Podcast appearances and mentions of Olia Hercules

Join us round the kitchen table with acclaimed Ukrainian chef Olia Hercules and Dash's Artistic Director Josephine Burton as they weave together cooking and storytelling in our latest production.Dash's new production, The Reckoning, is a vivid and powerful new play about war, survival and the fragile trust between those who uncover the truth and those who must live with it.Co-writers Anastasiia Kosodii and Josephine Burton created the play from The Reckoning Project's verified archive of witness testimonies of the Russian war in Ukraine. Find out why Olia's insights and beautiful cooking is so vital to our staging of these experiences.To book tickets or to read more about The Reckoning see the Dash Arts website.If you haven't already, you can hear the other episodes of this podcast mini-series on The Reckoning where we explore our process towards production, speaking to author and journalist Peter Pomerantsev on why he shared the testimonies with Dash as well as Rory Finnin, Professor of Ukrainian Studies at the University of Cambridge.In the podcast, we hear from:Josephine Burton - Artistic Director, Dash Arts Olia Hercules - Chef & The Reckoning Food ConsultantZoë Hurwitz - The Reckoning Set Designer Our intro music is Fakiiritanssi by Marouf Majidi and throughout you can hear Tykho feat Syoda by composer of The Reckoning, Anton Baibakov. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

This week, as Trump tramples over the future of Eastern Europe – and indeed the rest of Europe, we're with Siberian-born food writer and co-founder of #CookforUkraine, Alissa Timoshkina.Her latest book, Kapusta: Vegetable-Forward Recipes from Eastern Europe is a celebration of the humble cabbage (and four other vegetables) in the everyday kitchens of Eastern Europe. Her co-founder of CookforUkraine, Olia Hercules calls it ‘A rare cookbook that engages our thinking and delights our senses' and Nigella has already propped it up in her Cookbook Corner. In a world that is in such turmoil at the moment, a book about the rich history of Eastern European food and its peoples can do much to remind us all of the taste and flavour of a part of the world eclipsed by the headlines of war. Pop over to Gilly's Substack for Extra Bites of Alissa. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Victoria and James tuck into some traditional Ukrainian Christmas dishes…Chef Olia Hercules brings some festive food into the Ukrainecast studio and explains how food keeps her connected to her home.Today's episode is presented by Victoria Derbyshire and Vitaly Shevchenko. The producers were Arsenii Sokolov and Diane Richardson. The technical producer was Ben Andrews. The series producer is Tim Walklate. The senior news editor is Sara Wadeson. Email Ukrainecast@bbc.co.uk with your questions and comments. You can also send us a message or voice note via WhatsApp, Signal or Telegram to +44 330 1239480You can join the Ukrainecast discussion on Newscast's Discord server here: tinyurl.com/ukrainecastdiscord

Feeling a chill in the air and looking for a way to warm up after a busy fall day?As the days get shorter and cooler, we crave comfort food that are nourishing, while still simple to make at home. But with so many different recipes out there, how do you choose a soup that will truly hit the spot? Whether you want a quick weeknight option or a slow-simmered weekend treat, this episode will inspire you to make the most of soup season. By the end of this episode, you'll…Discover the viral “Glow Soup” — creamy, nutritious, and 100% plant-basedLearn tips for creating hearty, flavorful broths in your slow cooker or Instant Pot that can be enjoyed as a healthy snack or used to elevate classics like tomato, lentil, or chicken noodleGet creative with root veggies and hearty greens, combining them with pantry staples like smoky spices and coconut milk to take your soup game to the next levelTune in now to learn how to create soul-warming soups that will carry you through autumn and into winter with ease and comfort!***Links:The viral TikTok “Glow Soup” by Maddie Harrington/NutriouslyeasySimilar to Kari's soup: Andouille sausage + black bean soup with fire-roasted tomatoes by Sarah Carey for Martha Stewart, or this sausage, kale, and lentil soup (just swap the tomatoes for fire-roasted ones)Olia Hercules' Tarragon Soup from her cookbook Kaukasis: The culinary journey through Georgia, Azerbaijan & beyondClassic French onion soup with beef stock and white wine, and a mushroom farro version from NYT CookingSlow cooker carmelized onions from Gimme Some OvenParsnip soup options – Easiest parsnip soup form Taming Twins , Carrot-Parsnip Soup from NYT Cooking, and Apple parsnip soup from Dana's TableWhite chicken chili (with 3 different methods!) from Add a Pinch, and a 5-ingredient white chicken chili from Gimme Some Oven***Got a cooking question? Call in and leave us a voicemail on our kitchen phone! 323-452-9084Sign up for our newsletter here for special offers and opportunitiesOrder Sonya's debut cookbook

In this episode of Identified, host Nabil Ayers interviews Ukrainian chef and food writer, Olia Hercules. Olia reflects on her efforts to document family history and the challenges faced due to lost records from the Soviet era. She shares poignant family stories of displacement, survival, and the strong sense of community that characterized her upbringing. The conversation touches on the importance of food and cooking, highlighting traditional recipes and the skills passed down through generations. Olia also discusses coping with current hardships in Ukraine by drawing strength from her ancestors' resilience.  Host: Nabil Ayers Guest: Olia Hercules Executive Producer: Kieron Banerji Production Company: Palm Tree Island Music: Nouela and Patricia BrennanSee omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

In recent years women have overtaken men as the majority on allotments and community gardens. These spaces for growing fruit and vegetables to eat at home have been peaceful places that provide families with healthy food. Datshiane Navanayagam talks to two women from Kenya and Ukraine about the appeal of these plots.JC Niala is a writer, academic and creative from Kenya who has written about the history of allotments. Alongside Greenpeace, she has co-created ‘The Waiting List', an allotment-sized artwork highlighting the significant demand and lengthy waiting lists for allotments. Olia Hercules is a Ukrainian cook and author of the award-winning Mamushka cook book. Raised in rural Ukraine she later moved to London where she missed the fresh tastes of homegrown food. This led her to start the lengthy process of securing an allotment, which she says helps make a place feel like ‘home', particularly during times of war and displacement. They've written essays for a book celebrating allotment life called This Allotment: Stories of Growing, Eating and Nurturing.Produced by Jane Thurlow(Image: (L) JC Niala, courtesy of JC Niala. (R) Olia Hercules, credit Joe Woodhouse.)

In this episode we're taking a look at emergency medicine outside hospitals and surgeries – and meeting the people who save seriously-ill people in unusual places.Smitha Mundasad goes on a rainy walk in the hills with the Brecon Mountain Rescue Team and meets the flying medics of London's Air Ambulance. Will she have time for a chat before they get a call-out? We also hear from Sweden where they're making lifesaving changes before the ambulance even arrives.And from kombucha and kimchi to keffir and sourdough, fermented food and drink is everywhere. But as these foods have exploded in popularity, so have claims of health benefits, from digestion and gut health, to immunity and mood.We start by trying some fermenting with chef Olia Hercules and then Smitha chats to fermented food “nerd” Professor Paul Cotter to sift through the evidence. Next week's Inside Health is all about the perimenopause – the time leading up to the menopause when oestrogen starts to drop. Why is it all still such a mystery? Send us your questions – and we'll put them to our panel. It's insidehealth@bbc.co.uk Presenter: Smitha Mundasad Producer: Gerry Holt Editor: Martin Smith Production co-ordinator: Jonathan HarrisDeclared interests: Professor Paul Cotter: “Research in the Cotter laboratory has been funded by PrecisionBiotics Group, Friesland Campina, Danone and PepsiCo. Paul Cotter has also received funding to travel to or present at meetings by H&H, the National Dairy Council U.S., PepsiCo, Abbott, Arla and Yakult. In addition, he is the co-founder and CTO of SeqBiome Ltd., a provider of sequencing and bioinformatics services for microbiome analysis.”

This week, Gilly is on Hove seafront with an old friend of the podcast, Joe Woodhouse to talk about More Daily Veg.A lot has happened since they first met on Zoom to talk about his first book, Your Daily Veg. While the Ukraine war has rocked his family life – his wife is the Ukrainian food writer and Cook for Ukraine champion, Olia Hercules, their three year old son, Wilf was diagnosed with a mild form of autism, and vegetables have actually landed properly on the British plate. Gilly catches up with him on a bench over looking the sea to ponder on the enormity of it all Head to Gilly's Substack to see what Joe has cooked up for us over on Extra Bites Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Ukrainian chef, author and activist Olia Hercules welcomed Clover into her unruly garden for this vulnerable conversation about the collective bravery of Ukraine. Olia explains why she decided to raise money for her brother's regiment despite being a humanitarian, the beauty of creative mindfulness in dark times and what you can do to support the war in Ukraine today. She also tells Clover about the colours and smells of her childhood in Ukraine, how to draw strength from the past and why you should have the courage to look after yourself first.Follow Olia @oliahercules and donate to #CookForUKRAINE and Legacy of War Foundation. Connect with Clover @clover.stroud. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

This week we explore the beautiful kitchen of Ukrainian chef Olia Hercules. Over homemade rhubarb beer, Olia talks books, cooking for one and how chicken soup transcends borders. And we have a good nose around her kitchen that she calls messy but we call homely. Home Food  Cook For Ukraine  Dumpling Classes

In Olia Hercules' book title, she describes the power of food to comfort and connect, and nobody exhibits it in such a captivating way as Olia does.Be inspired by the wonders of world food as one of Ukraine's most moving and emotive cooks and writers joins Sarah on ‘grow, cook, eat, arrange', sharing the delights of Ukrainian recipes.In this episode, discover:Olia's background and journey to discovering the joys of cookeryHeartwarming tales of family recipes perfect for you to try at homeRecipes to take advantage of bountiful wild garlic from foragingThe profound connection you form when you cook with what you growGet in touch: info@sarahraven.comShop on the Sarah Raven Website: http://bit.ly/3jvbaeu Follow Sarah: https://bit.ly/3jDTvBpFollow Arthur: https://bit.ly/3jxSKK5

GUEST: Olia Hercules - Food writer, food stylist and chef. ---------- Today I'm talking to one of Ukraine's leading cultural figures and most creative minds, about a very personal and difficult subject – the intentional flooding of, Kakhovka by Russia in an act of monumental depravity and barbarism. We'll also be talking about how culture and food fortify the Ukrainian identify and strengthen their spirit of resistance against tyranny. #OliaHercules #ukrainiancusuine #borscht #ukraine #ukrainewar #russia #zelensky #putin #propaganda #war #disinformation #hybridwarfare #communism #sovietunion #postsoviet ---------- SPEAKER: Olia Hercules is a food writer, food stylist and chef who spent her early childhood in the town of old Kakhovka. She is author of many award-winning cookbooks including Mamushka, Kaukasis, Summer Kitchen and Home Food. She settled in the United Kingdom at the age of 18 to study international relations and Italian at Warwick University. Olia Hercules began working as a chef after completing a course at Leith's School of Food and Wine in 2010. In response to the 2022 Russian invasion of Ukraine, Hercules raised money to privately send bullet-proof vests to civilian volunteers in the Ukrainian army, including her brother. With her friend, the chef Alissa Timoshkina, she established the #CookForUkraine social media initiative, encouraging businesses and individuals to raise money for UNICEF by cooking Ukrainian cuisine. She has won many awards, include The Observer Rising Star in Food 2015 and was Winner of Fortnum & Mason's Debut Food Book Award 2016. ---------- BOOKS: Mamushka: Recipes from Ukraine & Beyond (Octopus Publishing (2015) Kaukasis: The Cookbook – A Journey Through the Wild East (Octopus Publishing (2017) Summer Kitchens Inside Ukraine's Hidden Places of Cooking and Sanctuary (2020) Home Food (Bloomsbury Publishing, 2022) ---------- LINKS: https://twitter.com/Olia_Hercules https://www.linkedin.com/in/olia-hercules-2097925a/ https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Olia_Hercules ---------- WATCH NEXT: Orest Zub https://youtu.be/A7MrcwdDvPQ Aliona Hlivco https://youtu.be/yGLUBCfTkD8 Olga Tokariuk https://youtu.be/D5onDse6WJs Anna Danylchuk https://youtu.be/5AenntkSxIs Roman Sheremeta https://youtu.be/olrTPku8EMM ---------- CHAPTERS: 00:00 Introduction ---------- PLATFORMS: Twitter: https://twitter.com/CurtainSilicon Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/siliconcurtain/ Podcast: https://open.spotify.com/show/4thRZj6NO7y93zG11JMtqm Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/finkjonathan/ Patreon: https://www.patreon.com/siliconcurtain ---------- Welcome to the Silicon Curtain podcast. Please like and subscribe if you like the content we produce. It will really help to increase the popularity of our content in YouTube's algorithm. Our material is now being made available on popular podcasting platforms as well, such as Spotify and Apple Podcasts.

