In 2025, the popular online guide TasteAtlas included Ukrainian cuisine in the list of the 50 best world cuisines. The ranking is based on almost half a million user reviews from different countries. Ukrainian gastronomy is extremely rich and diverse: in addition to the well-known varenyky and borscht, each historical region has its own unique dishes. Scientists and leading chefs have explored this heritage, recording authentic recipes and their history in books.
Yellow Blue Business Platform has prepared a selection of the best publications with exquisite Ukrainian recipes of dishes and drinks that are worth trying to make at home.
1. Mamushka: Recipes From Ukraine & Beyond
Olia Hercules is a Ukrainian chef who conquered Great Britain with her dishes. In 2022, she co-founded the charity project #CookForUkraine, which raises funds for Ukrainians who have lost their homes and sheds light on the humanitarian crisis in the frontline territories of Ukraine.
In her debut book, Mamushka: Recipes From Ukraine & Beyond, she shared her favorite recipes from Ukraine and neighboring countries: Moldova, Georgia, and Kazakhstan. Hercules offers readers new and sophisticated flavor combinations and simple recipes so that anyone can recreate these dishes at home. In addition to the dishes, she describes the traditions of her family that foster a love of food.
The book won two prestigious British awards: The Observer Rising Star in Food and Fortnum & Mason’s Debut Food Book Award. It was also a bestseller in England and is sold in Canada, the United States, Australia, Germany, Poland, Brazil, and Italy.
2. Summer Kitchens
It’s the second cookbook by Olia Hercules, where she discusses the dishes that Ukrainians traditionally prepare in the summer kitchen — a small structure located next to the house, used during the warm season; in winter, canned fruits and vegetables are typically stored there.
One of the author’s friends, Kateryna, describes her own summer kitchen as a multifunctional space in the courtyard, around which her grandparents' lives revolved from Palm Sunday to Pokrova. It was there that Hercules and her friend Kateryna recreated the family recipes that were included in the book.
The author collected a hundred different dishes and supplemented them with vivid photographs, personal stories, and warm memories of home. Additionally, she describes the lifestyles of Ukrainians in various regions to illustrate the diversity of Ukrainian cuisine.
3. Ukraine. Food and History
A team of historians and Ukrainian gastronomy researchers writes about the past and present of Ukrainian cuisine. They recount culinary traditions that have endured to this day, traditional cooking methods, and folk techniques that help preserve food for extended periods.
This book combines beauty and culinary inspiration. The photos in the album are so vivid, rich, and appetizing that you want to taste something right away, and also to try cooking Ukrainian recipes.
However, this album is much more than just a cookbook. It is a culinary diplomacy and a journey into the world of Ukrainian gastronomy, encompassing the history of traditional cuisine, the secrets of hospitality, seasonal products, rituals, and festive dishes. And, of course, it has recipes that inspire you to experiment in your kitchen.
4. Cooking in the Wild
In 2019, Ukrainian chef Ihor Mezencev, together with food photographers Dmytro Bahta and Anna Smoliakova, organized a culinary expedition for Ukrainian and foreign chefs. For five days, they lived in the forests of the Ukrainian Carpathian mountains and cooked modern dishes in the open air with ingredients that they collected themselves or bought from local farmers and hunters. The cooks combined various techniques, such as cooking on a mortar, boiling, and baking in an earthen oven.
Such expeditions were conducted annually by Mezencev, most recently in 2021. He compiled his best recipes in the book Cooking in the Wild. Most of the dishes are high-end products that can be recreated at home. They are based on berries, nuts, seeds, mushrooms, and herbs. The book is illustrated with atmospheric photographs that not only showcase the dishes but also highlight the richness of Ukrainian nature and the cultural heritage of the Carpathians.
5. Cocktails made in Ukraine
The iconic bar in Kyiv, Barman Dictat, which was visited by former US Secretary of State Anthony Blinken and British comedian Stephen Fry, has released a series of books featuring recipes for popular cocktails that its bartenders have prepared over the years. The owner of the bar, Kyrylo Kysliakov, is a legendary Kyiv photographer who filmed VIP parties, where the capital’s elite were resting. At Barman Dictat Kysliakov likes to treat guests to free drinks.
The authors of the book wrote recipes in English and Ukrainian. The photographs illustrate the presentation of each cocktail, but also make you want to try it right away.
The book White Spirit Cocktails contains recipes for classic and signature bar cocktails with vodka, white rum, gin, and tequila, Dark Spirit Cocktails — with rum, brandy, and whiskey. Advanced Cocktails features 25 famous Barman Dictat branded cocktails and mocktails, and Party Cocktails and Mocktales features drinks that can be easily prepared for home parties. The books can be collected individually or in a stylish gift box.
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6. Taste Ukraine
Leading chefs from Ukraine have collected recipes of ancient and traditional dishes from each region of Ukraine and Crimea, modernized them, and adapted them to modern cooking methods, replacing some ingredients with products available in a regular supermarket.
All the recipes are in English and Ukrainian. The authors explain how each dish came to be and how it was shaped by historical events and the region’s cultural peculiarities. The authors illustrate the fine dining with aesthetic and appetizing photographs.
