The very first thing I discovered from chef Olia Hercules is you can 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 Jap Europe, a love letter to her house nation. Fueled by sturdy liquor and an epic ’80s playlist, we have 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 folks really feel at house.
At present, 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 nicely—and extra crucial than ever. When Russia invaded Ukraine in February 2022, Olia poured all her power into activism and organizing, cofounding #CookForUkraine with good friend and chef Alissa Timoshkina, and elevating greater than $2.5 million for organizations, together with the Legacy of Struggle Basis, Select Love, and UNICEF. Her spacious house kitchen is an anchor for this work, in addition to an important refuge from it—a spot the place she will encompass herself with magnificence, life, and artwork, which she treats as a type of remedy.
In her forthcoming memoir, Sturdy Roots: A Memoir of Meals, Household, and Ukraine, out this summer time, Olia dives deep into her relationship with the thought of house, and the cyclical nature of settling in and in the end being forged out that has affected her household throughout Jap Europe for generations. Once we caught up not too long ago, 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 vegetation, an industrial-size cooking system by the identify of Pylyp, and the way to attract energy from all of them throughout tough occasions.
Alex Testere: What first drew you to this house?
Olia Hercules: I’ve lived in London for about 22 years, and on the finish of 2017, we have been searching for a home that may be a studio for my cooking lessons and for my husband Joe’s images. Our associates moved into a brand new place and talked about the home throughout the road was on the market. The girl who lived there earlier than had constructed this enormous kitchen extension, type of like a eating space and cookery space collectively, and there was this large cooker with two sides the place we are able to chop, virtually like his-and-hers, which was excellent as nicely. Joe had these huge customized chopping boards at our earlier home, they usually slotted completely into the sideboard. It was fortunate—it had been carried out just about how we’d have carried out it anyway.
What function does the kitchen play in your house now?
It’s the epicenter of the whole lot. I work there, and we’ve bought just a little sofa the place I prefer to learn. I host cooking lessons there, and file movies for the net classes I host on Patreon. Joe will generally use it as a studio. We’ve stuffed it with vegetation, so it’s just a little little bit of a jungle. With the French doorways and this large, 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 vegetation?
Once we moved in, there have been two necessary issues: I wished an extended desk lots of people might sit at, and I wished the vegetation. I discovered this lady on Etsy who lives close by and propagated a great deal of vegetation that I bought for fairly low-cost. And now they’re enormous, they’re like these huge timber that fill the kitchen. It’s necessary to me as a result of my grandmother was mainly, you recognize, she was inside and outside. She had vegetation all over the place, and my mom as nicely, so I suppose this can be a continuation of that.
Once I describe my mother and father’ house, 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 bought herbs and medicinals, issues I can’t at all times get on the grocery store. And I’ve bought so many little objects that mirror 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 suppose, however it jogs my memory of how I’m continually attempting to marry my reminiscences of Ukraine with how we dwell 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 bought all these experiments, and plenty of them are set on plates as a result of they’ll get very energetic and leak all over the place. The fridge is stuffed with them, too. Poor Joe is simply ready for me to begin giving them away.
You’ve bought plenty of totally different objects on show. Have you ever collected them over time?
They constructed up fairly step by step. I wouldn’t say we’re hoarders, however we’re undoubtedly not minimalists, me and Joe. He loves his French brocante, so we most likely might package out a restaurant with what number of classic French plates we’ve bought. I’ve turn out to be fairly obsessive about baskets, which we now have hanging from the ceiling, and which I take advantage of for foraging. I’m actually into Ukrainian issues, clearly, so I’ve bought a great deal of pottery, textiles, and hand-embroidered vintage cloths. There are watermelons all over the place, that are the image of Kherson, my house 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 shade.
I do know you’ve been doing extra portray and drawing these days. Does that occur within the kitchen, too?
Artwork has actually turn out to be my remedy during the last couple years, you recognize, at any time when I’m feeling unhappy or there’s dangerous information, I simply go, okay, time to get portray. I’ve bought my revolving remedy door within the kitchen that I paint—it’s a Ukrainian custom, truly. Earlier than holidays, folks will paint ornamental designs and vegetation on their partitions, which can suck within the dangerous power and evil spirits; afterward, they whitewash the partitions and begin recent. So I’ve bought this door, and this time I’ve carried out a mural of dill flowers. The paint is sort of thick at this level!
I’m undoubtedly going to begin doing that with the previous kitchen doorways at my home. With all the ornamental element, how do you retain the kitchen purposeful?
Most of that [décor] is within the eating space—we’ve bought this entire different extra purposeful aspect. There’s fairly a giant larder, and these chrome steel sinks we put in, like correct restaurant-style, which we would have liked for the type of work we’re doing. There are pots and pans all over the place, together with a large pot for when I’m making an industrial quantity of soup. We by no means make a small pot of borshch. I’ve bought hundreds and a great deal of jars I take advantage of for fermenting, and kitchen towels, that are so helpful. There’s my grandmother’s rolling pin, which has most likely rolled 1000’s of dumplings all through its life. Oh! And the way might I overlook about Pylyp!?
Pylyp is a big metallic steamer Joe bought at a Vietnamese store close by for my first dumpling class, and naturally we needed to give him a Ukrainian identify. 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 necessary family members.
We should always all be so fortunate to have a Pylyp within the household. Whether or not it’s household or of us coming for a cooking class, what do you hope your friends really feel if you invite them in?
Typically I’m like, “Oh my god, do folks assume I’m utterly nuts?” However I believe they really feel that heat. Joe and I joke that when the youngsters are older, we’ll have a extra pristine kitchen, however for now it’s simply chaos. Individuals have instructed me they really feel instantly at house right here, although. I simply need to convey round life, you recognize? And I would like residing issues round me always, particularly now. All of these objects, the backyard, the vegetation—they offer me energy.
