialized GASTRO 2002 exhibition, watched Finland's Cook of the Year contest, visited ARABIA dish and tableware factory, and Unilever Bestfoods factory. On the way, the delegation visited Santa Maria spice factory in Tallinn.
On January 11, 2003, the first election meeting in the Association's history was held at Karolina hotel in Vilnius. The first meeting to have taken place this year was especially important in that a new board and a new president were elected. From now on, Ona Jurksiene from Maisto fabrikas restaurant and Onute Kandrotiene from Hyper Rimi supermarket elected to the board are to assist the Association founders. Valius Cepanonis from the restaurant of Karolina hotel was unanimously elected president.
