In My Kitchen with Paula

Culinary Activism: Anna Voloshyna's Journey from Ukraine to California

• Paula Mohammed • Episode 31

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What does it mean to fight a war—with food?

In this episode, we meet Anna Voloshyna: chef, cookbook author, and passionate culinary activist. Born and raised in Ukraine and now based in California, Anna shares how her deep love of Ukrainian cuisine has become a powerful tool for cultural preservation and resistance amid war.

From feeding soldiers on the frontlines in bulletproof vests to writing cookbooks that celebrate regional Ukrainian dishes, Anna’s story is a moving example of how food can connect, heal, and inspire action. Her journey is equal parts resilience, community, and unwavering pride.

We talk about:
🇺🇦 Ukraine’s food renaissance—and how chefs are modernizing traditional dishes
🪖 What it’s like to cook for 50 soldiers near the frontline, explosions in the distance
📚 How Anna’s first cookbook BUDMO! became a fundraising tool before it even launched

Whether you're a food lover, cultural explorer, or just looking to understand the world through a more human lens, this episode will move you. Anna’s story reminds us that even in war, food can nourish both body and soul.

FEATURED RECIPE: UKRAINIAN RED BORSCHT
Click here for Anna's original recipe! 

HELPFUL LINKS

📘 Check out Anna's first cookbook BUDMO!
✨ Visit Anna's website to learn more about her projects
📸 Follow Anna on Instagram
🧳 Download my free Travel Planning Tool

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SAY HELLO

In My Kitchen creates connections one dish at a time, by exploring culture through food. I do this through unique culinary workshops, speaking engagements, and of course, this podcast.

I'd love to hear from you! Connect with me in one of three ways:

Paula Mohammed: Hi, I'm Paula Mohammed and welcome to In My Kitchen with Paula. This podcast is a gathering place for culinary adventures who love to travel. Every week, we'll come together with chefs, cookbook authors, talented home cooks, and everyone in between to talk about their story and their unique dish using food as the vehicle will take a ride into the ins and outs of their culture and country.

Come on, let's get this party started.

Welcome back to In My Kitchen with Paula in this episode, I am so excited to share my chat with you with Anna Voloshyna. Anna shares her journey from growing up in the Ukraine, leaving the Ukraine at the age of 21 and moving to California, and her deep connection with Ukrainian cuisine and what's currently happening in the Ukraine.

Around cuisine, it might surprise you. Anna also shares with us her experiences at the front lines, cooking for soldiers, admist the ongoing war. She's actually going back there in a couple of weeks and she also does a delivery of ambulances and motorcycles and. It, it's honestly, this needs to be a documentary or a movie about Anna and, what she's doing.

This is a fascinating chat. I learned so much from Anna. I think everybody needs to listen to these kind of chats. Enough about me talking about it. Let's hear from Anna.

Welcome to the show, Anna.

Anna Voloshyna: Thank you so much for having me.

Paula Mohammed: Anna Voloshyna is a chef, activist and the author of BUDMO! Recipes from a Ukrainian Kitchen. Her work has been featured in Food and Wine, the Washington Post, Better Homes and Gardens, and many other publications.

She is the proud recipient of the IACP Media Award and the Foreward Best Indie Cookbook Award, and I feel so grateful to have you on this show, Anna. I can't wait to dive into Ukrainian cuisine and learn more about your Ukraine. You have a line on your website, which I just wanna make sure I get this right.

It says, "with every dish she cooks and every page she writes, Anna invites the world to explore and celebrate Ukraine's rich culinary heritage." So we are here today to take you up on that invitation. But first I can't go into this without acknowledging the devastation that we watch from afar that's happening in the Ukraine. And I can't even imagine what it's like for you to experience the war and the impact on your family and friends.

I really appreciate how you're sharing your love of the Ukraine through this cookbook and through your cooking. We can learn a lot from each other around the world through food. I really can't wait to learn more about you and the Ukraine. To get us going, can you share with our listeners a little bit about your journey from the Ukraine to a cookbook author from San Francisco?

Anna Voloshyna: Yes, of course. So I was born and raised in Ukraine. I lived there until I was 21. Met my husband and uh, he's in IT and of course the startup world and all of that, it got us to the Bay Area and to San Francisco. And, we loved it. California is amazing and it's beautiful and it actually reminded me of Ukraine with like this great produce and people actually appreciate food here. They like cooking I fell in love with this place, we made it our home. But I still maintained deep connection to Ukraine. I cook Ukrainian food almost every single day. Actually now multiple times a day because I'm testing my recipes for the second cookbook, so I'll talk about that. But yeah, I go back and forth and my heart is now in two places in Ukraine and in, uh, in California.

Paula Mohammed: And what role did cooking play in your upbringing?

Anna Voloshyna: Oh my God, where do I begin?

