Olia Hercules: ‘Ukrainian food is excellent, local produce grown with love and is seamlessly seasonal’

Inspired by the summer kitchens back home, the chef’s latest cookbook tells a story of vibrant flavours. Emma Henderson speaks to her about why the country’s cuisine isn’t just cabbages and potatoes

After the 2008 crash, Hercules quit her job as a journalist and instead enrolled on a Leiths cooking course (Joe Woodhouse)

Your latest cookbook, Summer Kitchens, is your third book, but how does it differ from the books before it?

The first one was a love letter to my family, the majority of the 100 recipes were the ones I grew up with. The second book Kaukasis was a travelogue based mainly in Georgia and Azerbaijan, while Summer Kitchens looks at Ukrainian cuisine’s diversity through the prism of a summer kitchen.

What are the summer kitchens the book refers to in the title and are they still prevalent in Ukraine?