Iryna Soloviy
Researcher of traditional Ukrainian cuisine, ethnographer, and author of three books on the regional gastronomic heritage of Polissia, Podillia, and Hutsulshchyna. Lectures at the Lviv Institute of Hospitality.
Articles
16 September 2026A cheese board at home: how to put it togetherThree to five cheeses of different textures are enough for a board: soft, semi-hard, hard and, if you like, a blue. Taste them from the mildest to the boldest so the flavours do not overwhelm each oth…
16 September 2026Painted honey gingerbread: a tradition making a comebackHoney and spice gingerbread was baked for festive occasions long before confectionery shops existed. Honey dough holds its shape well and keeps its aroma for a long time. The decoration is applied wit…
15 September 2026Handmade bonbons: how chocolate shells are paintedThe bright pattern on a bonbon is applied not on top but inside the mould, before any chocolate goes in. Cocoa butter with food colouring is used for this. The mould is then filled with tempered choco…
15 September 2026How to taste honey: five steps from colour to aftertasteStart with the colour: from almost clear to deep amber. Darker varieties usually have a richer and slightly bitter taste. Then the aroma: warm the spoon in your hands and breathe in. Next, a small amo…
24 August 2026A hallmark struck twiceThe first mark is almost entirely worn, the second is crisp and sits a few millimetres to the right. This was done at re-assay: if a piece was melted down or altered, the mark was struck again. Koval…
24 August 2026A mark read from three anglesA mark on faience is often impressed rather than printed, and under direct light it merges with the glaze. Doroshenko photographed the base three times, tilting the source each time. It became legible…
24 August 2026How flour was measured when there were no measuresA mug, a bowl, a glass and a wooden scoop. None of these was made for measuring, yet all four appear in recipe records as a unit. The museum placed a card beside them with their actual volumes — from…
17 July 2026Podillia Terraces craft-drink tasting at the natural-wine fairPodillia Terraces will take part in the natural-wine fair, where it will present the full line of its craft drinks. Guests will be able to taste the sparkling white and rosé Pet-Nat, the 30-day skin-c…
17 July 2026Podillia Terraces unveils its wild-yeast white Pet-NatThe Podillia Terraces winery in the Ternopil region has announced the release of the new vintage of its flagship wild-yeast white Pet-Nat. This living sparkling wine is born by the ancient ancestral m…
17 July 2026Ukrainian Saperavi Wins Gold at a Wine CompetitionCossack Winery has received a distinguished honour: its Ukrainian Saperavi won a gold medal at a national winemakers' competition, where the jury assessed dozens of samples from every wine region of t…
17 July 2026The Terroir of Bukovyna: Why the Chernivtsi Hills Yield Aromatic WinesTerroir — for Bukovyna Vine the word means not an abstraction but the concrete slopes of the Chernivtsi region, with their limestone-clay soils, cool nights and the gentle influence of the Carpathian…
17 July 2026Harvest 2026: Bukovyna Vine Completes the White-Grape PickBukovyna Vine Winery has completed the main phase of the 2026 harvest, bringing in its white varieties — Chardonnay, Riesling, Aligoté and Sauvignon Blanc. The season proved demanding: hot July weeks…
17 July 2026Open Day at Lozova Hora: A Tasting Among the VinesLozova Hora Winery is announcing an open day, inviting lovers of Ukrainian winemaking to visit the slopes near Uzhhorod. Guests can look forward to a walk through the vineyards, a tour of the cellars…
17 July 2026Lozova Hora Unveils Its 2024 Transcarpathian Dry RieslingLozova Hora Winery proudly presents its 2024 Transcarpathian Dry Riesling, a wine born on the warm slopes near Uzhhorod. Grower and winemaker Roman Lozovyi notes that the past season delivered an idea…
17 July 2026Recognition at a Competition: The Pet-Nat Wins an Award for AuthenticityThe rosé pet-nat from Kraftova Vynorobnia earned a distinction at a competition for natural and author's wines, winning an award in the category for authenticity and purity of style. The jury, which i…
14 April 2026Trapezna — monastery cuisine as a form of memoryTrapezna in the cellars of the former Basilian monastery on Lychakiv is a rare example of a restaurant with both a tourist and a research mission. The founders worked with Lviv National Library archiv…
28 March 2026Living Peasant Kitchen — Saturday Reconstructions of Folk Daily LifeIn March 2026 the Ivan Honchar Ukrainian Centre for Folk Culture launches the public programme 'Living Peasant Kitchen', held every Saturday. The programme offers visitors not only to look at exhibits…
28 March 2026Cobalt Painting Master Class — Baranivka Tradition for VisitorsIn March 2026 the Baranivka Porcelain Museum launches the public 'Cobalt Painting Master Class' programme, held every Saturday from March to June 2026. Participants in the programme learn the characte…
28 February 2026Pid Osokorom — traditional Ukrainian cuisine without stylisation'Pid Osokorom' on Andriyivskyy Descent remains a rare example of a restaurant where traditional Ukrainian cuisine is cooked without conversion to a 'concept' or tourist show. The menu is short — 28 po…
26 February 2026Kotliarevskyi's Eneida as a Culinary Anthology — Lecture SeriesIn February 2026 the Poltava Folk Gastronomy Museum opens a new lecture cycle 'Kotliarevskyi's Eneida as a Culinary Anthology'. Six lectures, held every Wednesday, illuminate the fact that the burlesq…
24 February 2026Opishne 200 Years — From Peasant Craft to National CentreIn February 2026 the Opishne Museum opens a new lecture cycle 'Opishne 200 Years — From Peasant Craft to National Centre'. Six lectures, held every Thursday during February-March, cover the chronology…