Paula Mohammed: Loaded question.

Anna Voloshyna: Yes, everything revolves around food in Ukraine. Well, at least in my house. So everything happened in the kitchen. All the conversations, all the action. Because my mom cooked like at least three meals a day. Because sometimes it was baking involved as well. So, my family, my grandma, my mom, they're incredible cooks.

So they were always making something and I was always there with them to just entertain and eat and like I was the tester in the family. They never let me actually cook until I was about 18. But I was there like learning just by trying and smelling and observing and uh, yeah. We always had this big family gatherings with, I don't know how many dishes, like at least a dozen of dishes every time. No matter the occasion. Whether it's a birthday celebration or just a family gathering. We had a ton of food and like usually my mom and grandma, they would just like talk to each other what everybody's making, and it's always more than like.

It's always like that, oh, we're, this time we're not cooking anything. Like, let's keep it casual. And then like roasted duck

Paula Mohammed: God.

Anna Voloshyna: Six kinds of pickles, uh, like a cake and bread and everything. And that's casual.

Paula Mohammed: In BUDMO! you used the term feasting. I was gonna ask you to explain that a little bit, but it sounds like you may have just done that.

Anna Voloshyna: Oh, well, yeah, that's like the mood of our family. Like every occasion is a celebration, is a celebration of being in the moment and again, my cookbook, I named it BUDMO! Because I wanted to celebrate my heritage. I wanted to celebrate Ukraine, and BUDMO! Is one of the most cheerful words I know.

Because it means let us be and it means let us be healthy, let us be present in this moment. It's just like very meaningful. But we also use it as a cheers. When we say toast, we always say BUDMO! in the end and then click our glasses. And that means like, okay, let's rejoice. Let's be happy. Let's celebrate life.

And especially right now with everything that's happening, it's very important to celebrate everything. Every little second of your existence because you don't know what will happen next.

Paula Mohammed: Wow, that's for sure. I was gonna ask you this a little bit later, but this is a segue into it quite nicely, I wanted to get a sense of what your day to day life was like when you were a school girl, growing up in the Ukraine, I'm always curious, I don't know why, but what kind of lunches you would have at school, and then what is it like now?

Anna Voloshyna: Uh, yeah, of course. Uh, so when I was, uh, in school, we had this cafeteria and it was of course, two sections of it. One was a proper meal, like a potato puree, and this patties made with sometimes it's like a buckwheat patty. Sometimes it's with meat, sometimes it's fish and some sort of salad up until I was in high school. Because when you're slightly younger, your parents make you eat proper meals. And then we had a second section with all the buns and the pastry and we had like mini pizzas or something, which is nothing like real pizza, but it's like very fluffy bun with savory topping. They call it pizza in Ukraine. And then of course, nobody could force me when I was in high school to go and eat a proper meal so I would eat a bun with like poppy seed filling or like something like that, or cheese, filling. Something sweet, something totally inappropriate. And sometimes we would go and have like a funny thing, a hot dog with a Ukrainian Korean carrot.

Paula Mohammed: U Ukrainian, Korean.

Anna Voloshyna: Yeah, so the, the name is Korean Carrot, but it's nothing Korean. It was, I think it was brought from Korea at some point in the USSR history. But it has very little Korean flavors. It's slightly like barely spicy. It's pickled, it's delicious, but I wouldn't call it like authentically Korean. But probably Korean immigrants brought it.

I have another story. It's totally a legend that I learned in Odessa and they claim they invented the carrot at this certain place in a certain, uh, farmer's market. I will write about it in my cookbook, but I think it's, it's bs so I'll write about it, but it's a tale. It's not, I, I don't think it's a fact. So it was like that, uh, very casual.

Uh, right now. Oh. So, um, as I told you before, I'm working on my second cookbook and it's about Ukrainian cuisine and it's more about modern Ukrainian food and what's happening right now. Because my first book BUDMO! was about the food I grew up eating. All the influence from all the Soviet republics are there.

And after the full scale invasion happened, after the terrible war, I felt that something is happening in Ukraine, some kind of a food renaissance. And I had that feeling when I was in California. And then I was able to go and research my hunch and what I saw there, it's just something incredible. So much creativity, new emerging chefs, they're doing so, so many cool things with Ukrainian food. Uh, they just dig deep into our roots and reimagine the dishes, make them modern, make them more flavorful, make them honestly competitive. Because Ukrainian food was always like too simple to be recognized as like a great cuisine of the world. We don't have that huge his, we, we have the history, but we... when we was part of USSR, we did not have the opportunity to shine. We did not have a opportunity to develop our palates, develop our technique, and just bring chefs in Ukraine and go from Ukraine to France and learn something in Japan. And it's all happening right now and we are kind of catching up, but we are learning very fast.