Day 468.Today, we discuss the latest updates from Kherson as flood waters rise, speak to charity workers active in the region, and bring you the latest reaction one day on from the destruction of the Nova Kakhovka dam.Contributors:David Knowles (Host). @djknowles22 on Twitter.Dom Nicholls (Associate Editor, Defence), @DomNicholls on Twitter. Francis Dearnley (Assistant Comment Editor). @FrancisDearnley on Twitter.Roland Oliphant (Senior Foreign Correspondent). @RolandOliphant on Twitter.With thanks to:Yuriy Tokarski (CEO of U-Hearts Foundation) @YuriyTkr on Twitter. https://u-hearts.com/Olia Hercules (author and chef from Khakova ) @Olia_Hercules on Twitter.The charity mentioned by Olia: https://www.legacyofwarfoundation.com/ukrainecrisisHer own site: https://oliahercules.com/ Francis's article for The Telegraph can be found here: https://www.telegraph.co.uk/world-news/2023/06/06/ukraine-knows-all-too-well-terrible-cost-dam-bursts/Subscribe to The Telegraph: telegraph.co.uk/ukrainethelatestEmail: ukrainepod@telegraph.co.ukSee Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

Are we still a nation of pudding lovers and does pudding still matter? Join Sheila Dillon in her kitchen where she's joined by some of the UK's best pudding makers to share some of the secrets of great pudding, and why they matter to them. Olia Hercules makes a pudding from her childhood in Ukraine, a cheesecake made from the "cheese of all cheeses"; Regula Ysewijn bakes an early version of a Bakewell Pudding using apricot kernels and sweetmeats; Melissa Thompson brings Jamaican nostalgia into her own pudding invention, Guinness Punch Pie; Jeremy Lee cooks his Granny's Steamed Treacle Dumpling and chef Anna Higham who's book "The Last Bite" is a celebration of seasonal fruit puddings, makes a rice pudding with a rhubarb compote. So what it is about pudding that delights people so much? And why don't we eat them as much as we once did? Sheila speaks to food historian, Ivan Day, who has spent a lifetime researching and recreating puddings from the past, to see what he makes of our relationship with them now. Presented by Sheila Dillon Produced in Bristol by Natalie Donovan

Comment se nourrit-on en temps de guerre ? Comment faire à manger sans électricité ? Quelle place pour la nourriture dans les zones de conflit quand les bombes s'abattent, que les tirs de mortiers résonnent ? Pourtant, des repas sont partagés, des boulangeries créées dans les sous-sols des immeubles, des barbecues communs sont installés, des brûleries de cafés montées, des restaurants ouvrent aussi leur porte. Au-delà de la priorité vitale évidente, manger concrétise le lien social, incarne le soutien et la résistance, la solidarité, le goût de la vie !  Nos invités, Juliette Turrini et Scott Laurent, sont tous deux photographes. Reporter de Guerre, Scott a passé plusieurs mois en Ukraine depuis le début de la guerre. Il est retourné avec Juliette, au début de l'année 2023, pour raconter la nourriture comme lien social, les repas et l'adaptation des civils et des militaires, en temps de guerre. Pour suivre leur travail : Juliette Turrini : son site et sur Instagram.  Scott Laurent est l'auteur de 2 livres, dont le dernier « Deux poignées de terre » vient de paraitre : son site et sur instagram.« On n'apprend pas dans les écoles de cuisine à choisir son générateur » -  Nika Lozovska, cheffe de Dizyngoff à Odessa en Ukraine.  Aller plus loin :- Au sujet de l'Holodomore, la famine provoquée par le régime de Staline au début des années 30 en Ukraine : Le documentaire.- L'Assemblée nationale française a reconnu ce 28 mars 2023 la grande famine de 1932 comme un génocide.« Je n'ai jamais eu faim en Ukraine. L'histoire a cruellement enseigné aux Ukrainiens à toujours faire en sorte d'avoir à manger : ils conservent, cultivent, se débrouillent pour ne jamais manquer de nourriture. » Scott Laurent, photographe. - Nika Lozovska, cheffe et fondatrice de Dyzingof. Instagram de Nika Lozovska.- Summer Kicthen de Olia Hercules, éd. Hachette Cuisine.- Ukraine, Recette et histoire, éd. La Martinière.- Magic food Kitchen.- Refugee food avec Nika Lozovska. En images Programmation musicale- Back in the USRR, Beatles - The other side, de Studio Shap Shap. 

In the latest episode of Life in Food with Laura Price, I talk about Food and War with Alissa Timoshkina, who co-founded the Cook for Ukraine fundraising initiative with her friend Olia Hercules. In the episode, we talk about her campaign to fight conflict and violence with food and love, what she has learned from Russia's war on Ukraine, and how her Jewish-Ukrainian grandmother taught her that the human spirit cannot be extinguished through war.Follow Alissa on Instagram @alissatimoshkina.Follow MotherFood on Instagram @motherfoodlondon.Listen to MotherFood podcast.Follow Alissa on Twitter @alissatimoshkin.Buy Alissa's cookbook, Salt & Time.Try Alissa's recipe for borsch.Get involved with CookforUkraine.org.Visit Alissa's website.Read Laura's interview with Alissa and Olia for The World's 50 Best Restaurants.Restaurants mention in the episode:Mriya Neo BistroAbout Alissa Timoshkina: Alissa is a writer, historian and chef who published her first book, Salt and Time: Recipes from a Russian Kitchen, in 2019, and who hosts the podcast Motherfood. She founded the supper club KinoVino, pairing dishes with films, and has now extended Motherfood into a food service for new mothers.About the host: Laura Price is a multilingual journalist who travels the world writing about restaurants. A proud Yorkshire lass at heart, she spent several years in Latin America before settling in London. Her first novel, Single Bald Female, was inspired by her experience of being diagnosed with breast cancer at 29. A novelist by day and a food writer by night, Laura combines her two passions into this podcast, bringing out powerful stories of survival and healing in a language that everyone understands – food.Buy Single Bald Female.Visit Laura's website.Read Laura's Substack newsletter, Doughnuts for Breakfast.Follow Laura on Instagram @laurapricewrites.Follow Laura on Twitter @laurapricewrite.Life in Food is hosted, produced and edited by Laura Price. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Come dine with us, little dumplings, as we tell you all about Olia Hercules' latest book, Home Food. We've been gone for a little while, but we haven't forgotten how to go off on tangents, so you can look forward to discussions ranging from our prospective applications for Love Island to cabbage tattoos. We do also talk about Home Food, promise! As we approach one year of the Russian invasion of Ukraine, you can donate to #cookforukraine here: https://www.justgiving.com/fundraising/cookforukraine Music: Upbeat Funk - Infraction Get bonus content on Patreon Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Ukrainian chef, author and activist Olia Hercules shares recipes and traditions from her home, and how she's coping after almost one year of war. Plus, Jess Edberg tells the story of Dorothy Molter, who sold hundreds of bottles of root beer every day in Minnesota's remote Boundary Waters Canoe Area Wilderness; J. Kenji López-Alt teaches us what to do when there's too much lettuce in the house; and Christopher Kimball takes your calls with co-host Sara Moulton.We want to hear your culinary tips! Share your cooking hacks, secret ingredients or unexpected techniques with us for a chance to hear yourself on Milk Street Radio! Here's how: https://www.177milkstreet.com/radiotipsListen to Milk Street Radio on: Apple Podcasts | Stitcher | SpotifyThis episode is sponsored by BetterHelp. Give online therapy a try at betterhelp.com/milk and get on your way to being your best self. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

This week's "You've Got to Taste This" recipe comes to us from Felicity Spector, a Harvard Fulbright scholar and London-based journalist, whose interest in Ukraine and Russia far precedes the current conflict there. That interest certainly informs her recipe choice: Makoviy Rulet, a braided babka-ish bread studded with apples and infused with a sweet, complex, frangipane-like poppyseed paste. It's a recipe by Felicity's friend and food-writing colleague Olia Hercules, who's been movingly writing about her family's strife in Ukraine, dealing with the horror of the Russian occupation. Amazingly, Felicity herself has driven into Ukraine from London to bring supplies to bombed-out bakeries there. We talk all about that in today's conversation, one that runs the gambit from British food's bad image in the nineties to her love for a NY-style bagel with whitefish. We also cover the process of making the makoivy rulet, which I served at a dinner party to great acclaim. If you want the recipe, you'll be able to find it on amateurgourmet.com. Also: if you'd like to donate to any of the charities mentioned, here are the links:World Central KitchenCook for Ukraine Bake for Ukraine Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Ukrainian cookbook writer Olia Hercules reflects on why it's important to mark this festive season, and the traditional dishes she'll be serving at the Christmas table in London this year. Ruth Alexander speaks to Olia and her Russian born friend and fellow food writer, Alissa Timoshkina, to discuss how these food traditions have developed and how relatives and friends will be marking Christmas in the war-torn country, ten months on from Russia's invasion. Ruth also sits down with a Ukrainian family of refugees and their British hosts in Blackburn in the North of England to find out what will be on their Christmas table this year, and what it's like to be separated from loved ones at this time. For Mariya Dmytrenko and her children, Krystina and Artem, and their hosts Brian and Julie Lamb, food has provided opportunities to bond and learn about each other's cultures as they share a home. If you would like to get in touch with the show, please email: thefoodchain@bbc.co.uk Presented by Ruth Alexander Produced by Beatrice Pickup (Image: Mariya Dmytrenko and her children Krystina and Artem in Brian and Julie Lamb's kitchen in Blackburn England. Credit: BBC)

"Cooking is like therapy to us. I grew up where my big extended family would come together in summer under the walnut tree. The adults would drink and we'd eat, stories would be told and we'd break into song. It was a healing process." In the first of a new series, the cookbook author Olia Hercules tells us why she's picked the Ukrainian artist and activist Alla Horska as her Great Life. A member of the Sixtiers, Alla was a part of the Ukrainian dissident movement of writers, artists and cultural figures who stood against the destruction of Ukrainian identity and rallied for greater freedoms. Growing up in Ukraine, Olia says she was taught so much about Russian culture, and so little about Ukrainian culture, that she wanted to fix that. Now in a time of war, Olia discovers how parts of Alla's life mirror her own. Joining her in studio is Tetyana Filevska, creative director of the Ukrainian Institute. Tetyana moved to London to escape the war in Ukraine. Future guests in the series include writer Olivia Laing on Christopher Lloyd, Bob Harris on Sir Matt Busby, and Noddy Holder on Chuck Berry. Produced for BBC Audio in Bristol by Caitlin Hobbs

I am incredibly honoured to bring you a very special episode this week. I'd like to highlight that this is a very emotional and sensitive conversation between myself and Olia Hercules and Alissa Timoshkina, the ladies behind #CookForUkraine; the global movement of supper clubs, restaurants and chefs supporting the people of Ukraine, since the atrocities began earlier this year. It was a privilege to sit down with these incredible ladies and hear not only about the platform and what they've been doing to raise money; but also hear about their life stories and the different cultures they have both come from. I urge anyone, however small or big, to donate to #CookForUkraine or even host a supperclub in its honour. Follow them on Instagram and go to https://www.cookforukraine.org to find out more. @cookforukraine @oliahercules @alissatimoshkina @crazysexyfood @hannahharley www.crazysexyfood.com Music by @casnova____ I am beyond excited to announce that I have partnered with Magimix for Season 8 of Crazy Sexy Food! Magimix is a family owned business that has the amazing reputation as makers of quality kitchen appliances that are adored by chefs and home cooks alike. I remember growing up and always seeing my mum's beloved Magimix on her counter top, and the utter ease of how she used it. With their 30-year motor guarantee these machines have always been built to last. They continue to be relevant as ever in the busy kitchen and make fantastic food processors that make your food go further and reduce food wastage. They are a God-send when it comes to batch cooking and using up leftovers. I use my Magimix every day! If you're ready to step into the world of Magimix with a new food processor, blender, ice cream maker or any other bit of kit, then simply pop over to their website and use my exclusive code at check-out for a 15% discount. The code is MAGIMIXCSF. Make it with Magimix.

