Fan & Information page for Chef Robert Nuey
Founder and operating manager of UA Lifeline humanitarian organization and Owner and operatior for UA Lifeline Gastro Studio & SENSES Chef Table - Lviv
Ukriane His culinary career began in 1992 doing limited catering events with private and semi-private catering companies, mostly smaller events for television production companies on-site shooting TV show
s and commercials with a few top names of sports personalities and actors. In 1994 he enrolled in The Culinary School at Kendall College in Chicago(Evanston) ranked as one of the top five culinary schools in America at the time. He worked his way up the culinary ladder having worked in numerous restaurants, hotels, cruise lines, and catering companies throughout the Chicagoland area while putting himself through school. At the highlight of his career in Chicago, he not only created his own personal chef company, Epicurean Experience, providing meals for time-starved professionals and executing lavish events for some of Chicago's elite, but he also held the position of Chef Cuisinier at the French Consulate of Chicago, executing numerous events from small brunches and lunches to lavish dinner parties for the Consul General, his wife, and respected guests. This culinary impact that Chef Nuey was creating for himself in Chicago, came to a sudden and unfortunate end when the events of 9-11 brought him back to the army where he deployed to support anti-terrorist operations while stationed in Italy. This deployment lasted approximately 9 months and in March of 2002, SFC Nuey found himself once again reporting for active duty and training future special operations soldiers at a year-long assignment at Ft. Bragg, NC where he completed his military service of just short of twenty-two years and retired. This brought him to his next influential period in his life working as a private security contractor for the US State Department in Kabul, Afghanistan, and also in Kirkuk/Erbil, Iraq until he was injured while on duty in 2011 and returned home to Costa Rica. During this period in the Middle East, Chef Nuey never lost sight of his culinary aspirations and executed his future plan and dream of opening a B&B in Costa Rica. During his breaks from work in the M.E., he would return to Costa Rica to serve amazing culinary creations to his guests at his B&B, Casa de Flores. Chef Nuey also started a new concept in Costa Rica named Placeres Gourmet, an exclusive dining and culinary solutions company. The basis of this concept was to partner and collaborate with local chefs to create new culinary experiences that were new to the country. During this period from 2012 to 2017, Chef Nuey found himself in a great partnership with internationally acclaimed Italian chef, Gianfranco Chiarini. This collaboration brought many new projects to board that included destinations such as Ecuador, Italy, Monaco, Macedonia, Poland, Bulgaria, and Ukraine. This partnership comprised of restaurant openings, multiple book releases, culinary trade shows and Global Chef Congress event attendance, culinary tours throughout various countries, masterclasses, and exclusive dinner execution. In 2017, Chef Nuey expanded his culinary wings and permanently relocated to Kyiv, Ukraine where he brought his concept developed in Costa Rica and all the experience gained under Chef Chiarini and began to expand on his ideas to local chefs and restaurants as a consultant. Just as the momentum began to grow, the unfortunate global pandemic had arrived in Ukraine which caused the immediate suspension of activities. This unfortunate situation led to the revival of his past life as a security contractor. Robert found himself in August of 2020 back in Iraq providing security services to US defense contractor personnel. In August of 2022, bearing witness and forward thinking to the declining situation with Russia, while recognizing the gastronomic opportunities of Lviv, Chef Nuey relocated in October of that same year. After working for four consecutive months and knowing how quickly the situation was deteriorating along the border with Russia and Belarus, he arrived on his quarterly break on the 21st of Feb to Lviv only to be subjected to the start of Russia's aggression and invasion towards Ukraine on the 24th. This sudden and unfortunate chain of events changed his life and the lives of millions forever. Chef Nuey jumped right into action. He postponed his trip to be with his son in Costa Rica and remained where the foundation of UA Lifeline was formed. He immediately began to offer aid, support, and accommodations to hundreds of refugees who began to escape the horrors of death, destruction, and war in the East. He initially fell back on his military roots and began training Territorial Defense soldiers briefly, created logistic chains across the western border to get much-needed supplies, aid, and equipment to the frontlines and nearby villages east, and then began to conduct aid and resupply missions to the frontlines himself, where he continues to offer his expertise and support to this day. But aid and supplies do not come free and after facing daily frustration in requesting donations and support from anywhere he can, he has looked towards Lviv where he initiated his concept of HARTS Studio and his pop-up restaurant, SENSES Chef Table - Lviv. This studio is designed as a creative space for Master classes of various sorts, a photo/video studio for shoots, and a space available for short term rental for various events, and fundraising dinners executed by Chef Rob twice a month putting on display his global cuisine aspirations. The main focus of this project is to fundraise for his humanitarian organization and be self-sustained in his continued work to support the civilians and our warriors fighting for Ukraine!
