The Authentic Ukrainian Kitchen

Celebrate Ukraine’s independent spirit in this cookbook sharing the nation’s unique traditions and culture in 100 recipes crafted by Ukraine’s most prominent chef.

Now, more than ever, Ukrainian cuisine and culture deserve to be known around the world. In The Authentic Ukrainian Kitchen, Ievgen Klopotenko shares the true food of Ukraine – the way it is really cooked today – with modern recipes for familiar and forgotten dishes.

Klopotenko is Ukraine’s most internationally celebrated chef. A top restaurateur in Kyiv, winner of Ukraine’s MasterChef, and an activist promoting Ukrainian food around the world, he has also worked with First Lady Olena Zelenska to revamp the country’s school lunch program and campaigned for the United Nations to recognise the heritage of borshch.

The recipes he collects in this book are the result of years of research into regional Ukrainian cooking. After training as a chef in France and cooking professionally in the UK, he returned to Ukraine with a desire to catalogue and promote his own national cuisine – free of influence from Soviet-era propaganda.

These dishes form a Ukrainian cuisine all its own, shaped by tradition, geography and agriculture. Known as the ‘breadbasket of Europe,’ Ukraine’s beloved national dishes include:
– Borshch, the national treasure, a savoury beet soup – with many variations
– Pampushky, easy garlic bread rollsHolubtsi, stuffed cabbage rolls
– Varenyky, dumplings stuffed with sweet or savoury fillings
– Deruny, fried potato pancakes
– Lviv-Style Cheesecake, and more

Discover fresh ideas about how to use common vegetables, new approaches to fermentation and pickling, the delight of dumplings and simple baked goods, hearty braises and the pleasure of desserts such as Kyiv Candied Fruit. But this cookbook is about more than the food: It stands for the preservation of a culture under threat and the independence of people under attack.