Hello, nice to meet you!

My name is Irina Mi(khailava) and I am delighted to welcome you to my world.

I am a person of many interests but the biggest passions of my life are food and learning.

I started by professional journey in Belarus working with the international development projects. Doing that I realised the full power of knowledge and decided to upgrade my skills. This came in the form of a PhD programme in Management Learning and Leadership at Lancaster University Management School, UK. This lead me to an exciting move to the Netherlands, that has become my second home. There, I first applied myself in academia and then joined industry as a Head of Learning and Development for a tech company.

I have always been and still am fascinated with how human learning builds organisational success, and I am delighted to continue working in the field as a coach and a consultant as Mikhailava. Learning Architect.

Subsequent to this chapter and followed by the move to Portugal, I have been urged to pursue my other passion, food.

To find voice and stance in this industry, I enrolled and completed a professional chef’s training in France. It opened my eyes to the operational aspects behind a great plate of food, but equally challenged me to ponder over bigger questions, such as the importance and symbolism of food for the humanity. These discoveries have found their outlet in a project titled InCompanyOfFood. ICOF is a food knowledge hub that aspired to deliver fun, yet informative food content and build fearless cooking skills. With this in mind, under the aegis of ICOF, I put together workshops, materials and events geared at growing kitchen confidence, experiencing flavours and appreciating ingredients and techniques.

ICOF represent food curiosity, and my ambition is to ignite this curiosity in others.

Yours truly, Irina Mi