Strong Roots

JAMES BEARD AWARD NOMINEE • When Russia launched its full-scale invasion of Ukraine in 2022, award-winning Ukrainian chef and food writer Olia Hercules decided it was finally time to tell her story.

Strong Roots is the story of a century in Ukraine told through four generations of one extraordinary family. It takes us from years of Russification, to Olia’s grandmother’s deportation to snowy wastelands under Stalin, to her aunt Zhenia’s school protest, to her own parents’ flight from Ukraine when their village was occupied in 2022.

This is an ode to the land, to ideas of home and belonging, and to family stories and recipes passed down the generations—the tang of sour cherries, the best way to make borsch. It is an account of resilience in the hardest of circumstances.

Strong Roots brims with hope and fear. It lays bare the compromises and betrayals of generations struggling and surviving through war, peace, invasion and exile. It is an uplifting reminder of how much the human spirit can endure when born from a land rich with strong roots.

OLIA HERCULES was born in Kakhovka, in the South of Ukraine. She trained at the renowned Leiths School of Food and Wine, then worked as chef de partie in restaurants, including Ottolenghi, and as a recipe developer. Her first book, Mamushka, went on to win the Fortnum and Mason Award for best debut cookbook and was followed by Kaukasis, Summer Kitchens and Home Food. After the full-scale invasion of Ukraine in 2022, Olia co-founded a global initiative to raise money for Ukraine through cooking, #CookForUkraine, with her friend Alissa Timoshkina which has raised over £2 million pounds to date. She lives with her husband, food writer and photographer, Joe Woodhouse, and two sons in London.