The very first thing I discovered from chef Olia Hercules is that you could chase a shot of vodka with a tomato. Particularly, a cherry tomato lacto-fermented in a tomato-pulp brine till its insides are fizzy and the entire thing explodes as quickly because it lands in your tongue. It was 2015, and Olia was on the former SAVEUR places of work in New York Metropolis celebrating the launch of her first cookbook, Mamushka: Recipes From Ukraine and Japanese Europe, a love letter to her dwelling nation. Fueled by robust liquor and an epic ’80s playlist, we had been dancing on the tables late into the night time. Stumbling again to my condominium, I noticed one thing else about Olia: She is aware of methods to make individuals really feel at dwelling.
At this time, in London, on the Leytonstone home she shares together with her husband, photographer Joe Woodhouse, and their two sons, Sasha and Wilf, that spirit of conviviality is alive and effectively—and extra needed than ever. When Russia invaded Ukraine in February 2022, Olia poured all her vitality into activism and organizing, cofounding #CookForUkraine with buddy and chef Alissa Timoshkina, and elevating greater than $2.5 million for organizations, together with the Legacy of Conflict Basis, Select Love, and UNICEF. Her spacious dwelling kitchen is an anchor for this work, in addition to a vital refuge from it—a spot the place she will be able to encompass herself with magnificence, life, and artwork, which she treats as a type of remedy.
In her forthcoming memoir, Robust Roots: A Memoir of Meals, Household, and Ukraine, out this summer season, Olia dives deep into her relationship with the thought of dwelling, and the cyclical nature of settling in and finally being forged out that has affected her household throughout Japanese Europe for generations. Once we caught up lately, we talked about bringing components of those household histories into the kitchen (particularly within the type of Ukrainian work and embroidery), the life-giving energy of surrounding oneself with crops, an industrial-size cooking machine by the title of Pylyp, and the way to attract energy from all of them throughout tough occasions.
Alex Testere: What first drew you to this dwelling?
Olia Hercules: I’ve lived in London for about 22 years, and on the finish of 2017, we had been searching for a home that is also a studio for my cooking courses and for my husband Joe’s pictures. Our mates moved into a brand new place and talked about the home throughout the road was on the market. The lady who lived there earlier than had constructed this large kitchen extension, form of like a eating space and cookery space collectively, and there was this massive cooker with two sides the place we will chop, virtually like his-and-hers, which was excellent as effectively. Joe had these huge customized chopping boards at our earlier home, and so they slotted completely into the sideboard. It was fortunate—it had been carried out just about how we might have carried out it anyway.
What function does the kitchen play in your house now?
It’s the epicenter of every part. I work there, and we’ve acquired somewhat sofa the place I prefer to learn. I host cooking courses there, and document movies for the web classes I host on Patreon. Joe will typically use it as a studio. We’ve crammed it with crops, so it’s somewhat little bit of a jungle. With the French doorways and this massive, tarnished Thirties mirror, there’s a lot mild. It feels such as you’re exterior or in an orangery.
Is there some particular significance behind the crops?
Once we moved in, there have been two vital issues I wished: a protracted desk lots of people may sit at, and the crops. I discovered this lady on Etsy who lives close by and propagated a great deal of crops that I acquired for fairly low cost. And now they’re large, they’re like these huge timber that fill the kitchen. It’s vital to me as a result of my grandmother was principally, you understand, she was in and out. She had crops in all places, and my mom as effectively, so I assume it is a continuation of that.
Once I describe my mother and father’ dwelling, the very first thing that involves thoughts is the backyard. For Ukrainians, this concept of a backyard and of the land is essential. Our kitchen opens proper onto the backyard, the place I’ve largely acquired herbs and medicinals, issues I can’t at all times get on the grocery store. And I’ve acquired so many little objects that replicate the plant world—embroideries, dried flowers, these Ukrainian Petrykivka-style work of a person in a backyard, a fish in a barrel. It’s all fairly surreal, I assume, but it surely jogs my memory of how I’m continuously making an attempt to marry my reminiscences of Ukraine with how we stay right here in London.
There are most likely 50 jars sitting round at totally different ranges of fermentation—purple corn, aubergines, cabbages, tomatoes. I’ve acquired all these experiments, and plenty of them are set on plates as a result of they will get very energetic and leak in all places. The fridge is stuffed with them, too. Poor Joe is simply ready for me to start out giving them away.
You’ve acquired loads of totally different objects on show. Have you ever collected them over time?
They constructed up fairly regularly. I wouldn’t say we’re hoarders, however we’re positively not minimalists, me and Joe. He loves his French brocante, so we most likely may package out a restaurant with what number of classic French plates we’ve acquired. I’ve grow to be fairly obsessive about baskets, which we now have hanging from the ceiling, and which I exploit for foraging. I’m actually into Ukrainian issues, clearly, so I’ve acquired a great deal of pottery, textiles, and hand-embroidered vintage cloths. There are watermelons in all places, that are the image of Kherson, my dwelling area in Ukraine. We even have these unimaginable cushions from Finnish designer Klaus Haapaniemi, with materials primarily based on Finnish fairy tales. It’s a riot of colour.
I do know you’ve been doing extra portray and drawing currently. Does that occur within the kitchen, too?
Artwork has actually grow to be my remedy over the past couple years, you understand, each time I’m feeling unhappy or there’s dangerous information, I simply go, okay, time to get portray. I’ve acquired my revolving remedy door within the kitchen that I paint—it’s a Ukrainian custom, truly. Earlier than holidays, individuals will paint ornamental designs and crops on their partitions, which can suck within the dangerous vitality and evil spirits; afterward, they whitewash the partitions and begin recent. So I’ve acquired this door, and this time I’ve carried out a mural of dill flowers. The paint is kind of thick at this level!
I’m positively going to start out doing that with the outdated kitchen doorways at my home. With all the ornamental element, how do you retain the kitchen useful?
Most of that [décor] is within the eating space—we’ve acquired this entire different extra useful facet. There’s fairly an enormous larder, and these stainless-steel sinks we put in, like correct restaurant-style, which we would have liked for the form of work we’re doing. There are pots and pans in all places, together with an enormous pot for when I’m making an industrial quantity of soup. We by no means make a small pot of borshch. I’ve acquired masses and a great deal of jars I exploit for fermenting, and kitchen towels, that are so helpful. There’s my grandmother’s rolling pin, which has most likely rolled hundreds of dumplings all through its life. Oh! And the way may I neglect about Pylyp!?
Pylyp is a big steel steamer Joe acquired at a Vietnamese store close by for my first dumpling class, and naturally we needed to give him a Ukrainian title. He comes out just about each time I’ve a category or once I’m making a ton of dumplings. He’s additionally very helpful for steaming entire heads of cabbage, which I truly do quite a bit, to ferment or to make cabbage rolls. Pylyp is among the most vital family members.
We must always all be so fortunate to have a Pylyp within the household. Whether or not it’s household or people coming for a cooking class, what do you hope your company really feel if you invite them in?
Typically I’m like, “Oh my god, do individuals suppose I’m fully nuts?” However I feel they really feel that heat. Joe and I joke that when the children are older, we’ll have a extra pristine kitchen, however for now it’s simply chaos. Folks have instructed me they really feel instantly at dwelling right here, although. I simply wish to carry round life, you understand? And I need dwelling issues round me always, particularly now. All of these objects, the backyard, the crops—they offer me energy.