26 January 2026Artistic Porcelain Painting — Mastery School with KEKHZ VeteransIn January 2026 the Kyiv Porcelain Museum began a six-month educational programme 'KEKHZ Mastery School' — a unique initiative to transmit the artistic tradition of former factory employees to the new…
22 January 2026Wooden Kitchen Utensil Restoration — Practice for Regional MuseumsIn January 2026 a four-month wooden kitchen utensil conservation programme began at the restoration workshop of the Pyrohiv Open-Air Museum. Participants in the programme came from the Poltava Region…
22 December 2025Regional borsch variants — a map of Ukraine on a plateUkrainian borsch is not a dish but a gastronomic territory. In September 2022 UNESCO recognised borsch as Ukrainian intangible cultural heritage, but this legal recognition is only the beginning. In r…
18 December 2025Galician cuisine — a Ukrainian-Polish-Jewish-Armenian mixGalician cuisine is the most multicultural region in the Ukrainian gastronomic landscape. For centuries on the territory of modern Western Ukraine Ukrainians, Poles, Jews, and Armenians coexisted — fo…
14 December 2025Crimean Tatar cuisine — the heritage of a people under threat of disappearanceCrimean Tatar cuisine is one of the least-studied culinary traditions of Ukraine. After the 1944 deportation of Crimean Tatars a significant part of the recipe corpus was lost — older generations died…
10 December 2025Polissia mushroom cuisine — two millennia of unbroken traditionPolissia is the most 'forested' region of Ukraine. Half of the territory of Chernihiv, Zhytomyr, Rivne, and Volyn oblasts is forest, predominantly mixed, ideal for mushroom growth. Polissia mushroom c…
6 December 2025Podillia honey traditions — honey as the base of gastronomic identityThe Podillia gastronomic tradition is inseparable from honey. The geo-climatic conditions of Podillia — hills, open meadows, microclimate — created ideal conditions for beekeeping. In the 14-16th cent…
2 December 2025Hutsul cuisine — the culinary language of the Ukrainian CarpathiansHutsulshchyna is the most mountainous region of Ukraine. The elevation of Carpathian villages — from 800 to 1,400 metres — creates unique gastronomic conditions: short vegetative summer, long winter,…
28 November 2025Hutsul Mountain Ceramics of the 19th Century — Complete Family Collection from KosivIn November 2025 the Ivan Honchar Ukrainian Centre for Folk Culture received in its collection forty-eight items of authentic 19th-century Kosiv ceramics. The transfer was made by descendants of the S…
28 November 2025Poltava galushky — from folk food to national symbolPoltava galushky is the Ukrainian dish that has travelled from purely folk food to national gastronomic symbol. In 1817 Ivan Kotlyarevsky in the poem 'Eneida' first made galushky a literary hero — 'du…
24 November 2025Ukrainian tea traditions — from mint to ivan-teaUkrainian tea culture is not 'classic black tea with sugar' but a complex herbal tradition rooted in ancient Slavic times. Before the mass spread of Indian tea in the 19th century, Ukrainians drank ex…
20 November 2025Empire-Era Service — Return from a Polish CollectionIn November 2025 the Baranivka Porcelain Museum received in its collection a complete twenty-four-piece Empire-style dining service, produced at the Baranivka Factory in the 1820s. The service returne…
20 November 2025Ukrainian fermented drinks — kvass, mors, uzvarUkrainian fermentation culture of non-alcoholic drinks is one of the least-studied topics in our gastronomy. Before the mass spread of sugared carbonated drinks in the 20th century, Ukrainians drank e…
16 November 2025Ukrainian Christmas Eve dinner — twelve dishes as a ritual codeUkrainian Christmas Eve dinner (6 January, the holy evening before Christ's Nativity) is not just a holiday meal but the most encoded culinary ritual of our tradition. The number of dishes is precisel…
12 November 2025Ukrainian paska — regional baking traditions and symbolismPaska is the main ritual baking of the Ukrainian Easter. Unlike the Italian colomba or Greek tsoureki, Ukrainian paska has clear regional variability. Each region has its own canon of shape, dough com…
8 November 2025Ukrainian village bread — the most ancient form of our gastronomyBread is the most ancient form of Ukrainian gastronomic culture. Archaeological excavations in the Trypillian culture (5500-2750 BCE) found remains of hearth stones for baking grain bread. Ukrainian b…
4 November 2025Ukrainian pickles — half a year of winter supply through fermentationBefore the mass spread of refrigerators in the 1960-70s Ukrainian families preserved vegetables through two main methods: drying and pickling. Pickling is the most effective form because it preserves…
31 October 2025Ukrainian mushroom foraging — the art of the forestThe Ukrainian forest is undervalued gastronomic capital. The Carpathians, Polissia, Podillia, Chernihiv region are areas with the greatest mushroom potential in Europe. According to data from the Ukra…
27 October 2025Ukrainian wedding dishes — the gastronomy of family unionA Ukrainian wedding is the most encoded ritual complex of our tradition, and culinary practice is an inseparable part of it. In the 19th century in Ukrainian villages the wedding menu numbered 23-27 d…
30 September 2025The Mission of Larysa Onyshchuk — A Decade of Poltava Gastronomic ResearchIn September 2025 the Poltava Folk Gastronomy Museum marked a decade of field work by its founder — Larysa Onyshchuk, a Ukrainian researcher of the culinary heritage of Poltava region. Over ten years…
29 September 202540 Years of the Opishne Museum — From 1986 to Its Modern MissionIn 2026 the National Museum-Reserve of Ukrainian Pottery in Opishne (Zinkiv district, Poltava region) marked 40 years of work. Founded in 1986 on the basis of the centuries-old pottery tradition of th…