Vi tipsar om nya kokböcker. Mat från Sicilien, Korea, Kina, Ukraina och en ny bok av Ottolenghi. Kocken och krögaren Emma Kolback, Menys reporter Nina Frogneborn och programledaren Tomas Tengby har läst och lagat ur nya kokböcker.Böckerna som det pratas om:Koreanska grytor av Gustav KyhlbergShelf love av Ottolenghi test kitchen (en bok på engelska)Vegetariana siciliana av Francesca Maugeri Holmström och Louise Malmros ManfrinatoMitt kinesiska skafferi av Jimmy GuoMamusia av Olia Hercules (med mat från Ukraina)

In these fractured times l wanted to continue to look at how stories and food can overcome the distance between people and enhance our shared experiences so earlier this year I spent time exploring storytelling through food writing. I interviewed some very talented writers who tell stories through their food writing to find out why how food has shaped their writing and in what ways food enhances their storytelling. They have all had different experiences around food which has influenced how they write and the subjects they write about. In their own ways they use their writing to break down barriers through stories and food. I hope you find these conversations as fascinating as I did. In this fourth & final interview I would like to introduce you to Anna Kharzeeva. Anna is the author of the remarkable cookbook, The Soviet Diet Cookbook, which is not just that but also a fascinating anthropological, historical analysis of the Soviet regime. She is a political refugee and had to flee Russia at the outbreak of the war against Ukraine or face the possibility of decades in jail for protesting against the actions of the current regime. We had arranged to do the interview before the war broke out and eventually managed to do it once she arrived in Australia after fleeing Moscow via Istanbul. We stuck to my original questions which predated the awful events in Ukraine as we wanted this interview to work with the rest of the series. As you will hear however, naturally the war and its effects aren't far from her thoughts. You can find Anna on Instagram and you can buy her book here Anna also mentions the fundraising drive set up by Olia Hercules and Alissa Timoshkina - Cook For Ukraine. You can find Olia Hercules Books here: You can find the rest of the interviews in this series here: How Food Frames Stories. You can find my interviews with storytellers here: Vernacular Voices of the Storyteller You can also subscribe (or just read) my free newsletter for further snippets of folklore, history, stories, vintage recipes, herblore & the occasional cocktail. You can also find out more at Hestia's Kitchen which has all past episodes and the connected recipes on the blog. If you'd like to get in touch about the podcast you can find me on Twitter or Instagram at @FairyTalesFood.

Nikki Bedi and Adil Ray are joined by scientist and best selling writer Carlo Rovelli to discuss life outside of black holes and quantum mechanics and why he's been dubbed the world's most inspirational physics teacher. At the age of 24, Georgina Hurst was severely injured in an car accident caused by her then boyfriend's dangerous driving. She was given a less than one per cent chance of survival. Determined to defy the odds, today she is gearing up to celebrate 25 years since the accident with a pole dancing performance. She tells her story. Nabil Ayres is the son of a white Jewish former ballerina and the famous black jazz musician Roy Ayers. Prior to his conception, his mother had arranged with his father that he would not have any parental input. Nabil grew up to be a music entrepreneur and a writer, and despite living in the same city has he never bumped into his father. He joins us. Olia Hercules is a Ukrainian cookery writer based in the UK. This year she has witnessed from afar the plight of her family and friends in Ukraine. She co founded the Cook for Ukraine movement and has become an activist on social media. She joins us. Writer Roddy Doyle chooses his Inheritance Tracks: River Stay 'Way From My Door - Paul Robeson and Boys From the Betterland - Fontaines D.C. and we have your thank you! Producer: Corinna Jones

From the BBC World Service: The U.S., which has already sent $10 billion to Ukraine, is expected to announce another $3 billion package, the largest so far. Charities of all shapes and sizes have been doing what they can on the ground, but recently giving has slowed. We caught up again with Ukrainian chef and cookbook author Olia Hercules in her London home to hear about her latest fundraising efforts. And, South Africans are taking to the streets to protest against soaring food and fuel prices, and ongoing power cuts.

From the BBC World Service: The U.S., which has already sent $10 billion to Ukraine, is expected to announce another $3 billion package, the largest so far. Charities of all shapes and sizes have been doing what they can on the ground, but recently giving has slowed. We caught up again with Ukrainian chef and cookbook author Olia Hercules in her London home to hear about her latest fundraising efforts. And, South Africans are taking to the streets to protest against soaring food and fuel prices, and ongoing power cuts.

It's been six months since Russia invaded its neighbour Ukraine. In the early days, in late February, March and April, charities were overwhelmed by donations and offers from people who wanted to help. But they're now having to work much harder to get much needed donations. Ukrainian chef and author Olia Hercules is finding new ways to fundraise for families left behind in her home town. When war broke out Olia told the BBC's Victoria Craig about getting money and vital equipment to her brother on the front line. We catch up with Olia in her London home. Ronny Krieger, general manager of Patreon Europe, explains how people looking to raise money are using the fundraising platform. We also hear from Ukraine-based charity Aid Legion. Its co-founder Anna Goncharova tells us how she and her colleagues worked to come up with a campaign to rally people to the cause in an uplifting, impassioned way. Presenter: Victoria Craig Producer: Stephen Ryan Photo: Olia Hercules; Credit: Victoria Craig/BBC

Soaring inflation, food insecurity and an energy crisis are some of the side effects of the Russian invasion of Ukraine. Half-a-year after the beginning of the war, we take a look at the global fallout of the ongoing conflict. Nowhere has the economic impact been more dramatically felt than in Ukraine itself, where economic activity has almost halved. We ask Yulia Sorokina, CEO of Ukranian fashion brand Wonder, how she manages to keep her business going in a war-hit country. The impact of the conflict and international sanctions in the Russian economy is hard to assess. Economic analysts have come up with some radically differing methods to do so. We ask one of them, Sergei Guriev, a Russian-born Professor of Economics at the Sciences Po University in Paris. The repercussions of the war in Ukraine are global, and one of the places where the situation has become the most pressing is the Horn of Africa. We hear from Hassan Khannenje, director of the HORN International Institute for Strategic Studies, in Kenya. The huge outpouring of support for Ukraine has worn out after six months, and charities say it's getting harder to raise funds. The BBC's Victoria Craig talks to Ukrainian chef and author Olia Hercules, based in London, about her efforts to get help for relatives and other civilians in her country. And we take a look at the latest developments in the markets with Russ Mould, investment director at AJ Bell.

food is sacral for ukrainians. any rituals around growing, cooking, sharing, and eating foods are synonymous with persisting, surviving, thriving, and connecting with fellow ukrainians against all odds. that's why one of the nicest things you can do to show appreciation for a ukrainian is to learn how to cook ukrainian dishes. today's #UkrainianSpaces is all about nurturing all of us back to life, and decolonizing some stuff about ukrainian cuisine and culture along the way. our featured ukrainian is a celebrity chef and storyteller-foodwriter Olia Hercules. #UkrainianSpaces is 100% independent, volunteer and listener-supported initiative. If you like us, please become our Patreon sponsor and help us to amplify more Ukrainian voices. You can also send us a voice mail: https://anchor.fm/ukrainianspaces/message Find #UkrainianSpaces on more platforms: ukrainianspaces.com Follow Val and Maksym Val's twitter and Insta and tiktoks Maksym's twitter and insta and tiktoks --- Send in a voice message: https://anchor.fm/ukrainianspaces/message Support this podcast: https://anchor.fm/ukrainianspaces/support

A visit to one of the most special Austrian farm-wineries, Olia Hercules on food as a tool to unite people and a top cocktail recipe by Ryan Chetiyawardana.

A visit to one of the most special Austrian farm-wineries, Olia Hercules on food as a tool to unite people and a top cocktail recipe by Ryan Chetiyawardana. See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

This week, Gilly is with Olia Hercules, the award-winning food writer who put the food of her home country of Ukraine on the map, and has since found herself fighting to keep its stories in the headlines as Russia razes it to the ground. With her Russian food writer friend, Alissa Timoshkina, she has raised millions through their #cookforukraine campaign. It has inspired thousands of pop ups all over the country, not just to raise money but to keep that rich food culture alive in our hearts and minds. She wrote her latest book, Home Food: Recipes to Comfort and Connect in Lockdown just after giving birth to her second child, which is no mean feat, but could have no idea at the time that she would launch it in a war zone. Here she tells us about her mission to tell the story of her homeland, and about her Patreon channel which she has created to support and rebuild Ukraine.Leiths is offering a discount for Cooking the Books listeners. To get 10% off the Leith's Essentials online course that Gilly is doing over over the next 6 months, go to leithsonline.com/courses/essential-cooking Click ‘enrol' on course page and apply the code: GILLY10 at checkout: And if you fancy a Free Hollandaise mini-course – Sign up for a Workshop account or login at: app.workshop.ws/profile and click ‘Redeem Coupon' on the sidebar. Enter code GILLYSGIFT and click redeem. Check the show notes for all those details. And you can follow my adventures in cookery at Foodgillysmith on Instagram. See acast.com/privacy for privacy and opt-out information.

On a slightly different episode of Table Talk, chef and food writer, Olia Hercules joins Olivia Potts for a second time on the podcast to talk about #CookForUkraine. Created with Russian friend and food writer Alissa Timoshkina, #CookForUkraine encourages people to post and share Ukrainian recipes and celebrate the comfort of food during this difficult time. On the podcast, Olia tells Olivia Potts about the personal cost of the war on her and her family, how she grappled with guilt when cooking at the start of the war, and the ways we can offer support to the besieged cities in Ukraine. For more information about Olia, visit her Patreon account here.

On a slightly different episode of Table Talk, chef and food writer, Olia Hercules joins Olivia Potts for a second time on the podcast to talk about #CookForUkraine. Created with Russian friend and food writer Alissa Timoshkina, #CookForUkraine encourages people to post and share Ukrainian recipes and celebrate the comfort of food during this difficult time. On the podcast, Olia tells Olivia about the personal cost of the war on her and her family, how she grappled with guilt when cooking at the start of the war, and the ways we can offer support to the besieged cities in Ukraine. For more information about Olia, visit her Patreon account here.

Day 111.Today, we discuss updates from across the battlefront and speak to Ukrainian Chef and Food Writer Olia Hercules about her and her family's experience in the war, Russian colonialism and the challenges faced by Ukrainians who've left, more than three months after the start of the invasion. Contributors: David Knowles (Host)Francis Dearnley (Assistant Comment Editor)With thanks to Olia Hercules. See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

This week, Gilly is with Joe Woodhouse to talk about cookery courses, food photography and launching your very first book in the middle of a war when your wife is Ukrainian food writer, Olia Hercules.His book Your Daily Veg has been lauded by Nigella, Anna Jones and Cooking the Books favourite, Rachel Roddy, and is packed with recipes inspired his career to date styling and photographing food from all over the world, but also by a lifetime of being a vegetarian.To get 10% off the Essentials online course that I'm doing over over the next 6 months, go to leithsonline.com/courses/essential-cooking Click ‘enrol' on course page and apply the code: GILLY10 at checkout: And if you fancy a Free Hollandaise mini-course – Sign up for a Workshop account or login at: app.workshop.ws/profile and click ‘Redeem Coupon' on the sidebar and enter code GILLYSGIFT See acast.com/privacy for privacy and opt-out information.

