Cooking for Ukraine
“Food is our language and it’s so easy to share something like this, especially in hard times.”
On a Thursday evening in April, 30 food lovers packed into the Zest! Cooking School for a special event Cooking for Ukraine to benefit World Central Kitchen and their #ChefsforUkraine initiative.
Chef Helen Chudakova-Sanya
Helen Chudakova-Sanya, a Ukrainian immigrant and chef, led the class in a special demonstration of five of her favorite Ukrainian dishes: borsh (a traditional beet soup), pampushki (a flavor-packed garlic brioche), vareniki (dumplings stuffed with potato and caramelized onion), makovik (a sweet, but not too sweet poppy seed roll with honey and raisins) and uzvar (a traditional beverage made by boiling naturally dried fruit and adding sugar to taste). These dishes were deeply inspired by her family’s cooking, and the chef thanked her Aunt Halyna for sharing what has previously been known as the family’s delicious, “secret” vareniki recipe.
Born and raised in Ukraine, Chudakova-Sanya grew up around food and credits her grandmother with teaching her how to cook. She later discovered her own love of cooking in college, when she would regularly host dinners for her university friends. However, she shares, she did not see a path forward in Ukraine as a professional chef, citing the male-dominated industry and lack of opportunity to break into the field.
Instead, in 2014, Chudakova-Sanya moved to the United States. While living in Brooklyn, she began her culinary career in earnest at a restaurant specializing in North Italian cuisine, and later moved between small farm-to-table restaurants, culinary schools, and high volume catering companies.
Now, along with her husband and four children, she’s a recent Lancaster County transplant. Lancaster isn’t entirely new to her, though, as she and her family spent summers here for many years before finally taking the plunge and moving to a place that reminds her more of her life growing up in Ukraine. “I was nostalgic for the countryside of my youth,” Chudakova-Sanya shared.
Chudakova-Sanya’s passion for Ukrainian food was infectious—and, after sampling the delectable dishes she prepared for the event, it was impossible to leave the Zest! Cooking School that evening without understanding why she so dearly loves her home country’s cuisine.
“A lot of people say that Ukrainian food is just potatoes and meat, and it’s kind of true,” Chudakova-Sanya said with a laugh. “But it’s so much more than that, too.”
When she first arrived in the United States, Chudakova-Sanya shared that she rarely cooked Ukrainian food. Instead, she wanted to learn everything she could about a wide array of cuisines. Now, though, she’s re-exploring the food she grew up with, finding comfort in the recipes her family has shared for generations.
“Food is our language and it’s so easy to share something like this, especially in hard times,” Chudakova-Sanya said.
As Russia’s invasion of and war in Ukraine continues, most of her family is still in her home country. She tries to message or speak with them daily.
“It’s heartbreaking to talk about it,” she shared. “The media has seemed to stop talking about it as much as they were, but it’s still happening and the future is so uncertain. Until this is over, help will be needed all the time.”
Chudakova-Sanya continued, “Ukrainian people are very strong and patriotic. A whole generation of people cherish the country they grew up in and they are willing to fight for it. I heard someone say the other day: What is the difference between you and a refugee? The only difference is sheer luck.”
Chef Helen Chudakova-Sanya with the Zest Team.
All of the proceeds from Zest!’s Cooking for Ukraine event will be donated to World Central Kitchen, a nonprofit network of chefs and restaurants that are, “first to the frontlines, providing meals in response to humanitarian, climate, and community crises.” They’re currently operating in Ukraine, as well as in Poland, Romania, Moldova, Slovakia, and Hungary, where they have already served millions of meals. WCK is nearing 300,000 meals served daily, but the need is growing.
“Jennifer [Oehme Knepper, author of Food is Love] couldn't have said it any better: food is love,” said Chef Hannah Smith, culinary director at the Zest! Cooking School. “I may not be able to help in ways that I wish that I could, or change the mind of my government, but I can do this. Any one of us can do this. The needs of Ukraine are so deep, but just giving people a hot meal made with fresh ingredients is like putting your hand on their shoulder and telling them that someone still loves them. The volunteers of World Central Kitchen are bravely putting their own lives at risk to do this, and I couldn't be more proud to support them.”
Join Chef Chudakova-Sanya at the Zest! Cooking School this summer. For her full class schedule and to register, visit zestchef.com/cooking-classes.
By Maddy Pontz
