Ukrainian Cuisine

Ukrainian cuisine is a way of cooking familiar to the Ukrainian people, experiences and customs associated with Ukrainian culture, culinary art of Ukrainians.
Ukrainian dishes are known for their variety and high taste qualities. Ukrainian cuisine includes hundreds of recipes: borscht and pampushki, dumplings and galushki, mushroom soup, mushroom sauce, banush, dumplings and sausages, baked goods and drinks made from fruit and honey, known far beyond the borders of Ukraine. Culinary tourism ranks first among the intentions for which foreign tourists visit Ukraine.
Many features of Ukrainian cuisine are due to the way of life of the Ukrainian people, the vast majority of whom earned their living by hard agricultural work. To perform such exhausting work, people needed hearty, high-calorie food. Therefore, Ukrainian cuisine is characterized by dishes rich in proteins, fats, and carbohydrates.
Each of the ethnographic regions of Ukraine has its own differences in cuisine, determined by historical features and customs, and some dishes of Ukrainian cuisine, such as borscht and dumplings, have entered the menu of international cuisine.
Borscht, dumplings, kulish are not only tasty and nutritious dishes, but also bright culinary brands of Ukraine that have their own deep and exciting history. Some Ukrainian dishes have a centuries-old past, such as Ukrainian borscht, which in 2022 entered the Representative List of Intangible cultural heritage of humanity of UNESCO.
Ukrainian cuisine, especially potato dishes, have a lot in common with Belarusian cuisine as well. Vegetable dishes are characteristic of Ukrainian cuisine, more so than Russian or Belarusian cuisine. Many Ukrainian dishes have a lot in common with Western Slavic dishes in terms of names and composition.Potatoes are mentioned in Zaporozhye in the 18th century, which were still called "earth apples".
In the 19th century, potatoes became very popular in Ukraine, they are used to prepare first and second courses and side dishes for fish and meat dishes. This vegetable has become the "second bread" in Ukraine and is widely used - almost all first dishes are prepared with potatoes, replacing the usual vegetables - parsnips and turnips.
Since the late Middle Ages, two trends have gradually emerged in Ukrainian cuisine, the combination of which in the 17th and 18th centuries created a national gastronomy clearly understood by contemporaries. One of the varieties was "pospolytiy" - "peasant cuisine", which is often identified with borscht, dumplings and lard, this cuisine in Ukraine-Rus was shared by peasants, Cossacks, nobles and priests, whose table was distinguished by wealth.
There was also another representative of Ukrainian cuisine - "aristocratic cuisine" (with Eastern and Western influences), spread mainly at the courts of Russian princes and church leaders. This cuisine emerged from the fashionable trends of the royal court of the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth, which itself was influenced by Italian and later French culture, as well as Eastern patriarchs with Ottoman trends. In those days, a cook's ability not only to prepare complex dishes, but also to elegantly serve a dish to the table, was sometimes valued more than his other abilities.