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Hello and welcome to Table Talk. I'm Olivia Potts and I'm Lyra Prendergast.

And we are thrilled this week to be joined by Olya Hercules.

Olia is a chef and food writer. She is the author of the hugely popular and critically acclaimed

Mamushka, Caucasusers and most recently, Summer Kitchens, recipes and reminiscences from every corner of Ukraine.

O'Leo, thank you so much for joining us.

Thank you for having me.

O'Lean, you were born in Ukraine in 1984.

Can you start by telling us what your earliest memories are of food back then in Ukraine?

So memories, of course, are hugely unreliable.

But the first thing that kind of comes to mind is the first cucumber of the season.

Things are changing now, but in the past, before the 90s, everything was extremely seasonal.

So throughout the whole winter, we wouldn't have any fresh fruit or vegetables.

So that first cucumber come at the end of May or something, my mom would be making a salad and she would never use a chopping board.

She'd just be cutting it over an enamel bowl.

And that first kind of wift of cucumber smell is my first memory, I think. It was just so powerful because you would miss

it so much over the winter and then it's just like, boom, freshness and sweetness and deliciousness.

Was your mother the main cook in your household growing up? My mom was the main cook, yeah.

My dad is amazing also, but yeah, she was and still is an amazing cook.

And what are the kind of classic childhood dishes that you'd get in Ukraine?

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