Here’s How Ukrainian Chefs Are Providing Hope In Warzones

Food has always been a way to bring people together. But it’s proving particularly powerful in war-stricken Ukraine, where chefs, bakers and restaurateurs are powering forwards against all odds, rebuilding kitchens after years of bombings. Television journalist and Instagram foodie Felicity Spector has seen this first-hand during numerous trips to Ukraine, and now she’s sharing some of the most inspirational stories she’s heard in a new book, Bread and War. 

Felicity Spector On The Power Of Food In Ukraine

Tell us about your new book. Why did you decide to write it?

My book Bread and War is all about the Ukrainians I’ve met who work or volunteer in food, and how they’ve helped to keep the country going during Russia’s war. I’ve divided it into four sections – bakeries, the military, businesses and chefs – so it paints a really unique picture of wartime society from all sorts of aspects. 

I really wanted to share the stories of these incredibly courageous and inspiring people, who have suddenly been plunged into a horrible crisis, and have rushed to the defence of their families and homes. The warmth and friendship I have found across Ukraine has been humbling, to say the least – and I just want to keep doing everything I can to platform their voices and their experience. As well as helping in a very practical way through Bake for Ukraine.

How is food being used to bring together communities amid the war in Ukraine?

Living in war is incredibly exhausting – most Ukrainians have family members serving in the armed forces, many have lost their homes, incomes have suffered and in many cities including Kyiv sleep is disrupted by the frequent sound of air alarms and explosions outside the window. But somehow people still find the energy not just to keep on going – but to help. I’ve been with volunteers to destroyed villages where there are no basic facilities like water or electricity. But the volunteers turn up with fresh food, seeds to grow crops, water tanks and generators for power. It’s astonishing to see how strong Ukrainian civil society is and how resourceful and determined people are. And naturally people want to live their lives and keep work and jobs going. So restaurants and cafes and bakeries stay open, and the quality of the dishes you’ll find is really superb.

How can we support people living in Ukraine?

I can direct you to many excellent causes to support!

• Bake for Ukraine supports small bakeries around Ukraine to continue supplying free sourdough bread to people most in need. Good Bread in Kyiv is an inclusive social enterprise bakery which works with mentally disabled people and also delivers bread to frontline communities.
• Hell’s Kitchen in Kharkiv is a volunteer kitchen making hot food and bread for hospitals and displaced people in the Kharkiv region.
• The Legacy of War Foundation is an amazing charity giving direct support to frontline, grassroots organisations in Ukraine and other countries impacted by war.
• The Antytila Foundation has a special charity fund helping the children of soldiers who’ve been killed in the war.

 

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From the chefs, bakers and cooks you’ve spoken to, whose story stood out the most?

This is so hard as so many stories are outstanding, but I keep going back to Maksym, the restaurant owner in Kherson, a city under unimaginably cruel and relentless attack. He had put his whole life and savings into building that restaurant and managed to keep it from being looted by the Russians during months of occupation. As we sat talking – at an indoor table as it was far too dangerous outside – I could see the immense exhaustion in his eyes, as he explained that they were just about hanging in there. I shared a plate of syrniki with my fixer, both of us sitting there wearing body armour, and despite the highly unsettling situation, it was delicious. A few weeks later I saw a journalist’s video report from Kherson and in the background was the restaurant, newly damaged by shrapnel. I checked in with a Kherson based friend and she told me Maksym was OK. I hope he is still OK. 

How would you describe Ukrainian cuisine?

It is generous. It has been zero-waste long before such a concept became fashionable. It makes the most of the amazing quality produce grown on Ukrainian land, rivers and sea. Borsch is obviously the most famous dish and rightly so – it’s different wherever you try it but always nutritious and rich with flavour. The bread is outstanding and the centre of any table. Pickling and fermentation means the summer bounty is preserved for the winter. And the sheer variety of dairy products is incredible! 

What’s the best dish you’ve tried there?

It might just have to be the gombovtsi at Snidanishna in Kharkiv – curd cheese dumplings filled with cherry and rolled in fried breadcrumbs with a sour cherry compote and caramelised cream sauce. They kindly donated the recipe to my book! But also home cooked food is hard to beat, especially the incredible hospitality I’ve enjoyed in the Bessarabian villages in the Odesa region. 

Lots of Ukrainian restaurants are popping up in London, too. What’s your favourite?

I have tried a lot of Ukrainian restaurants in London and they are all really excellent. I am a big fan of Alex Cooper’s restaurants in Ukraine so I really love Tatar Bunar – it’s an absolute work of art inside and the creme brûlée varenyky are a revelation. Mriya Bistro is also great and I love the syrniki at Nineteen in Stratford and Sho in Crouch End. 

A Ukrainian recipe you’re loving making at the moment?

I love making all sorts of Ukrainian food, especially syrniki, poppyseed rulet (a type of enriched bread swirled with poppyseed paste, kind of like a babka) and medivnyk or honey cake. I have just seen a new recipe for medivnyk from my friend Katrya so I will try that one next. 

Most memorable meal of all time?

How to choose! In Ukraine it might have to be Igor Mezencev’s Forest Dinner, back in the summer of 2023, sitting around a long outside table set up in woodlands about two hours from Kyiv. Amazing food cooked over fire, including a dish of smashed aubergine over a mix of fire-roasted cherries, tomatoes and peppers, with foraged herbs. It was utterly unforgettable and hard to imagine how they’d managed to make it happen in the midst of war.

What’s your food philosophy?

Life is too short to skip dessert. And cheesecake is always a good idea.

Go-to dinner party meal?

I don’t cook with meat or fish so I love making a lot of vegetarian dishes, especially Ottolenghi-style roasted cauliflower or aubergine with roast chickpeas and a ton of herby tahini, something like roast carrots on labneh with a dill pesto, some home made challah or flatbreads with dips and a baked cheesecake or a frangipane tart for dessert. I haven’t had a dinner party for ages! I must change that.

All-time favourite London restaurant?

So many choices! I really love Cafe Cecilia. Always such a joy to eat there. But I also love going to Rochelle Canteen, my late father went to school in their building in 1926 so it has a very special meaning for me. In the UK outside London it would have to be Osip just outside Bruton, Merlin Johnson cooks like a dream and it’s the most magical place. 

Bread and War is out now (Duckworth Books)