You're listening to From the Desk of Alicia Kennedy, a food and culture podcast. I'm Alicia Kennedy, a food writer based in San Juan, Puerto Rico. Every week on Wednesdays, I'll be talking to different people in food and culture, about their lives, careers, and how it all fits together and where food comes in.This week, I'm talking to Millicent Souris, someone I have long wanted to make my friend. Millicent is to me just wildly cool. She talks about food equity and drinking bourbon, and there was no one I would rather talk to you about the dichotomy of being politically engaged with food justice, and also stocking your pantry with very nice olive oil. She's also one of my favorite food writers period; her pieces in Brooklyn Based, Bon Appetit, Diner Journal—they kind of redefined the genre. As a longtime line cook who now runs a soup kitchen and food pantry in New York City, she's someone who simply knows food—its highs and lows and is cool as hell. Did I say that already? Alicia Kennedy: Hi, Millicent. How are you, Millicent?Millicent Souris: I'm doing all right. How are you, Alicia?Alicia: Did I say your name right? Millicent: Yep! Alicia: Actually, we should have done that before. [Laughs.]Millicent: I know. Yeah, my name is Millicent. And is Alicia correct for you?Alicia: Yes. Alicia is correct. Millicent: Great.Alicia: Yeah, I'm Alicia sometimes, but only if you're a Spaniard. [Laughs.]Millicent: Fair, I'm not going to pretend…Alicia: Yeah, yeah…well, can you tell me about where you grew up and what you ate?Millicent: Yeah, I grew up in Baltimore County, north of Baltimore City, and in Towson, Maryland, and Lutherville, Maryland—which is of course home to John Waters and Divine, and also in North Baltimore County. So my dad's parents had immigrated from Greece, so I grew up eating Greek food. And then my mom's family had a dairy farm, so I grew up drinking—when I was up there—unpasteurized milk, which I would say about 10 years ago, I made the connection was raw milk. And country food, you know—my grandfather would grow his own corn and tomatoes and zucchini, and that would be summertime. We ate a lot of crabs in the summer, because it's Maryland, and then also, like, oysters were definitely a part of my mom's family. Like we'd have oysters stuffing and raw oysters at Thanksgiving, because her dad would bring them and shuck them. But then also because it's the ’70s and ’80s, straight-up shitty American processed food, was a gift, you know, for our household because my mom worked and my dad worked, and there's three of us. And, you know, even on the farm, my uncle and his wife, they would buy Steak-umms, even though they had ground beef from the steers that they sent to slaughter. You know, we would drink Tang, and we ate Stouffer’s lasagna, so it was a real hodgepodge, I think, of all that stuff. And then there was, when my mom left my dad and there was the episode called “divorce food,” which was Lean Cuisines and Hamburger Helper and La Choy and a lot of Mandarin oranges in tins. Alicia: Wow. Yeah. Was that on behalf of your mom’s side?Millicent: That was on my mom's side. And then my dad would just take us to his friends’ restaurants or bars and we’d eat there. Alicia: [Laughs.] My parents, when they got divorced, I always say, when I knew something was going wrong was when my mom started to make instant mashed potatoes. Millicent: Yeah…Alicia: I was already like, 20. So it wasn't like I was a kid. But you know it was always seared in my mind that the instant mashed potatoes were the beginning of the end.Millicent: It's the tell…it’s the tell… except I, when I did eat instant mashed potatoes and I think I was 21 I first had them, I was like, What is this magical stuff that just turns into mashed potatoes? Alicia: No, it's super cool. Millicent: It's…I mean, science. It's science. Alicia: Yeah, well, you know, as you were just talking about the dairy and also your family had a bar as well, you know, how did you end up in food, personally? Millicent: I ended up in food…uh, I mean, my Yaya would cook—Souris’s started as a restaurant in 1934. And so it was a classic Greek restaurant, which is American food and then Greek specials. And then when my dad made it a bar, there was a grill, but there was a flattop behind the bar, and so my Yaya would make totally frozen hamburgers, but she'd also have really good Avgolemono soup. But I didn't—I was just a kid and I didn't really take in all of that. So I don't have that—it would be really cool if I could lie and be like, and then yeah, romantic version of food. I got a job at the Royal Farm Stores, it was my first job on the books, when I was 14. And that was the convenience store that had fried chicken and Joe Joe's, and then you take the leftover fried chicken and break it up and make chicken salad. So that was my first job in food and everyone who worked there hated it. And, it was cleaning cases of frozen chicken thighs and cutting potatoes and deep frying a lot of stuff. And then our neighbors owned a luncheonette in a pharmacy and I remember working there and being blown away by making salad dressing from scratch. So, what I knew is that I would always have a job in food because I was willing to do that hard work and for girls like, and teenage girls, I would never be hired to be the counter person or a waitress, because I wasn't cute; I was tall and big and strong and fat, you know. And this is not now—this was the late ’80s. And like, no one was…no one would hire me to be their waitress, but I could always work in the kitchen. And so I—it's not anything I verbalized; it's just something that I knew, that I could always get kitchen jobs. I know that's not really passionate, but you know, you got to make money…Alicia: Right, well did passion emerge for it? Millicent: Yeah, I mean, I think for me I found a land that made sense to me. You know, I remember living one summer, and working um, finding a job at—I lived in Portland, Maine. And I was in this place Greedy McDuff’s, which was a brew pub, and it's still there, and English-style pub food and just working; you're just working with a bunch of heshers, you know, and a bunch of—you're hanging out listening to music, you're working hard, you're kind of gross, your skin's not great, you didn't get a lot of sleep, because you had to work the prep shift…But, you know, I remember working with a guy where when Black Sabbath would come on, we’d take the melted butter and dip a brush in it and turn off the lights and hit the grill and the flames would come up. And it just, I don't know, it was that moment: It's just fun—somewhere that felt free when there's not a lot of places to be free, you know? And so I knew that. And then, when I moved to New York, 17 years ago, I helped someone open a restaurant. And I've just always been like, I'm a good worker—everything made sense for me. So I do, when I talk about food, a lot of it, I talk about work, but there has to be a sustained level of the community of people that you're working with and that you're buying from, and that you're feeding. And also the food itself, that is passionate. It's just, that's not just, I'm not one of those people who like has that language, you know, who’s just—I'm not very over-the-top with language about myself and what I like, but don't worry, there's plenty people who have that covered, you know…Alicia: I'm one of them…so… [Laughter.] Millicent: I don't think so.Alicia: Well, you know, yeah, you've worked in restaurant kitchens for years, you write, you've curated social justice film series, you've been a DJ, now you're cooking. You know, well, how would you describe what you do now?Millicent: Right now, I mean, I work at a food pantry in a soup kitchen. And before the pandemic, I'd been there for over five years and I came on as a consultant to do a culinary job training program. We didn't—it didn't work, and it didn't get more funding, but I was I was the only person there who had worked in restaurants. So I kind of had an eye for the food. And I was like, I can work here part time, and we can get more produce and rescue food and things like that, get more produce to people, take care of the food better, increase our capacity for produce.And then I did that, and then the pandemic hit, and then it was that times a million with just the whole world shut down, so where's all the food gonna go? And all the pantries shut down, so we just got dropped all this food. So then I became—then it just became something different. So now, I mean, I don't even cook there. I just, I'm the facilitator of the pallets, you know, and trying to—There's a good grant that came out of the pandemic called the Nourish New York grant. And I think that's permanent now. And it was to really just keep the state going. And you have to spend it on New York State products. And this grant, the director and the head of the pantry, they were just like, What are we going to spend this money on? I was like, I got this, I got this, give it to me please—let me, let me have, let me buy things and not have it all just be like, donated Tyson evil meat. So those grants I take care of and I like to think it balances out all of the super-gross food bank tax writeoffs for giant companies and really just, because I've consulted on restaurant kitchens, I have a good eye for logistics in space. And so we just had to switch our entire building over to be a warehouse and I was like, the chapel can hold pallets and the waiting area can hold pallets. And if we open this up, we can fit pallets through here—so just really nerdy s**t, you know, and also where all the food goes. So that's what I'm working on. That's what I'm working on now. And now hopefully something new will happen. Alicia: Well, that grant is really interesting. Living here in Puerto Rico coming from New York, I'm always thinking about how—well, I never know if it's enough, or if it's actually good, what New York State has done to support local agriculture around the state and craft stuff. I know, I'm like, well, they support it in some way, so that's good. Whereas here, you have, there's nothing there, you know? So this grant sounds really great.But what more should the state be doing, in your mind, to kind of help that?Millicent: Well, this grant is great. Also, because I still remember the moment of, you know, you're talking about farmers or processors, or bakers, and truckers, and people were like, Thank you, you know, because there was nothing, and for all the people making food and growing food, all the restaurants were closed so there was nowhere for any of it to go. I mean, you never forget, I'll never forget, the first couple of times at different truck drivers were just like, Thank you for being open. So that grant is permanent and that's a really important grant, because in terms of, you know, everyone's like ‘supply chain supply chain,’ and then we see what horrible things happen when we're dependent upon such a consolidated supply chain and how, you know, the Trump administration got OSHA to lift their f*****g regulations and Tyson poultry workers had to process more chickens and there was no safety for them. And also, that was all the fear of, This is America, everyone has to have chicken, no one can go hungry. Where actually it's like, no, tons of people will go hungry. But to be able to have, the means, the tangible food system that you can see, I think more so, is so important. In terms of the state. I mean, I do see some holes in what's available, you know, and I do have some ideas, but I don't want to share them here, because, you know—Alicia: —you need to get paid for them. [Laughter.]Millicent: But we can't just—it can't just be restaurants and people who shop at the farmers’ market to support farms. Because those people have summer homes somewhere else. And they also have the ability to just pick up and go somewhere when the s**t hits the fan.Alicia: Yeah, no, it's very complicated. But I'm glad to hear that that's happening. That's—that's…yeah, I wish… [Laughs.]Millicent: It's also, I'll say also for a lot of farms and things like that, it has skewed their—and I work with a headwater hub; there's more infrastructure for schools, and food pantries and institutional food, which also because of brigade is turning into something that's so much more important in terms of like school foods and things like that. And we need that—we can't just be like, f*****g neoliberal people who care about what they eat and are—it's so short-sighted, the food, the food scene, which sometimes feels like the food system is so short-sighted and individualistic, it's gross.Alicia: Yeah. Well, you did write an essay sort of about this in Bon Appetit in 2019. You know, where you wrote about finding kind of about—I don't know if it was about you finding a balance, but what is that balance that between the olive oil and hunger and—I think about this, of course, as a food writer, where it's, you know, what am I selling people on? Like, what is it that I want to sell people on basically, when it comes to food? Is it just that having a good olive oil is sufficient? Of course it's not, you know. But for you, what are the gaps here that need to be filled in when we talk about food?Millicent: I mean, the gaps are major. Well, I feel there's personal consumption, right? And there's personal consumption that I prefer, and I know that, man, I know on paper, and if I told any of my co-workers the price of a glass of wine that I drink—I'm just some bougie white person, you know. Also, personal consumption is not about production and politics and everything like that—I don't quite know how to say that great.But look at how much food writing there is, look at how people's lives are curated. And the people who have the most influence and are influencers, they only talk about political issues when they need to, to stay relevant, or unless it's something that they actually care about where they're like, Abortion…Abortion. You know, ‘Black Lives Matter,’ when you know, especially two years ago—But the amount that we discuss food in conjunction with the amount of people who are hungry—and hunger can be such a vague thing, especially in this country, right? Like before, generally, it was like 10 to 12 percent [in] America, you’re like, all right. But to me, in New York, your neighbor is hungry, you know? You are moving into a neighborhood, you are opening a restaurant in a place where you have to just, where so many people are just, That's just what that corner is like. And I think that there's ambition and I think this city begs people, if you have ambition, to willfully ignore things, but the amount that food is written about… And like, I would say now, like Grub Street and Eater, and those places, now they're all also consolidated under the same media group, right? Before it used to be more competitive and they used to just be kind of a real content machine. And more 24/7, you know, because everyone's like, I can be on the internet all the time. And once it's out of the bag, then you're stuck with it. Let’s just say Salt Bae, he'll never go back; he’ll never go away, because someone's just like, Look at this guy. And then now he's there and he's validated. But think of all the people who got validated and all the s**t that we talk about. And we can choose so much of what we want to consume now, everywhere, and it's great to read about things that don't ultimately matter, because the things that matter are so painful. And it's only during a shutdown that we actually have this bandwidth to care about it. I mean, the food media is just, they're just—most of them are content creators. They shouldn't be able to write about anything that has any politics or systematic issues and anything to do with like actual workers, you know, who are they? They're not journalists.Alicia: No, it's an interesting thing, because I think right now, everyone is always asking me—like, well, asking me personally—do I consider myself a food writer and then asking, what is a food writer? And I think that it's important to, I mean, I'm aware of the market forces that create certain types of content and how you have—you have to do things in order to have a career at all. Of course, you have to then ask the question, if I have to do this, why do I want this to be my thing that I do all the time? Why don't I do something else? And so it's difficult, because you know a lot of food writers will say, I just want to write a recipe and then just look cute, and like, get things sent to me, and that shouldn't be a problem. And I'm like, for me it, you know, it is a problem. And I've written about this, that food writers don't, at large, have even a basic consciousness that comes through in their work around climate change, around hunger, around, you know, conditions of factory farming, around like any ecological significance to anything.Millicent: It’s sheer consumption. Alicia: Exactly. And that's becoming more and more, I think, because we're in this vague post-pandemic moment, so things are sort of going back to normalcy in terms of what gets covered. And it's just restaurants, restaurants, restaurants, like cookbooks, cookbooks, cookbooks. And then there's that moment where we were going to talk about the conditions, the labor conditions and the supply chains. And that moment seems like it's just going away. Now it's no longer relevant.Millicent: It's gone. And I mean, you and I both really love Alice Driver, and she's working—she and her partners are working on that book. And I am kind of stunned by the consistency in which that topic, because I thought it would be one article, one out, and if you all don't know about Alice Driver—you gotta sign up for her. She's an amazing writer. And she has interviewed poultry workers, and consistently interviewed them. And she's worked with a photographer who takes portraits of them, and she has been reporting this since the beginning. I mean, I think for her kind of a bunch of b****y dilettantes, you know, and I think that we have been taught that you cannot hold all of this and, you know, I don't really believe in balance because nothing seems to be balanced—But like, but what you were talking about before, like, How do I do these things and I know I have to do this—well, we certainly have to have joy. You know, and sometimes joy can't be just like—and trust me I know because I've been doing—working on a food pantry in the last two years during COVID. Like, there has to be joy. It's too hard to live like this all the time. But the sheer consumption and the way that the world is created, it's so easy for us on phones and the internet, of everything, is so unsustainable, climate wise, food wise, content wise. And our escapism isn't escapism anymore—it's our reality. And that's a problem. Because if everyone can be some f*****g content creator and influencer, is it possible that everyone's ability to figure out a way to survive like this means that we don't have anyone actually doing the real work? And that's why this world sucks so hard?Alicia: I mean, the fact that Alice Driver didn't have a column immediately, you know, reporting ongoingly about the conditions when she was on the ground in Arkansas with the workers at Tyson—that is such a damning fact of food media, is that that wasn't some editor's dream to have someone on the