And it's like with the war, we feel the need to protect our heritage because somebody's trying to steal it from us. And not only steal it, but destroy it and erase it. So everybody is very, very aware of that fact. And we feel the need to not only protect, but develop and show it to the world and be proud of it.

So this is what's happening right now, and every time I go and I'm going in one month, again, I have the most incredible meals, the most incredible gatherings, and again, people feel the need to celebrate right now, every moment, every minute, because you don't know if you will have that moment tomorrow.

Paula Mohammed: I know I'm really interested in hearing more about what it's like when you go back to the Ukraine. I don't know why I'm surprised to hear about this renaissance of the food happening now. Because it feels like, you know, when you watch the news and the media that everything's very oppressed, but it's exciting to hear that there's this growth happening. 

When you go back, do you feel safe traveling back in the Ukraine?

Anna Voloshyna: I went already twice and it's a tricky question because some parts of Ukraine are very safe, some are relatively safe and some are completely not safe. This time I'm going and with everything that's happening, and by the way, tonight was the largest attack on Ukraine in , the whole war. Russia launched so many rockets. Kyiv was under severe attack. Multiple cities were attacked, and I feel much less safe going right now. 

So what I usually do, I start in the west of Ukraine where it's the safest and it's the furthest from the frontline and I slowly make my way all the way to the frontline, uh, because usually I combine my project, my work, with some volunteering.

So these past two trips, we were able to bring two ambulances to the frontline. One we were driving it all the way from Amsterdam to Lviv, and then somebody picked it up and brought it to the front line, and then we followed. And, uh, I cooked a feast for our soldiers at the front line, which was incredible.

But I'm cooking and I have a bulletproof vest. I have the medical kit with me, tourniquets, everything and we hear explosions in the back. So that was definitely a very powerful experience. And a previous time, me and my photographer, Jason Perry, loved that guy to the moon and back. He's my partner in crime.

He goes to Ukraine. He volunteers, he goes and works with me on my project. Just incredible human being. So we went, uh, to Lviv from Poland and then we made our way to Kharkiv, which is a very large eastern city that is under attack every single night. And then we were able to deliver an ambulance that we've helped to get money for in San Francisco. So it was already in Kharkiv, so we drove it to the frontline, we dropped it, and delivered to our soldiers. And then we ended up in a very, very hot place where bombing was so close, like the room was shaking.

And this time we are going straight .We'll do the whole trip and then we fundraise for some motorcycles that will help our guys at the front line and Jason and a group of volunteers from the U.S., they will be driving six motorcycles from Amsterdam to Lviv, and then somebody will pick them up and deliver to the frontline.

So every time it's like that.

Paula Mohammed: Anna, I didn't realize, you are literally in the front lines. You're in this. You talked about briefly prior to us doing the interview, the power of culinary activism. This seems like a perfect time to jump into that. What does that mean to you? Culinary activism?

Anna Voloshyna: I got into food when I was very young and I noticed that food is a powerful tool to connect with other people. I used it when I came to the U.S. Because I didn't know anyone. It was a foreign country, and I started just connecting through making meals, just with my husband's coworkers and my neighbors.

That was eyeopening. That, oh my God, I make something. People love it. And it makes like a lasting friendship. And that translates to activism. Food is the language people understand. No matter where you are. No matter what you do and what language you speak. People will always understand the language of food and that helps to connect and that helps to deliver the message in a more cheerful way. And you know that when you feel very, very bad and you are sad, food helps. Like when somebody makes your food, it just, it helps a lot and some organizations like World Food Program, they inspire me so much because they use the power of food and nourishing and nurturing people to just help and relief. 

Maybe we cannot change the world. We cannot stop the war, but we can ease the pain and we can bring a little bit of comfort and thoughtfulness and kindness. So using food as an instrument to deliver the message. This is what I always do. I talk about Ukraine through food because sometimes people have different opinions, but when they taste the food, they learn stories, they are more open to understanding what's happening and to be compassionate. 

I wrote my first cookbook when the war was about to happen, the full, like, actually, I'm talking about the war, but the war started 11 years ago. It's not like a recent, uh, thing.

The war started a long time ago, but the full scale invasion started over three years ago. So when the full scale invasion started, I had this like book that wasn't in print and what can I do? And I decided like either I'm staying at home crying all the time, or I'm fundraising for my country. 

And I started fundraising for World Central Kitchen. And the whole community in San Francisco came to help me. Like all my chefs and mentors and teachers and my agent, Leslie, everybody came to support. We started fundraising nonstop and I was making Ukrainian food and sending money to help Ukraine. And then my publisher, uh, reached out to me and they said, okay, let's start pre -selling cookbook and let's donate part of the proceeds to Ukraine. And Omnivore, the most incredible cookbook store in San Francisco decided to join the forces and help Ukraine as well. And they were, uh, pre-selling my cookbook, and they were donating. They donated money, not only from my cookbook, they donated their own money and they donated proceeds from the pre-saleing.

