The Ukraine Shelf Episode 5: Food with Olia Hercules and Felicity Spector

In this episode, we talk about one of the most fundamental things in all our lives: food. How can food help us understand culture, identity, and history? How does food bring people together in dark times? How has Ukraine’s status as a major global exporter of food been affected by the war? We discuss all these questions and more with two brilliant food writers - Olia Hercules and Felicity Spector.

Olia Hercules is a British-Ukrainian chef, author and cultural ambassador, she is the author of Mamushka: Recipes From Ukraine & Beyond; Kaukasis: The Cookbook – A Journey Through the Wild East; Summer Kitchens Inside Ukraine's Hidden Places of Cooking and Sanctuary; Home Food and most recently Strong Roots: A Ukrainian Family Story of War, Exile and Hope (Bloomsbury, 2025).

Felicity Spector is a journalist, author and baker. Her work in TV journalism has taken her all over the world, covering everything from the Velvet Revolution in Czechoslovakia to the inauguration of Barack Obama in the US; most recently, she has been a tireless volunteer in some of Ukraine’s most war-torn regions. Her book about these experiences, Bread and War: A Ukrainian Story of Food, Bravery and Hope, was published in 2025 by Duckworth.

Book recommendations:

Olia Hercules:

Lesya Ukrainka, The Noblewoman, translation. Percival Cundy, in Spirit of Flame: A Collection of the Works of Lesya Ukrainka (Bookman Associates, 1950). Translation available online here.

Charlotte Shevchenko-Knight, Food for the Dead (Penguin, 2024)

Lina Kostenko’s poetry (See here for some translations by Uilleam Blacker at Words Without Borders)

Felicity Spector:

Oleksandr Mykhed, The Language of War translation. Maryna Gibson, Hanna Leliv and Abby Devar (Penguin, 2024)

Artur Dron, We Were Here, transl. Yuliya Musakovska (Jantar, 2024)

Victoria Belim, The Rooster House (Virago, 2023)

Also mentioned:

Lesya Ukrainka, Cassandra trans. Nina Murray (Harvard, 2024)

Oleksandr Mykhed, I Will Mix Your Blood with Coal transl. Tanya Savchynska and David Mossop (Northwestern University Press, 2025)