ground—Millicent: Just be like, Alice Driver, tell us about this, you know? And because—you guys, the answer isn't for all of us to buy sustainably raised chicken; the answer is for the conditions to be better for all workers and all chickens, you know? And that individualist notion of shopping, which you know, was in the early aughts was really just like, You're not going to change the world—it's such a neoliberal approach towards eating that your trip to the farmers’ market is changing systems. It's only changing you, your system, your house. And that's all part of it. You know, we're so broken right now. I mean, I think we've always been broken. But we're so broken, because the people who think that they're doing good work kind of really aren't, and they're like—I think of them as really affluent people and they walk amongst us. I am around them in New York all the time. I'm friendly with a lot of them or I might be friends with them. They might think I'm their friend. But they're not the one-percenters, so they don't think they're part of the problem. But they are part of the problem, because they're not doing anything. And their comfort is what allows so many things to happen. Like, if they actually wanted change to happen, it would happen more, because the one-percenters are untouchable to us, you know, unless there's crazy, systematic governmental and worldwide changes—that's why they're one percent. They're like, I have so much money, I'm gonna be on the moon, you can't touch me. But the affluent people who are never, still are never rich enough and someone already always owns one more house than they do: They're the ones who pat themselves on the back, because they read all the books, they went to some marches, their kids have Black friends, you know, they're doing all the good stuff, and they care. But they're not really sacrificing anything, they're not really doing anything to really change stuff. And right now, sometimes I hope, you know, I get a little tunnel vision, but I'm like, you guys got to do some s**t. And it's not what you think you should do. Because it’s never what you think you should do, because you're still very self—centered—Alicia: This is—I'm reading a book called The Imperial Mode of Living, which is what you're describing basically, which is that the way we live in the West, or you know, the global North is on the backs of so much exploitation and ecological destruction that we don't see. And then, yeah, and it doesn't matter what class you are, necessarily, and exporting also the idea of this mode of living as the good life quote, unquote, being basically a means of ecological destruction. Like, our way of living and consuming and just thinking about things is part of climate change, part of destruction, like people—and I understand that, but people, when I've written or said anything about the way people will regard their access to the tropical as sort of a human right, just when they need the release or the idea of a vacation to buy a cocktail or a piece of fruit that they probably just shouldn't have, and so, or vacation, etc., but like, people do treat that as though it is their God-given right to have that.Millicent: Yes, for sure. And they do it, they're like, I mean, that Noma pop-up in Mexico City was or—no, it wasn't it—it was in Tulum. Tulum has no infrastructure for what it has now. It certainly doesn't for a bunch of people who need to go to that. Look at all the people who have moved to L.A. I mean, look at California—we just have a straight-up fire season and all the people who moved to L.A., it's like, did you move to L.A., because you like the weather and because then you can have tomatoes all year round? It's kind of a bratty existence.Alicia: It's very—Millicent: To think it's a very—I don’t know if you can hear my neighbors come home from school—it's still consumption, you know? But also, what's fascinating is that this is all also done under the mode of “health,” you know, wellness and health and like, Oh, I get these mangoes or I have to go here. And the rest of us were just having drinks, and maybe there's a cigarette, or maybe there's some weed and more drinks. But we're not doing it for—we're not like, Well, I mean, it's wellness for a lot of us, but we're not lying to ourselves about that pedestal of wellness. Alicia: Yeah, it's no, it's interesting. Well, because especially here, here in Puerto Rico, where, you know, there's so much gentrification and displacement, because of people who come and get tax breaks for starting their businesses here. But it's been restructured so that some actual Puerto Ricans can take advantage in some ways. But for a long time, it's been, you have to have not lived in Puerto Rico for this consecutive amount of years before 2019, or [something] like it was like, or it went into effect in 2012. But you pay like a four, zero to four percent tax rate, and you don't pay federal taxes, because you become a bona fide resident of Puerto Rico. And then these are the people paying $2,000 for a studio, so that like now, none of our friends live anywhere near us because they've been completely priced out, you know— Milicent: It's all the loopholes. I mean, it's like everyone who holds on to their apartment even though they moved upstate, because it's their Airbnb, and you're like, or someone could live there.Yeah, you know, my old apartment in Greenpoint. I've had the lease on that—I'm pretty sure my old landlord is not listening to this. Since I moved here, and when I moved out, my friend lives there. And yeah, because I'm like, You're not gonna find anything. It's rent stabilized, you're like, you're not gonna find anything this affordable. I mean, and that's also interesting, because I think about that—I thought about that before the pandemic, where the food pantries in Bed-Stuy, you know, and we're across, there's a rehab across from us. And then there's like, to the right of us, there's a lot of brownstones that a lot of like gentrifiers live in, and it's like, You're the ones who moved here, because this soup kitchen has been here in this building for like, over 14 years, and the rehab has been here, you know, but also what happens when people become displaced further and further away from the place that gives them the food that they need, and the services that they need? And where are they going? And how much further displacement can the city handle or Puerto Rico? Or, you know…Alicia: Yeah, everywhere.Millicent: Everywhere. And then I think, I mean I think about that so much is how, and I have moved in my life, like being able to move freely, and kind of make decisions based on you know, where you're trying to, just moving around, is such a privilege and we don't actually talk about that. I think that the people who—the media voices that we hear the most are the worst representational voices of who most of the people are. I think that most of us are living pretty fraught financial lives. I think that if you actually have student loans— I think that we're haves and have-nots now, you know, and if you have student loans, you have to actually work for money and not just work for what you hope your life is. But the voices that we hear the most that tell us like, where to eat, what Airbnb to [stay in], you know, who have like, the most exposure, are the people we should listen to the least.Alicia: The least, yeah. [Laughs.]But it's really interesting, because people—those people are successful. People want—they have a huge audience; people want that. And that's what's troubling to me. Like, I as a person, who does, who's a writer, and then like, I have to sell myself a little bit. I think I've come around now to being like, I'm done even trying to sell myself, you know, I'm like, What is is and whatever will be will be and so—but the idea that that's a popular mode of engaging with the world is so troubling to me, existentially, because it's just like, we don't want to grapple with reality—we don't, and it becomes increasingly more necessary to do so.Millicent: Well, it's the question of do we not want to grapple with reality or are we still having problems with—because people are drawn to your work, you know. People are drawn and there's this, people would be like, That person is so real, but people are definitely drawn to it, you know. Which came first: is it like the influencer, or the following or the escapism and the inability to deal with reality.Alicia: Yeah, no, it's definitely a chicken or egg thing.Millicent: It's a chicken or egg thing. But I was reading an older essay that was in the Times, written by a woman who had moved upstate before the pandemic. And I was like, New York Times, isn't it time to stop just publishing this voice? Because this voice—do we really have that many white women in their 40s who we should be listening to about moving upstate and how they're ahead of the COVID people, because there's a slight patting on the back of like, I wasn't part of that wave. And it's like, Well, are you actually doing something or are you writing about it? But I'm like, it's the Times’ choice. And I'm like, don't do that. And then I saw that—was it the Times? They published something by a Chinese-American person who—it was all about the subway. And it was great. It was about the Sunset Park shootings, but just how this person has taken the subway his entire life, and how that mode of transportation is important. But for a moment, I was just like, Oh my god, they got an op-ed by someone who lives on the subway and don't take that away from him—Eric Adams and the NYPD, you know… And we're, I mean, look at it—media and all the people up top, how many people do they know? They just know—it is still super gatekeeper-y.Alicia: Yeah, yeah. No, it's hard. And I mean, I wanted to ask, too, because, you've written that Brooklyn is such a place of stark dichotomies, in terms of, you have the new restaurants and the extreme wealth, and you have—20 percent of its population [was] food insecure before the pandemic. And, you know, there was this moment of like, kind of what we were talking about, but there was also this moment where hunger was on the forefront of the conversation like community fridges, and mutual aid, and that sort of thing. Like, has that died down? Or, you know, what is the conversation? What is the landscape like?Millicent: That has definitely died down, and it started to die down when people had to go back to work. And like, but also like, the community fridges kind of blew too big too fast. You know, like we worked with a bunch of community fridges, and there was a lot of in vogue writing about them and anyone could open them, but they also need a community to sustain them. So, that kind of ballooned and, and some have closed.Mutual aid—there's still smaller groups that are really dedicated to their mutual aid and working with people and especially working with people who are being kicked out of shelters and all the really terrible things that the city is doing in different tenants unions. I feel like what really emboldened me over the past two years was how radicalized a lot of people became, like younger people. I'm 48, okay, so I'm Gen X. I think we've got—the boomers can move on, you know. Gen X, we're gonna die before the boomers because that's just—they got all the good stuff and we're just depressed, but it feels like a lot more people have been radicalized. But now the question is—I mean, it's a small percentage that I feel like is left because now that people are kind of going back to their really kind of decadent, made-for-Instagram ways. But things are really bad for people in this city, and there's not a lot of support. And I guess that's the part where I'm like, you have to be so willfully blind to people as you walk by them to not think that there's problems and to still stay so committed to whatever you think your life is supposed to be. And for me, I was just really tired of feeding rich people. You know, like working in restaurants, it was always a community and feeding friends and feeding community and whatever. And then it just became rich people, and I don't like rich people.Alicia: When did that shift happen? Do you feel like you felt that shift, in terms of who was able to go to restaurants?Millicent: I don't think so. I mean, I think that I challenged myself to work outside—like, I worked in Brooklyn restaurants for a while and it was when there were a lot of artists opening things because the rents were low. And then that slowly changed and I was really tired of how homogenous the kitchens were, where it was just this is all the same guy with the same liberal arts education and everybody's the same. And then I would go—and then I went to Manhattan, and I tried to learn more and it was way more intense. It was all—it's all intense, but I think there was just a point where, I don't like anyone here anymore. I'm not looking for validation from food-obsessed—I don't know. Because also when I moved here, it's not like I went out to restaurants all the time; I just worked in one. And I knew that when I was in the kitchen, friends that would come in, or people in the neighborhood that would come in and different kitchens and things like that. But through elevating or going into different restaurants or whatever, even just the concept of elevating, I just didn't—it wasn't for me. And I don't care for the status of it. You know, and also I was never the person who got the status of it, because I wasn't the chef or I wasn't the owner or I wasn't anyone.You know, for me what's always been so confusing about food—I read Kitchen Confidential when I worked in a kitchen when I was 27 and I totally got it because I also grew up going to bars, like my dad's place. And when we would go to Rehoboth Beach, we would go to the Rusty Rudder and count the bartender's tips. I've been going to bars since I was born, so I got Kitchen Confidential. And then I just didn't understand when I moved here why no one—you know, I grew up on a farm, I grew up in the business and I've worked, but no one was ever interested in me, in writing about me or talking to me, or anything that I wrote. I mean, I can only assume it's because I'm not making anyone feel good about anything, you know?Alicia: [Laughs.] They don't like that.Millicent: They don't like that! Or the way that they like it is that you have to be—it has to make people feel edgy and you have to be super charming. And, yes, I'm really charming, but I'm not going to blow smoke up anyone's ass to make them feel better about how hard it is to be a farmer or work the line or anything.Alicia: Yeah, yeah—no, that's so interesting. I feel like for me, I think leaving New York and kind of getting away from it made it a lot easier for me to divest from traditional notions of success as a writer or as a food writer. And so you know, it's been so freeing, which is great. But you know, yesterday, the James Beard media nominations came out or whatever, and someone was like, I can't believe Alicia Kennedy's newsletter hasn’t been—I didn't submit. I didn't pay $150. [Editor’s note: It’s now $100 per entry.]Millicent: Right? You have to submit, right? Oh my god, I gotta say that I learned about that through one of your podcasts about submitting and how you have to pay, because I was like, I'm sorry—are you telling me that neither you nor I, in the year 2020 of what we wrote about food, are you saying that wasn't, that shouldn't be in an anthology? I mean, I'm not a very hubristic person. But that s**t that I wrote about the partially dried duck that I got during shutdown, that two-part thing and like, nobody's writing that, okay? Nobody's writing that. Nobody is coming at it from that—nobody's experiencing that dystopia and writing about it. There were plenty of people experiencing dystopia, for sure. But it's—you gotta pay to play. And how do you—so if you always have to pay to play, then you just have the same people in the room, and even if they're different people, they have to do the same things, so how are they ever going to be different? Or there's a f*****g scholarship, you know, but you're still working with the same systems of like, restaurants are perfect. You just want them to be perfect, so you can always go to them and feel good about stuff. But they're based on ultimately exploitative work. They're based out of people who couldn't afford servants, but didn't want to cook all the time. That's what restaurants are. And the systems are all the same and the people who try to keep opening the systems up, they still want themselves to be the gatekeepers, you know, and that's the media—that is totally the media, that the person who was criticizing all the memoirs by white chefs, white female chefs. And it's like, Well, you're still here, because you're gonna gatekeep who? The Black female chef whose memoir you're gonna do? You know, yeah, you guys still just want to be the gatekeepers and make sure that you stay relevant—because you have to stay relevant, so you have status—so that you stay relevant, so you have status, so you can still make money. And your perspective of moving to Puerto Rico kind of broke that. And for me, I feel I was still trying to chase that to be an outlier. But I was still—the only reason why I was in Bon Appetit is because a friend of a friend. My friend was having a pie contest at his shop, to raise money where I worked. It wasn't because anyone at Bon Appetit was interested in me: It was a friend of a friend who's connected who hooked me up with someone. And then anytime I pitched to them, they were like, No, no, no, but they were like, Tell us about the poor people, how's it going? So I had access, but only in one way. And then I feel the pandemic kind of—I was like, Millicent, you're part of the problem, because you want to be invited to everything. I mean, I'll spite-crash any party, you know, it's fun. But I wanted to be the kind of classic—I mean, this is a very white male thing, outlier, you know, but who's still invited to everything, and has status.And like—Alicia: But you only get to be that if you're a white male.Millicent: You only get to be that if you're a white male or there's a couple, there's a couple of females—there's one who's grandfathered in. But you only get to be that. And I was like, my desire for status is not helping me and it's not helping anything. And so I'm like, f**k status. It's more freeing. But it's also something I have to keep in check. I mean, I'm always interested when you write about like, Vogue or the New York Times, and I think for a lot of us who feel like we're outside, how do we participate in these institutions? Like, man, if I was ever in the New York Times, my mom would be so excited. I've been a part of restaurants that are in the New York Times and I've never been mentioned. And it's so meaningful to our family when that happens. And also, I would imagine, for me at some point, but I'm not going to pretend that's ever going to happen. There's such weird relationships with those institutions. Alicia: Oh yeah, super weird. Like I—yeah, for me, it's always like, okay, it's nice to be seen, because it just allows me to keep doing my work. You know, if everyone stopped seeing me, then I don't get to do it anymore. And for me, and I've been really lucky, of course, like I wrote—my book will come out