It was so powerful to see that the book was not even published, but it was able to generate the money and the support and people around the world started hosting cookbook clubs and dinners. And they asked me for recipes from the book and they fundraise and sent money to the charity they wanted to support. I think the food is the powerful tool that, uh, can unite us, especially in the darkest times.

Paula Mohammed: What did you cook for the soldiers?

Anna Voloshyna: Oh my god. Love talking about that. So, that was, I think I had the, a long trip, a couple weeks long already. So the idea was to start in the west of Ukraine and slowly make our way to the frontline in the east. Ukraine is huge, so we had multiple stops and my idea was to bring recipes, dishes from all over Ukraine to the frontline because those soldiers were from all over the Ukraine. 

It's like different, different parts. Everybody grew up eating different variations of dishes, so I wanted to bring the taste of Ukraine and home to them at the frontline. So I brought _bahnush_, which is kind of like Ukrainian polenta from the western part. That's the recipe I decided to make. 

I brought, uh,_ tartar creans_ too, which the recipe's in my book as well. So it's from Crimea and nobody could go to Crimea and we still cannot go to Crimea because it's occupied. But I wanted to bring them the recipe.

We went to Kyiv and I brought them a ton of pickles, like green pickled tomatoes and like _ajika_, stuff like that from a very famous Ukrainian farmer's market, from a very lovely lady. And I still go to her to this day and guys like sending her love and gratitude. So I brought that. Then I went to a bakery that is one hour away from Kyiv. I brought them some bread from that bakery. And then I went to Kharkiv and I got produce there. 

And, I brought_ briza_ from Carpathian Mountains. I don't know how many jars they make, like a hundred, like maybe couple hundred jars a year. So I brought the b_riza_ that nobody can taste but them because it's like all the way up in the mountains. So that was lovely. 

And from my part of the country, the southern part, I'm from, uh, [inaudible]. I brought, the recipe from the cookbook again. It's eggplant caviar. So we fire roasted eggplant and vegetables, and then chopped it and, uh, blend everything together. It's so kind of like, baba ganoush-ish thing, like lovely deep like rooty vegetable spread. Amazing. 

And, soldiers, they helped me to cook. They were my sous chefs. Incredible crew, the best sous chefs I've ever had. We had like 40, 50 soldiers, all get together and in the end of the meal, they gifted me the Ukrainian flag signed by this brigade. Everybody signed, they wrote messages and this is the greatest honor. And like they don't give that just because they want to give it. No, you need to deserve it. 

And I think they like the meal, because like you don't get it just because you want it. No, they need to decide that they will give it to you. They need to sign it and when you have it, this is like the greatest honor and this is my most prized possession to this day.

Paula Mohammed: Oh, I can only imagine. And you're going back and cooking again this time as well and researching your book and doing some volunteering. Is that right?

Anna Voloshyna: Yes, yes, yes, yes. We're doing that. We'll do some other activities and I will keep you posted because everything needs to happen and it's hard to plan when you are in a war zone because everything is pretty unpredictable. This past two trips, like the planning was impeccable, so we achieved everything we wanted.

But yeah, the biggest, I think our biggest volunteering thing is delivering those motorcycles. And Jason is leading the trip. I'm not going with him this time. I will definitely do something else, but this time I need to go back and finish the book because my due date is July 1st. I need to come back fast, uh, finish the book and, uh, start shooting some recipes.

Paula Mohammed: I'm really excited to see when that new cookbook comes out. When do you expect it'll be out?

Anna Voloshyna: So it should be out next year in September.



Paula Mohammed: The way you talk about food and I share your philosophy, how it connects people. If you were to cook a meal for the leaders of the U.S., Russia, Ukraine, maybe some NATO countries, what do you think that meal would look like?

Anna Voloshyna: I'm not sure if I want to cook

Paula Mohammed: Let me preface that again. Not that you wanna cook for them, but what I was thinking was, when those no negotiations happen 

I couldn't help thinking, my gosh, if people could just sit together and have a meal together and have these talks, would it be a bit of a different conversation?

And then I started thinking about you and I thought, I wonder what Anna would cook. I understand that you may not wanna answer that question because you may not wanna cook for

Anna Voloshyna: You, you know, I would want to cook for people who support Ukraine and who really have Ukraine's interest in mind. I don't always feel it with the current situation, but I would love to have world's greatest leaders at one table having a meal together. But those leaders need to understand the situation. Who is the victim here? Who is the aggressor? And be fully aware how they want to resolve the situation. I would love to cook some borsch for them with sour cream and beautiful bread, Ukrainian _pampushky_ with garlic. I would love to make a meal, like I really want that. I just want people to understand why they're at that table. I want people to resolve the situation in a real way. How it's being resolved right now, I don't think it's going the right direction.

