Chef Velizar Malinov Joins HRC as Pastry Instructor

Chef Velizar Malinov is a pastry chef with over ten years of experience working in restaurants, hotels, and the fine dining industry. A graduate of the Culinary Arts program at HRC Culinary Academy, he built his career in prestigious Michelin-starred establishments before returning to Bulgaria, where he worked in various high-end restaurants. In 2023, he co-founded Crèmeux Pastry – a boutique project focused on signature desserts, which expanded in 2025 with a second pastry shop in the heart of Sofia. Today, Velizar joins the HRC team as a pastry instructor, ready to share his expertise and passion with future culinary students.

When did your passion for cooking begin?

First, I should mention that from a very young age I started working in pubs and restaurants as a waiter, and the industry grabbed me instantly. My true passion for cooking appeared during my first Work & Travel brigade in the United States in 2015. I went to Denali, Alaska, to The Apenglow restaurant with a signed offer as a kitchen steward (dishwasher) for the dinner service. The team there was young, well-trained, and extremely professional – they absolutely blew me away.

The organized chaos, the adrenaline and the madness during service made me fall in love with the professional kitchen.

I would rush to finish the dishwashing so I could help the cooks – washing salads, making vinaigrettes, and later breaking down ducks and fish. The next year (2016) I returned to the same restaurant as a garde manger, but on the very first day the head chef told me I was actually the new pastry chef because the girl hired for the position never showed up and the season had already begun. And that’s how I became a pastry chef by accident.

Why did you choose to study at HRC Culinary Academy?

After a bit of research, I saw that it was the only place that could give me a complete, professional and modern culinary education.

Their internship programs also offered opportunities to reach places that would inspire and develop me. I applied for the Culinary Arts program while I was still in Alaska in 2016. And since I was coming back late, when the interviews were nearly over, we did the interview over Skype – almost an hour-long conversation in English.

What are the most valuable lessons you took from your time at the Academy?

Discipline, attitude toward the profession, behavior in a professional kitchen, and respect for hierarchy.

How did your career develop after graduating from HRC?

After gaining very useful and interesting experience in Mainz, Germany, and in London, I returned to Bulgaria. I started working at Bistrello with Vladi Todorov as the head pastry chef (and everything else that was needed). I stayed there for almost two years, after which I joined the pre-opening team of Hyatt Regency Sofia — long before the hotel opened. I began as a chef de partie, and through hard work and persistence earned the position of head pastry chef, spending nearly six years within the Hyatt brand.

How was the idea for Crémeux Pastry born?

Relatively spontaneously, with an outcome I didn’t expect. Over the years many people suggested starting a pastry business together, but it never felt right — until I saw in Iva a serious, responsible, and capable partner. One day I received yet another inquiry for a large dessert catering project. I told her about it, and she immediately said: “Let’s start looking for a place.”

I wanted to channel the experience I had built over the years into ideas and desserts, and to do everything the way we envisioned it. That’s how Crémeux was born — and it’s already been two years!

What are the most challenging and most rewarding aspects of having your own business?

The most challenging are maintaining quality and consistency, finding the right people, and balancing all the roles – pastry chef, HR, finance, marketing, procurement, and sometimes even driver.
The most rewarding moments are the happy guests, a dessert that turns out perfect on the third try, a cohesive team, opening a café–pastry shop in the center of Sofia, and of course – ordering brand-new equipment!

What does it feel like to return to the Academy now as an instructor?

If someone had told me eight years ago that this could happen, I would’ve laughed. I won’t hide that over the past two years I thought about it a lot – I didn’t know how or when it would happen, but I genuinely wanted it, and the opportunity came. I’m very excited, especially because I will share the responsibility for first-semester students with one of the biggest names in culinary arts and my former mentor – Chef Milen Zlatev.

What knowledge and experience do you want to pass on to our students?

I want to bring experience from the real working environment, because things are not as rosy as some newcomers imagine when entering the industry.

The work of a cook or pastry chef requires constant development, a lot of physical endurance, hard work, and frequent mistakes and failures – which are actually essential for growth.

I want future pastry chefs to master the fundamentals, because only when they know them exceptionally well can they build upon them, break them, and create their own style through creativity and imagination.

Which aspect of teaching are you most excited about?

Being able to inspire and motivate people who want to pursue this profession, and to set a personal example of consistency, perseverance, and ambition.

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