eventually, who the hell knows.Millicent: Supply chain issues, right? Alicia: Supply chain issues and edit—like issues of… The funny thing is to have your book sort of pre-mentioned in the New York Times, like in the T magazine by Ligaya Mishan, who's a fantastic food writer, but my publisher doesn't talk to me, so I don't actually know anything. [Editor’s note: It’ll be summer 2023.] You would think they'd want to get the book out by me because I have had moments of success and should ride it. But no, they're making you have to keep it—yeah, I have to just keep going and—Millicent: They're making you doggy paddle. They're like, when you've stuck your head up, keep your head up. And then right when you're like, I can't do this anymore, they're like, Don't worry, we got you a PR person. [Laughs.]Alicia: Exactly, exactly. But until then I must just—doggy paddling is the best f*****g metaphor for that, for how it feels, because it's, you know, I don't want to be a food writer because I want everyone to look at me. I just want to talk about things. You know, that's what I like to do! [Laughs.]Millicent: Well, and I really like how you've loosened that up for you. I mean, two years ago, we both know Melissa McCart from—she's an editor and she's great. And I had written some things for Heated. And she was like, You should be writing all the time. And I was also like, Oh, I'm out working during a deadly virus pandemic and trying to not kill my partner, or anyone I work with, and trying to figure out like, we're nowhere and we're everywhere. And I couldn't—and I had to let go of that feeling that I need to capitalize on this moment, because I had to figure out a new way to take care of myself or else I wouldn't have been able to do what I do. And it was also so physically brutal, just moving food. And I kind of gave that to myself instead of being like, I could have been somebody—because, yeah, I was like, I just I can't—I’ve just got to survive this. Alicia: Yeah, yeah. It's a hard negotiation. Millicent: It definitely is. It definitely is. I mean, hopefully I can change that. I mean, my goal is to write more and to actually have a newsletter. I've just, I think, two months ago I was like, Shut up, Millicent, just stop qualifying it and being like, there's too many newsletters and what if—just do it.Alicia: Yours would be wildly different from anyone else’s, so.Millicent: Well, because I'm writing anyway, you know, yeah. But they make it. They make it hard, does it ever—I mean, how does anyone read all the newsletters?Alicia: I do. I mean, because I was a copy editor at New York Magazine, a digital copy editor, I became a very, very fast reader. Millicent: You're such a good reader, too. Alicia: But the reason I can read fast is because of that job. Like I would have to read 10,000 words of TV recaps before 9 a.m. So, like… [Laughs.]Millicent: I mean, let's just talk about that for a second. When I was in my 20s, there was one person who had a job doing TV recaps, Heather—what's her last name? She's a great writer. She writes for…Heather Havrilesky? I'm not sure.Alicia: Oh yeah yeah yeah, Ask Polly.Millicent: Yeah, she would write about it. Now that can be a job for everyone. But shouldn’t someone who has a job writing TV recaps be in charge of making society better instead of writing TV recaps?Alicia: I think—who is, uh Mindy Isser, she did—she is a great human, she's a great writer, too, but I think she's a labor organizer. But she was on Twitter the other day, quote-tweeting someone who was like, ‘Every job deserves, deserves respect,’ it's like, or ‘every job is a valid job,’ something like that. And she's like, Actually, a lot of people should be doing something else. Like, instead of being on their computers, they should be planting trees. And I agree for myself even. The nice thing about having the freedom of what I do, and now that my book is done, and so I don't feel like I'm going to die every day—because that's how that felt—but I'm like, I need to put my energy, my excess time and energy and fruits, you know, existence into doing something to make the world better, not to make anything better for myself, because things for me are as good as they're probably gonna get. Unless, you know—Okay, I have extra time and extra, so I gotta put that energy somewhere where it'll do good for the world, like and I'm gonna figure that out. [Laughs.]Millicent: I'm always—I feel like that always, that's the balance, you know? And like, when people are like, Don't you feel good about yourself? And I was like, No, I don't feel good about myself—the world is hell. But we can't all just write TV recaps. Sorry, TV recap people, I read you, but that used to be 20 years ago; there was only one, and now it's just too much.Alicia: Yeah, yeah. No, there needs to be a big transfer of energy for doing things that actually matter. And I feel it for myself, and I feel it for the world. And I think a lot of people feel it, you know. I mean, even before, years ago, a lot of people find a lot more satisfaction in jobs that are physical, like in jobs or doing work that is not considered prestigious, than they do find in the job they do that gets them more money. And of course, you want to make an amount of money that makes you comfortable. I mean, there's a difference obviously between being comfortable and being a hoarder. But, you know, there's a reason for that. You want to—it's a way of protecting yourself and it’s way of protecting your loved ones, is to have a job that pays you a salary that is comfortable, and that's an ever-changing goalpost, especially with inflation, etc. But like, how much more satisfaction in my life did I get when I was baking, or when I was bartending, than I get from tapping on a computer? I mean, I don't know.Millicent: The visceral aspect, and I think it's also, because I feel the same. I can be a real heady person, but that's why I liked line cooking. There's a certain point where—I love working with my body and it's a different relationship with it, because it's also a relationship not built out of being seen and how do you look, but how do you function and what can you do and how strong are you? And that's such a better way to live in your body, for me, which is also—so the work I've done, you know, I had moments of being a real egghead. But I've taken care of cows. You know, I've worked in restaurants. When I worked at a record distributor, there was certainly a lot of moving of boxes of records. And like, that is—whenever I'm living like that, it's better. But then there's also the capitalist exploitative line where you're like, And you crossed it, and now I'm crumpling, which is something that restaurants are really good at doing.Alicia: Well, I mean to talk about your writing work, the issue of Diner Journal: Dear Island about doing private chef work upstate. I think upstate, right? When I say upstate, I mean New York.Millicent: It was in the Adirondacks, so it's upstate, but not like upstate—it's like closer to Canada, around Lake Placid. Alicia: Oh okay, wow, that’s up there.Millicent: It was great because it was mainly free of anyone from New York.Alicia: [Laughter.] Yeah. Well, you know, it's such a—it's so good. And like, I meant to ask you more specifically about your writing in this conversation, but I was just kind of winging it. But you know, it's such—you really are such a brilliant writer—like self-reflection, humor, the self-awareness that I think anyone listening to this is understanding exists, which is always refreshing.Millicent: I'm so red with anxiety and like, thank you!Alicia: No, it's absolutely brilliant. And I was actually, I was super floored reading it. I just read it like a book and was like—holy s**t. I knew you were great from what you wrote on the internet, but then I was like, but here you're getting like—Millicent: But the internet wasn't funny, that was COVID. That was like, Listen, and this is, What the f**k am I doing here? Who is this Wes Anderson family?Alicia: And I think that's—I'm so excited for you to launch your newsletter because I would hope to see kind of that mix a bit. Millicent: For sure. I mean, I think I've just been real—I mean, the whole reason I started an Instagram account when I started that job, and it was private chef but it wasn't like private chef money, like what private chefs would make like, and of course, I have to qualify that because I'm all—‘I’m working class,’ but not really. But it was such a weird and interesting place. But I started my Instagram account, because I was like, I'm going somewhere very strange. And I just say that because then, if anyone follows me, and then they're like, Wow, she's so intense about politics and hunger over the past two years. And well, it's been a pretty intense past two years, but I am a funny person.Alicia: Yes, yes. [Laughter.]Millicent: Not that statement. No one ever believes that when someone says it like that. Alicia: No, no, no, but I mean, I think for me, I want to be thought of as funny, which is a terrible thing to want, I guess. Because it's corny. But for me, it's funny, because I'll make jokes, or what I think are jokes on Twitter, and people will just be so serious in the replies and I'm like, Forget it. But then I did see a comedian today make a joke and people be very, very serious in the replies. And I was like, All right, like this is just, this is the environment in which we’re living in…Millicent: Our way of communicating—and you actually wrote about this, where it's like people are like, That person's right and I agree with all of it, or That person's wrong. And it's like, jokes never come across in texting. And it's real, it's real hard in any version of social media. It just doesn't work like this, and also, then that beg to—like we're communicating mostly with a really terrible means of communication, if these things aren't conveying humor and nuance, it's pretty shitty. Alicia: What good are they for? Yeah.Millicent: Fights. They’re good for fights.Alicia: Good for fights. [Laughs.] Well, I wanted to ask, because in the introduction to that, you wrote about choosing which cookbooks to take up with you and you wanted to bring Prune, and then you decided not to, and I wanted to ask, you know, what cookbooks you would take now to an island?Millicent: I mean, I've thought about this, because I was also like, I don't feel like I've purchased a lot of new cookbooks. I would take—I did just get the Gullah Geechee Home Cooking… Alicia: Oh, nice. Yeah.Millicent: Well, first of all, it's a matriarch of an island. And that is, you need someone who is on an island, because it's very specific. You don't have access to everything. Also, all of this, Emily Meggett, all of this is in my wheelhouse, of kind of like very country cooking. There's stuff, you know, there's crabs, I'm there. I would say the Olia Hercules books. Those are, I think this is what I know about cooking on an island, is that when you want to spread out a little bit, or any kind of like cooking that you're doing for hire, you don't want to like, jump to who you aren't, you need to kind of, for me, I need to have different ideas of variations on a theme and like I do, I can bake. I make pie crust, like I have variations of crust and ideas of things that I do. And I think that this cookbook, the Gullah Geechee and Olia Hercules. There's always variations on—she has so many doughs, you know, and things stuffed, greens and things like that. And I'm like, all right, that's a variation I can do. I always take a version of The Flowering Hearth, because I just want to live there. And then, I always take The Saltie Cookbook—I don't know if you have that one. Alicia: I need it! It was out of print.Millicent: It’s out of print, you better find it because—Alicia: I know, I have to buy a copy. Millicent: I use that one the most, because it's vinaigrettes, bread, desserts, and like, it's the most cross-referenced for everything. And then I always take—you ever read the Jim Harrison, the writer, Jim Harrison?Alicia: I have one of his books on my shelves, but I haven't read it yet.Millicent: You know, he's a big cook and hunter, and he had a column in Esquire called “The Raw and the Cooked”—the book is all of his essays. And for Saltie and for Jim Harrison, I always take them with me and whenever I've opened a restaurant and I haven't been able to see any friends forever, I read them because they're my friends’ voices. It's like Caroline, and A.D., and Rebecca, and Elizabeth and Saltie…And then Jim Harrison. I mean, he is—whatever. He's an old white American male; there are going to be problems. But also, he was a screenwriter, along with a fiction and poetry writer. He has an amazing essay about eating with Orson Welles where they try to like both jump out of a check, and I think there's lines of cocaine somewhere during the meal. There's an essay about a gout flare-up in the airport wearing his favorite leather boots, you know. And so, for me, cookbooks, sometimes I feel like I don't cook from them, I just like to read from them. And then also, I would totally go with vegan or vegan baking because you can really stuff someone on an island. And so I think vegan baking, also because you can have more shelf-stable things to substitute. And I don't do it enough but I like cooking with different grains, just because it gives different textures and like AP flour, just—AP flour, sugar, butter, like, we've all done that, you know?Alicia: Yeah, yeah. Yeah. I'm in a big flour moment right now—Millicent: What does that mean?Alicia: [Laughs.] It means that, it means that people were upset that I am always doing recipes with AP flour, and not with whole grains. But I don't have access to a whole grain flour here. So I, now I have to, I'm trying to get into working with different root vegetable, quote, unquote, flour. Millicent: Oh, fascinating!Alicia: Which is cool—and it's, but at the same time, I can't, you know, when I write a recipe for a cake, it's still gonna just have AP flour in it, you know. It's just because I need other people to make it.Millicent: It's also about access, you know, and that's something that people don't talk about that much. And when you write about food accessibility in Puerto Rico, and when people write about Cuba and food accessibility there, that's really important, but also the access of people anywhere, you know? And we can get anything, I mean, this is—we talked about this—we can get anything all the time; we shouldn't be able to get anything all the time now. Things should be harder for us.Alicia: In general, things need to be harder. And that's a hard thing to tell people, but I think if my writing has a thesis point that I haven't explicitly articulated, it's: things need to be harder.Millicent: Things need to be hard, because guess what, they're hard for a lot of people. And we're—how many people for you to lead your life are exploited so you can do what you want to do? I mean, people—and I'm not, listen, there's nothing exploitation-free about me. But I think about it a lot. And consumption for me now, I’m finding how there's a shift in me where it's just what used to be satisfying isn’t necessarily satisfying for me. Alicia: No, absolutely. Millicent: I drink tea now.Alicia: Instead of coffee?Millicent: Yeah, I mean, now I think I'm back to a cup of coffee a day, maybe. But I have—that was just like the past two days. I was like, come on, let's get some life back into us. But yeah, COVID in December, and I had it again and I was like, Tea tastes so nice! But I used to drink so much coffee and smoke a pack a day and drink bourbon you know, but some things—and that wasn't right before the pandemic, but I'm just saying, I've noticed the things. I liked shutdown. I'm gonna say something real unpopular: I liked shutdown. I liked being—I also had a different life for everyone where I went outside and worked and my partner's a musician, so I had live music every week for his Instagram show. But the stretching everything and being really intentional and all of that, and not getting to have whatever, and really having social interactions sustain me—and for longer than they used to. Everything was way more meaningful. And I really appreciate that. And I hope that some of that has stayed with me, you know? Alicia: Yeah, yeah. Well, how do you define abundance?Millicent: I think—enough, you know? The feeling of enough, because I think the feeling of enough is kind of contentment. Because abundance is dangerous, look at all—everyone who has abundance, it's never enough, you know?Alicia: Right. Right. No, yeah. I think this question is about being, you know, redefining abundance to me and I have enough because, we're talking about so many people do not have enough. And so trying to reframe the thinking around what that means is, I think, a powerful tool, imaginary tool for reconsidering. Millicent: I think what they're calling it now, Alicia, is a perspective shift.Alicia: Yes, a consciousness shift or consciousness raising. [Laughs.]Millicent: I am not going to say that working at a food pantry makes me feel good about myself or like I've done anything good, but it has recalibrated what I think about my life. Alicia: Yeah, well, and for you, and in general, is cooking a political act?Millicent: I don't think cooking is but I think feeding is, and I think that they're different. And that's got to be talked about more because cooking is—no. I think people pat themselves on the back too much thinking they're doing something political. And I know, years ago, a friend of mine, we were catering—it was a social justice food award that this Episcopal Church in Long Island gave out. And I was all, I work in restaurants; we buy from farms, and I grew up on a farm and I know—and I remember one of the farmers, he was from Iowa, and he was talking about how worried they were because they'd heard that white supremacists had moved into the neighboring county and so they're just really worried about the people who worked on their farm. And I heard his speech and I was just—and this was before Trump was in office, you know, this was, this was in—let's just say before Trump was in office. And I remember feeling humbled and being like, You don't know s**t, Millicent. You know, and money's politics, but systems or—money needs to be systematic for it to be political, you know.Alicia: I think that's so important and that you allowed yourself to be humbled and have that change your approach to things is such a rare, I think, a rare characteristic to encounter.Millicent: I'm humbled all the time. [Laughter.]Alicia: Well, thank you so much for being here. This has been so, so great. And yes, it's been interesting of course, that I just get to meet people over Zoom and record it, that I've just wanted to talk to, and this was one where I've just—I just really want to talk to the person and so here we are.Millicent: Well, you know, when you, when you come to town, we'll get some tea, or a martini.Alicia: Okay!Thanks so much to everyone for listening to this week's edition of From the Desk of Alicia Kennedy. Read more at www.aliciakennedy.news or follow me on Instagram, @aliciadkennedy, or on Twitter at @aliciakennedy. This is a public episode. If you’d like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit www.aliciakennedy.news/subscribe