Paula Mohammed: The borsch recipe is the one that you're sharing with our listeners as well.

Anna Voloshyna: Yeah, that one is actually very special because it's vegetarian, which was not a thing when I was growing up.  borsch was always with meat, but I decided, okay, I want to be able to feed everybody, people with dietary restrictions. People who don't eat meat, and I want to make this  borsch as delicious, as rich and incredible as mom makes with meat. 

So I created that beautiful recipe. I think people will love it. It's layered with flavors and textures and it has everything like from sweet to tangy to umami. Everything is there. And now my mom makes the borsch. She never made a vegetarian borsch before I, I wrote that recipe.

So this is like the best, the best thing that happened in our relationships like she's finally learning from me. Because it was like the other way around. I always learned from her and now she's like, okay, this is a real thing. This is incredible. And now she calls me and asks for some recipes and that's amazing.

Paula Mohammed: That's fantastic. And is your family, they're in the Ukraine still now?

Anna Voloshyna: Yes. Everybody is in Ukraine.

Paula Mohammed: Yeah. So you'll have a chance, will you go home and cook with your mom?

Anna Voloshyna: Not this time. She will come to visit me in Kyiv because I will be traveling nonstop. Like, no days off, no nothing. We're like, go, go, go, and then she'll just come to say hi in Kyiv. We'll go to, we'll go to a restaurant. I want to take her out because she cooks every day. She doesn't go to a restaurant every day. So, we'll make something, um, something very special. We'll just make a special date for us.

Paula Mohammed: In your cookbook in BUDMO! You said something to the effect of war and I think you were talking about multiple wars that had happened, uh, have influenced the cuisine of Ukraine. Can you elaborate on that a little bit more?

Anna Voloshyna: Yeah. So Ukraine has a very fortunate and unfortunate location. Fortunate because we have a very fertile soil. We have the best agriculture. The climate is incredible for growing stuff. But in terms of, geopolitical location, we are very unlucky because we were always, in the middle of like big, big empires.

So parts of the country were always under some control of other empires and throughout history, I lost count how many countries like had what parts of Ukraine. It's just very, very mixed. And every country that had part of Ukraine, left its culinary mark. And the same way Ukraine left culinary mark on those cultures as well.

So, when you travel from west to east, you can taste the history, you can taste the difference in dishes, difference in preparations and ingredients, and uh, western part is close to Austria and Hungary and Poland and everything tastes more European. When you go to the eastern part, it tastes different. The recipes are different, the influences are different. And, like honestly, if you would just make a map, you will taste like how different fillings of dumplings are changing because something, what's native and like very, very regular to one part of the country is like kind of unheard of in the other part of the country.

Right now it's changing because chefs are like bringing everything together and the country is not divided. The country is actually very much united and the dishes traveled. And now in Kharkiv you can taste like the best _banush_, which is very, very western dish. Now it's changing, but before, like when I was little, dishes were like super different. And when we went to the Western Ukraine, I'm like, wow, what is this? What is this? I've never tasted something like that. And uh, now, I feel that our cuisine is, and our country is very, very united.

Paula Mohammed: In the cookbook that's coming out, I'm trying to get a sense of what those recipes might look like compared to BUDMO! The style of the book as well a little bit, but I don't want you to give away more than, don't give away too much.

Anna Voloshyna: I will tell you that the next cookbook will be a journey through Ukraine. So we'll hit multiple destinations and we'll travel Ukraine not by regions per se, but by locations and terroires and the dishes will have roots in traditions, but everything will be adapted to the modern pantry. Because like every Ukrainian chef will tell you that what makes Ukrainian food Ukrainian is the ingredients you're using. But you cannot get those ingredients all over the world. But we can get close. We can get a very similar produce like especially in California, and then you can use the technique. You can incorporate stories, you can learn about that. So the goal of this book is to travel Ukraine when people cannot go and travel Ukraine. Taste Ukraine, and through dishes, learn the complicated history and why we are here at this moment. Why we have this war, why everything is happening. And learning through dishes is, I think, the best way to learn. Because you can taste it, you can understand, you can feel it.

Paula Mohammed: Are you seeing people go to the Ukraine now? What is it like on the plane and at the airport?

Anna Voloshyna: Well, you cannot fly to Ukraine. All airports are closed, so you can go through other countries. I would say people who travel to Ukraine right now are the coolest people in the world. because I've met so many incredible human beings from all over the world. Well, usually when you go to Ukraine right now, you have a clear goal and purpose because you cannot just go and experience the beauty of Ukraine.

