Reporting a Cookbook from War-Torn Ukraine

Howdy cookbook fans!

Today’s issue is an interview by freelance writer Sharon McDonnell, who spoke with cookbook author Anna Voloshyna. Voloshyna is a cookbook author who immigrated to the Bay Area from Ukraine in her early 20s, and released her first book, Budmo! (“cheers!” in Ukrainian), last year. Voloshyna recently returned from a trip to Ukraine, where she reported (and, along with photographer Jason Perry, photographed) a cookbook on the ways Ukrainians are preserving their culinary heritage during wartime.

Below, Voloshyna tells McDonnell how she got into food writing in the first place, what people get wrong about Ukrainian food, and what it’s like reporting from a war zone that also happens to be your hometown.

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Q&A: Cookbook Author Anna Voloshyna

—Sharon McDonnell

How did you land your cookbook deal for Budmo!?  You don’t have a restaurant, the book isn’t a collaboration with a high-profile chef, and you immigrated to the US in 2011.

In this day and age due to social media it’s not that unusual anymore, people who are active with something to say can get book deals. Over the past 10 years with social media, everything changed. I got very lucky. I found a cookbook writing course at Stanford University in Continuing Studies, near where I lived then. I showed my writing to the teacher, Tori Ritchie, a cookbook author, former Food Network TV host, food editor and San Francisco Cooking School instructor, one of the most talented people I know. She was excited, and felt my book would be successful. I found my literary agent through the class too, a speaker who talked about how she did mostly cookbooks, but also some books on flower design. I connected instantly with her, Leslie Jonath, she’s a