I am so honored to introduce you to today's guest, Alissa Timoshkina.   In her teenage years, she left Russia for England.  Now, having moved through a career in academia, she is a London based writer, cookbook author, creator of KinoVino, and activist. Most recently, Alissa and her dear friend, Olia Hercules, founded Cook for Ukraine, an initiative they started within 48 hours of the war on Ukraine by Russia.  To date, they have raised approximately 1 million pounds which has been donated to UNICEF.  Aliss and Olia who has shown tremendous bravery and leadership in calling out the atrocities of this war and continuing to raise awareness and funds for the people of Ukraine.   To connect with Alissa and Olia, you can follow them on instagram and all the details of Cook for Ukraine are linked on their websites.  @alissatimoshkina @oliahercules https://www.alissatimoshkina.com/https://www.alissatimoshkina.com/cookforukraine

Alix Kroeger speaks to Olia Hercules, a London-based Ukrainian chef and food writer who has become an unexpected activist following the Russian invasion of her home country.They discuss her parents' recent escape, her reunion with them, her journey from writer to campaigner, and what British people can do – and cook – to welcome Ukrainians.Donate to Olia's #CookForUkraine fundraiser here. See acast.com/privacy for privacy and opt-out information.

Olia Hercules is Ukrainian, and Alissa Timoshkina is Russian. Together, the two friends and chefs have started the campaign Cook for Ukraine to highlight Ukrainian cuisine. They talk to Matt Galloway about the personal connections they have with Ukrainian food.