Well, you can, but people think, oh, it's not safe , and they are not wrong but if you go there then probably you have something to do. And I met so many great volunteers, chefs, filmmakers and, uh, journalists and they go to tell stories. To experience, to bring the truth to the world. And I've met incredible friends; every trip is like that. I, of course, I hang out with the chefs and my friends and volunteers that are Ukrainian, but I've met so many incredible foreigners that just go there because they feel like this war is horrible. Ukraine needs support. And they go and they give the support. They give their time, they sacrifice everything, money, and, sometimes, uh, they lost. They lose their lives. And we know people who went there because they wanted to report on what's happening and they never came back. And I think those people have the biggest hearts, the biggest passion, and they're the leaders of today's world.

Paula Mohammed: Are you filming what you're doing on these trips? Do you think there might be a documentary down the road?

Anna Voloshyna: So, yes. Oh man. It's hard to do two projects at the same time. I did some filming. The whole project is a little bit on a back burner because I want to finish the cookbook first because it's very deadline focused.

But yes, we did some filming. I want to tell stories not only through the lens of writing and food, but uh, to show people what's happening. And, uh, but it will be again, through the lens of food and dishes and Ukrainian chefs and farmers and makers. So yes, it's happening. That project is very dear to my heart. It's so hard. It was very hard to write a good book and filming at the same time last time.

So I'm focusing on like shooting everything because we are going with Jason again to photograph for the cookbook and cook with different chefs. But yes, the long answer you just heard. But yes, we are filming.

Paula Mohammed: Oh, I would be so interested to see that. And is World Central Kitchen, are you working with them in the Ukraine? 

Anna Voloshyna: Yes, they have, their presence in Ukraine. Is not as big as it was, when the war just started because the need was much bigger at that time. Now they have their presence. Everything is going smoothly. They have their teams in Ukraine, mostly Ukrainians now. So it, it used to be like foreign chefs came to volunteer.

Now it's mostly Ukrainian chefs who are chef partners. I think the operation is established and it's going very well. I never worked with them directly. I always fundraised for them because I felt the need and I send them the money and I was in contact with them. I feel like right now they have their kitchens established and I keep in contact with chefs who are from the US who volunteer or are responsible for kitchens in some, cities. And I will meet, , Noah Sims. He's a, he's a great chef. , he's in Ukraine right now. So we, we keep in touch and we, like, we talk to each other, but we never met in person because we are never in Ukraine at the same time. So this time we finally will be able to meet, so that's very exciting.

Paula Mohammed: And for people that don't know, World Central Kitchen is a organization that was, that's was created, uh, started by a well-known chef who I'm... José 

Anna Voloshyna: Andrés.

Paula Mohammed: Yes, and they go when disaster hits different parts of the world. They, they swoop in and you can volunteer and you can actually sign up on their website and be available to go and help out. Speaking of chefs, I was curious , were you a practicing chef at some point?

Anna Voloshyna: I was a pop-up chef and I went to culinary school, but I never had my own restaurant. I don't have plans. In the nearest future to have my own restaurant. I switched to writing cookbooks and doing videos and doing this type of project. Maybe one day I will have a restaurant. We'll see.

But yeah, I, I help people tell their stories through the lens of food. But working in the restaurant, I think it's a totally different skill which I might explore one day, but yeah, for now I'm focused on this project that I want to finish, I want to bring to the world, and then we'll see.

Paula Mohammed: I can't wait to see what you do next. I'm just, uh, blown away with what you do have done and are doing. And I'm trying to visualize what this looks like on the front lines. Cooking with and feeding 40 to 50 soldiers logistically. Are we looking at mess tents or are we in, are we in restaurants that chefs have?

Or what are, what are we, I guess there's no restaurants? 

Anna Voloshyna: There are, but what we did there are locations where soldiers leave and usually, it's, it's not a d it's a house. Because frontline that means, it's the, the buildings are mostly abandoned and soldiers. They rent those houses or the houses just given to them to live in. And we had an opportunity to cook in one of those houses and we had a big backyard with the... we had an inside kitchen when, where we prepped everything and the cooking happened on the, over the live fire.

Because they had a little grill, like a homemade grill, and they had a wood burning stove top. And I had a huge kind of like wok-ish thing. Uh, so I made my stew in there. We made the bun in the kitchen and we fire roasted the vegetables. So it was outside and the feast happened outside, so they had a huge table. Because it's like 50 people; they need to eat somewhere. So they had the table, they had the seats and everything. Benches, it's like kind of like my family gathering because it's totally the same setup, like a house and a backyard and you cook it. Some dishes in the backyard, but with, it's like extended family and explosions on the background.

Paula Mohammed: When you are not there, how are the soldiers, what does that look like for food-wise? Meals?

Anna Voloshyna: They cook. Oh my God. They, they can cook. They are the pickiest eaters I've ever met. Oh my God. That was like, until the, their, uh, commander came and said like, stop being babies. They gave me the hardest time. They were like doing and helping, but they're like, oh, don't put too much garlic. I don't like garlic.

