Ukrainian chef Ievgen Klopotenko poses with a tray of Pampushky bread in his kitchen in Kyiv, Ukraine on Feb. 5, 2023. “Borsch is our leader.”If that seems hyperbolic, you underestimate how intrinsic borsch (the preferred Ukrainian spelling) is to this country’s soul. “A lot of people started to eat Ukrainian food. Though born in Kyiv, Klopotenko had by age 5 spent months at a time living with his grandmother, who had moved just outside Manchester, England. Always in the background was his sense that Ukrainian food — ditto the country’s culture writ large — wasn’t being true to itself.

Source: The Herald February 26, 2023 18:30 UTC