Lauren W. will be co-hosting this non-fiction quarter of Reading Envy Russia. We share books we have already read and freely recommend, and also chat about the piles and shelves of books we are considering. Let us know your recommendations and where you hope to start in the comments, or join the conversation in Goodreads.Download or listen via this link: Reading Envy 244: 2nd Quarter - Russian Non-Fiction Subscribe to the podcast via this link: FeedburnerOr subscribe via Apple Podcasts by clicking: SubscribeOr listen through TuneIn Or listen on Google Play Or listen via StitcherOr listen through Spotify Or listen through Google Podcasts Books we can recommend: Memories from Moscow to the Black Sea by Teffi Tolstoy, Rasputin, Others, and Me: The Best of Teffi by TeffiSecondhand Timeby Svetlana AlexievichThe Unwomanly Face of Warby Svetlana AlexievichLast Witnesses by Svetlana Alexievich, translated by Pevear & VolokhonskyZinky Boysby Svetlana AlexievichVoices of Chernobyl (also titled Chernobyl Prayer) by Svetlana Alexievich, translated by Keith GessenOther Russias by Victoria Lomasko, translated by Thomas CampbellThe Future is History by Masha Gessen Never Rememberby Masha Gessen, photography by Misha FriedmanWhere the Jews Aren't by Masha Gessen Pushkin's Children by Tatyana Tolstaya The Slynx by Tatyana TolstayaImperium by Ryszard Kapucinski, translated by Klara GlowczewskaA Very Dangerous Woman: The Lives, Loves and Lies of Russia's Most Seductive Spy by Deborah McDonald and Jeremy DronfieldPutin Country by Anne GarrelsLetters: Summer 1926 by Boris Pasternak, Marina Tsvetaeva, and Rainer Maria Rilke Sovietistan by Erika Fatland The Commissar Vanishes by David King Gulag by Anne Applebaum The Iron Curtain by Anne Applebaum The Magical Chorus by Solomon Volkov, translated by Antonina Bouis  Shostaskovich and Stalin by Solomon Volkov The Tiger by John Vaillant Owls of the Eastern Ice by Jonathan Slaght How to Tame a Fox (and Build a Dog): Visionary Scientists and a Siberian Tale of Jump-Started Evolution by Lee Alan Dugatkin and Lyudmila Trut Please to the Table by Anya von Bremzen Mastering the Art of Soviet Cooking by Anya von Bremzen Books we are considering: All Lara's Wars by Wojchiech Jagielski, translated by Antonia Lloyd-JonesGulag Archipelago by Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn, translated by Eric Ericson (there is a unabridged 1800+ pg, and an author approved abridged version, 400-some pages) Journey into the Whirlwind by Eugenia Ginzburg, translated by Paul Stevenson, Max Hayward Kolyma Tales by Varlam Shalamov, translated by John GladRiot Days by Maria AlyokhinaSpeak, Memory by Vladimir Nabokov The Life Written by Himself by Avvakum Petrov My Childhood by Maxim Gorky Teffi: A Life of Letters and Laughter by Edythe Haber Hope Against Hope by Nadezhda Mandelstam, tr. Max Hayward The Genius Under the Table: Growing Up Behind the Iron Curtain by Eugene Yelchin Putin's Russia: life in a failing democracy by Anna Politkovskaya ; translated by Arch Tait. A Russian diary: a journalist's final account of life, corruption, and death in Putin's Russia by Anna Politkovskaya Notes on Russian Literature by F.M. DostoevskyThe Sinner and the Saint: Dostoevsky and the Gentleman Murderer Who Inspired a Masterpiece by Kevin Birmingham The Most Dangerous Book: The Battle for James Joyce's Ulysses by Kevin BirminghamLess than One: Selected Essays by Joseph Brodsky Tolstoy Together by Yiyun Li The Border by Erika Fatland Symphony for the City of the Dead: Dmitri Shostakovich and the Siege of Leningrad by M.T. Anderson Red Plenty by Francis Spufford Lenin's Tomb: The Last Days of the Soviet Empire by David Remnick Bloodlands: Europe Between Hitler and Stalin by Timothy Snyder The Last Empire: Final Days of the Soviet Union by Serhii PlokhyThe Gates of Europe: A History of Ukraine by Serhii PlokhyChernobyl: The History of a Nuclear Catastrophe by Serhii PlokhyNuclear Folly: A History of the Cuban Missile Crisis by Serhii PlokhyMan with the Poison Gun: a Cold War Spy Story by Serhii PlokhyBabi Yar: A Document in the Form of a Novel by Anatoly Kuznetsov, tr. David Floyd Manual for Survival: An Environmental History of the Chernobyl Disaster by Kate Brown Plutopia: Nuclear Families, Atomic Cities, and the Great Soviet and American Plutonium Disasters by Kate BrownA Biography of No Place: From Ethnic Borderland to Soviet Heartland by Kate BrownOctober: The Story of the Russian Revolution by China Mieville Nothing Is True and Everything Is Possible: The Surreal Heart of the New Russia by Peter Pomerantsev Across the Ussuri Kray by Vladimir Arsenyev, translated by Slaght An Armenian Sketchbook by Vasily Grossman, translated by Robert and Elizabeth Chandler A Writer at War: Vasily Grossman with the Red Army by Vasily GrossmanThe Road by Vasily GrossmanStalking the Atomic City: Life Among the Decadent and Depraved of Chernobyl by Markiyan Kamysh Midnight in Siberia: A Train Journey into the Heart of Russia by David Greene Mamushka: Recipes from Ukraine & beyond by Olia HerculesRed Sands by Caroline EdenBlack Sea by Caroline Eden Tasting Georgia by Carla Capalbo  Other mentions:PEN list of writers against PutinNew Yorker article about Gessen siblings Thanksgivukkah 2013  League of Kitchens - Uzbek lessonLeague of Kitchens - Russian lessonMasha Gessen on Ezra Klein podcast, March 2022Related episodes:Episode 067 - Rain and Readability with Ruth(iella) Episode 084 - A Worthy Tangent with Bryan Alexander Episode 138 - Shared Landscape with Lauren Weinhold Episode 237 - Reading Goals 2022Episode 243 - Russian Novel Speed Date Stalk us online:Reading Envy Readers on Goodreads (home of Reading Envy Russia)Lauren at GoodreadsLauren is @end.notes on InstagramJenny at GoodreadsJenny on TwitterJenny is @readingenvy on Instagram and Litsy All links to books are through Bookshop.org, where I am an affiliate. I wanted more money to go to the actual publishers and authors. You can see the full collection for Reading Envy Russia 2022 on Bookshop.org.

Food writers Olia Hercules and Alissa Timoshkina have been friends since university and together they have come together to launch #CookForUkraine - a campaign which aims to raise awareness and funds through a shared appreciation of the rich tradition of Ukrainian cooking with supper clubs, events and encouraging people to share recipes, along with the stories behind the dishes. In its first weeks they have whipped up an extraordinary amount of support from everyone from Jamie Oliver to Nigella Lawson as well as numerous restaurants and institutions. Here they talk to Hannah MacInnes about the campaign, about the war and the tragic impact it is having on both the people of Ukraine and of Russia, on their families and friends, the strong cultural ties between the two countries, their rich culinary traditions and much more. Please head to their website and justgiving page at https://www.justgiving.com/fundraising/cookforukraine to find out more and to donate. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

On today's special episode we speak to Ukrainian chef and activist Olia Hercules and Russian chef, podcaster and writer Alissa Timoshkina. Olia and Alissa are best friends who have joined forces and set up #CookforUkraine, a culinary campaign encouraging people to cook traditional Ukrainian and eastern European food to raise money to support the humanitarian effort in Ukraine.Cook for Ukraine's donation page has raised more than £300,000 in donations already, with the money going to Unicef to support children and families impacted by the fighting.We are honoured to have these incredible women on the podcast today, particularly given the circumstances. We talk about family, food from home and friendship during this difficult time. Listen to the podcast and see how you can support this worthy campaign. We want to see photos of the food you cook, the supper-clubs you host, whatever you can manage to do with the #cookforukraine hashtag. Thank you to Olia and Alissa for taking the time to speak to us during this time. Xx See acast.com/privacy for privacy and opt-out information.

In this special bonus episode we hear highlights from an episode first recorded with Olia Hercules in 2020 where she shared stories showing the beauty and diversity of Ukranian food. See acast.com/privacy for privacy and opt-out information.

Chef Olia Hercules invites us into her London home to reflect on her country's rich culinary heritage and the power of food in even the darkest of times. She opens her well-stocked kitchen cupboards and fridge to reveal the varied flavours, colours and scents of a cuisine she says is often wrongly dismissed as being ‘beige' or boring. Ruth Alexander joins Olia and her Russian friend and fellow food writer, Alissa Timoshkina, to discuss the close ties between their nation's traditional dishes, and the importance of the two women's own personal friendship. The conversation was recorded on Tuesday 8 March; 12 days into the Russian invasion of Ukraine. If you would like to get in touch with the show, please email thefoodchain@bbc.co.uk (Picture: Olia Hercules and Alissa Timoshkina. Credit: BBC) Producer: Sarah Stolarz

As Russia's war in Ukraine continues, people across the country prepare for the possibility of a long, drawn out conflict.. Some, are determined to help their loved ones survive. But sending aid to a war zone isn't easy. Not just because access to cash locally is often hard to come by, but rules around fundraising are complicated. Olia Hercules, cookbook author and chef, explains how, over the past two weeks, she's rushed to fundraise and send protective gear to her brother fighting on the front lines in Kyiv. Like so many others, she ran into problems getting money where it needed to go. James Maloney, a partner at London-based law firm Farrer & Co. tells of the legal parameters charities can operate and fundraise for relief efforts. And, we hear from Mike Noyes, director of humanitarian aid at Action Aid UK who is leading the effort to help women and children fleeing the war at Ukraine's border with Poland. Photo: Victoria Craig/BBC Olia Hercules sits with her friends, showing them a video message from her brother after he received protective supplies she raised funds to procure and send him.

We continue our 'cookbook travel 'adventures by visiting the Ukraine. Donna brings us two Ukrainian cookbooks by author/chef Olia Hercules  - 'Mamushka' and 'Summer Kitchens'. Food brings us together.   Borch, dumplings, kvas, a variety of ferments, rye bread, mushrooms, black currants, garlic .....Let's dive into some Ukrainian recipes.    Learn more about Olia Hercules: Website | Facebook | Instagram   Links to her cookbooks: Mamushka: Recipes from Ukraine and Eastern Europe Summer Kitchens  

Food writers Olia Hercules and Alissa Timoshkina discuss their campaign to raise funds for Ukraine, and we look at how the NGO World Central Kitchen has rushed to offer hot meals for those in need. Also in the programme: a look at the first commercial product from Copenhagen's Noma.

As another refugee crisis unfolds in Europe, the former UK international development minister Rory Stewart speaks to the New Statesman's US senior editor, Emily Tamkin, about his call for a new global coalition on asylum seekers.They discuss what can be done to support Ukrainians leaving their country, the continuing Afghan refugee crisis, and how to share the migrant impact without undermining border security.If you have a You Ask Us question for the international team, email podcasts@newstatesman.co.uk.Further reading:Ido Vock reports on how Russia has escalated the war on Ukraine as blitzkrieg calculations fail.Olia Hercules shares how Putin's war in Ukraine has torn her family apart. See acast.com/privacy for privacy and opt-out information.