The other guy is like, oh, I love cilantro. The next guy is like, I need cilantro. Don't put cilantro. The other dude is like, what is purple basil? And they were like going on and on and like, oh, you are not peeling tomatoes. You are just chopping tomatoes and not peeling them. I'm like, come on dudes.

Paula Mohammed: That's funny. And do you see many women on the front lines?

Anna Voloshyna: We have, like, at that particular event, I was the only girl. But yeah, we have women, uh, at the front line. They're fighting, they're doing everything the guys are doing. And my friend right now, he's fighting and he said like, yeah, we have girls. We have guys like, it's, it's normal. Women can volunteer and go and help and they're fighting as fiercely as guys are fighting.

Paula Mohammed: I just want to go into a bit of a different direction. After growing up in the Ukraine and now living in, uh, California, what is it that you notice as the biggest difference culturally? I guess, what you miss the most from the Ukraine?

Anna Voloshyna: Well, when I came here first, I didn't know where to shop for produce. And I went to Safeway. It's a big grocery store and I was amazed by the quality of tomatoes because they were not tomatoes to me. I'm like, well, what is this red ball of, uh, water? And uh, for me it was hard to find good produce at first.

But then I learned about different farmers, farmers' markets, and I now I know my favorite producers and I can go there and buy what tastes the best to me. It was not a thing in Ukraine, because you go to a farmer's market and everything tastes great. Well, of course you will choose the greatest thing, but the baseline is so much higher here to eat quality stuff.

You need to pay, you need to pay a lot of money. And that's the biggest difference I think the affordability of food and the quality of food. And I know that farmers don't make a lot of money and they have to price their produce accordingly to the spending they do. And it's not because they, they're like millionaires. So that's different.

And like in Ukraine, in my city, I'm from a very small town and everybody who had a house had a little patch of vegetables and some fruit trees, and I grew up with that and that was normal for me. But here it's different. Maybe we'll have a lemon tree, maybe an orange tree, but uh, very few people will actually have a garden or chickens or something like that.

For me, that was a given and I did not appreciate the quality of the food because I didn't know that it can be different. And now I appreciate the food so much more. And the labor that goes into growing every little tomato, every little cucumber. I have my own small vegetable garden now because. We just moved to a house.

We used to live in an apartment, so we didn't have an opportunity to grow anything. And now I have like, uh, hot peppers and herbs and we are starting our tomato garden. So it's, it's different now. I appreciate, and I feel more connected to ingredients because they're so much more precious.

Paula Mohammed: Yeah, for sure. There's something about that natural, growing of produce that just tastes different as opposed to being in a greenhouse .

Anna Voloshyna: Yes, honestly, it may sound cheesy, but you can taste the love and effort. When you put it into the soil, you will taste it in your food.

Paula Mohammed: Absolutely. Where you are now? Do you have people gathering together, you hosting dinners? Are you finding that you're missing that piece, or do you make that happen? I.

Anna Voloshyna: I'm very lucky. I found a great community of people here who support me and I support them. And we have our cookbook clubs, supper clubs, everything. So I'm a part of this incredible community called Proof Collective and it's women in food, and we gather a couple times a month to celebrate someone. It's either the author who is a member of the community or maybe an author who we love and we invite her to celebrate her food or something else.

So it's happening quite often and, uh, I will start hosting more because now I have the space for it. I have a beautiful deck with a long table and chairs and everything. So I want to come back from Ukraine and fire up my grill and make something nice for, for my community. We, we have a very interesting pop-up culture in San Francisco, in the Bay Area, and, uh, after the pandemic, I see that people are doing that more and more, and I have a ton of friends who are doing pop-ups now.

That doesn't feel like going to a restaurant. It's actually feeling like somebody's cooking for you, but in a restaurant. So that's a part of experience. I'm going on Monday to support my friend who's launching her pop-up. That's their very first dinner. So like I feel that the opportunity is always there and people are willing to participate.

You just need to find the right community for that and just invite, like, make an effort. I, I don't think anything wrong with that. Just make an effort. Invite people and they will show up. A few days ago, we did a huge potluck with all the culinary instructors from the cooking school.

I'm teaching at the Civic Kitchen, and we did a baby shower for our friend and everybody brought something incredibly delicious. And, but just by the look of the dishes, you know, this, these people are professionals. They're not messing around. So we had like the most incredible lunch. The spread was impeccable.

Everything tasted delicious from different countries, and we all came together to celebrate our friend, and it was just like nobody even communicated what we bringing. We just brought everything and it was...

Paula Mohammed: I love it. What was the name of the group of women? That was it? Proof Collective.

Anna Voloshyna: Yeah. Proof collective.

Paula Mohammed: Yeah, that's a great idea. Start something like that and, uh, once a month get together and celebrate somebody. Yeah. Love it.

