Vitaliy Aheyev from Ukraine was discharged from the army after being shot in the stomach and the leg in the war with Russia and spending 10 months in captivity. Following six years in the military, the 24-year-old needed to train for a new job. Learning how to cook seemed a good choice, and if he could train under a Michelin-starred celebrity in France, so much the better.
Aheyev has just completed two months of training at a school in Toulouse, southwestern France, run by star chef Thierry Marx. He is one among of a delegation of novice and experienced chefs originally from Mariupol, the Ukrainian port city now under Russian control. Marx, an author, TV celebrity and specialist in molecular cooking -- which puts the emphasis on the chemical reactions of ingredients -- has a history of using his skills for social engagement, local sourcing of food and an ecological approach.
A former soldier himself, Marx has two Michelin stars to his name. "Cooking is really the only way to rekindle trusting relationships," Marx said. "The power of social ties is important, especially in a country at war".
Marx runs a network of cooking schools dedicated to give training to people he calls "casualties of life". Aheyev, tattooed and with a ready smile, has a reputation as the mischief maker of the group, which is known here as "the Marik brigade" after the city's nickname. But even while he teases his co-trainees relentlessly, his attention is always firmly on the food he prepares, in this in.