The role of vodka in your, because we hear about it and you see it in the movies and read about it in books. It is it as prevalent as I'm, as I think it is in your upbringing and...

Anna Voloshyna: So for the Ukrainian name for it is _horilka_ and it was big when I was growing up. _Horilka_ was always at the table, but now everything shifted towards wine a little bit more. And I'm now fascinated with the wine culture in Ukraine. I will of course write about it in my cookbook, and I think people understood that first of all, you can, Ukraine can produce amazing wine and, uh, we have many, many producers.

And in every region of Ukraine we have, uh, wine makers and, uh, we have good wine that we finally can share with. The world, it's still like growing fast. It's like Napa Valley in seventies. That's what Ukraine is like right now. So yeah, I think, the strong, strong liquor lost its appeal and now it's the time for wine.

Paula Mohammed: Interesting. Oh, I have to search out some Ukraine wine. Mostly reds or, or whites

Anna Voloshyna: Everything. Everything we like, there are, there are no limits, no rules. People are trying different, different grapes because we are still figuring out what grows best and I tasted everything from sparkling to heavy reds to cider. Cider is actually very good in Ukraine too, so it's like everything is happening.

Paula Mohammed: It sounds like an exciting time in some ways, and I understand what you mean now by, in the food scene, the renaissance of the food scene, there's a sense of discovery from what I'm hearing. From what you say, what do you think, what's next for the Ukraine? Or is it just a big question?

Anna Voloshyna: A big, big question mark. I just, I, I had this conversation with my husband and we don't know. We just don't know. I know that people will be fighting. We want to fight for our freedom, for our independence. We don't want to lose our independence, and we, I don't want to be the one who preserves our culture.

I want to be the one who helps our culture to blossom. We are in that mindset. My friends and I, I, I cannot speak for everybody, but people who are in my circle, they will keep fighting no matter what. Uh, and I will support them no matter what.

Paula Mohammed: Anna, if our listeners would like to support you and follow you and learn more about what you're doing, how can they do that?

Anna Voloshyna: Please follow me on Instagram. It's at _annavoloshynacooks_ and I post my fundraisers there. You will see my journey there. You can follow the journey along with me. In my link in bio, there will be a link to donate. Sales of Freedom is the branch of the organization from the Netherlands, and this organization helps to buy ambulances and equipment, medical equipment. So we support them and, uh, to make it easy to donate, we have, PayPal link, which is tax deductible. Everything is official. So you can support there, you can find it in my link in bio.

If you for some reason cannot find it, just message me on Instagram or email me. And, you can email me at info@annavoloshyna.com. And whatever you want to give will help Ukraine. There is no small donations and support our journey. Through that sales of freedom, we were able to fundraise for six motorcycles, several ambulances, so many tourniquets.

I can, I lost count, so we are bringing tourniquets this time as well. I always post like my dinners and cooking classes online so you can take it from any part of the world and the proceeds are going towards that organization as well. Reach out. Say hi. If you want to volunteer with us, go to Ukraine with us. Drive a motorcycle or an ambulance. We can find you a seat.

Paula Mohammed: You heard it there folks, anybody who wants to go, I'm gonna put all that in the show notes. And for people who'd like to get a copy of BUDMO! Where's the best place to purchase it? Is there a place online where some of the proceeds would go to your

Anna Voloshyna: I would, I would go to Omnivore books. It's a small independent cook cookbook store in San Francisco and they are so incredible and they've been supporting Ukraine for all these years. So yes, buy through them and you will support a local business. And yes, uh, I think that's the place if you want to find it somewhere else.

Look at your independent store. I think my book is almost everywhere, but yeah, definitely Omnivore Books or now serving in Los Angeles Kitchen Arts and Letters in New York. And they deliver. You can order online.

Paula Mohammed: Great. In case people didn't catch that. So Anna is also doing online cooking classes. I definitely plan to do at least one or two or more and invite people to join me in that. And we can make it maybe a bit of a In My Kitchen community at in Anna's kitchen. 

Anna Voloshyna: When I come back from Ukraine, I'm planning to start working on my studio because I, now, I have a space I will establish my teeny tiny kitchen outside of my house and I will host many more classes there. I want to do a fermentation class, Ukrainian dumpling class. So, yes. Join me. We'll have so much fun together.

Paula Mohammed: Fantastic. Anna, thank you so much for your time and your generosity and what you're sharing. Also your patience with those of us who may not be as in the know of what's happening in the Ukraine. I think these kind of conversations and cooking together and learning about Ukraine food is the best way for us to develop that knowledge. So appreciate your, your time there.

Anna Voloshyna: Thank you Paula, for having me. It was a pleasure and thank you for giving me this platform. I think it's now, it's even more important because of everything that's happening and, uh, I'm happy to share my culture and I'm very, very happy that people still support and care and through just like listening to this podcast through cooking Ukrainian meals, through donat

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