Kyiv food journalist Anastasiya Holoborodko, who grew up in Izmail, writes the healthy-food blog spoon.com.ua, edits food content for bit.ua and nogibogi.com.ua and hosts culinary workshops.
You don’t know what’s so interesting about food stories? Are you serious? The short answer is: everything. Food stopped being only a way to satisfy hunger long ago.
It’s a chance to combine company and a meal, aesthetic and physical pleasure. Today people are keen to try different tastes and new restaurant formats, and they want to know more about products and cooking methods. That’s why I’m glad to share my knowledge and experience in this area.
I’m Anastasiya Holoborodko: food journalist, author of the healthy-food blog spoon.com.ua, food editor at bit.ua and nogibogi.com.ua, student and host of culinary workshops, modern gastronome and a very enthusiastic person.
My childhood was far from the glamorous everyday life of city girls. The small town of Izmail, where my family still lives, seems frozen in its half-urban state. Quiet and cozy as a granny’s kitchen, it even once played a significant role in history.
I love Izmail for its diverse gastronomic melody. Just imagine: Turkish, Bulgarian and Romanian cuisine, endless curving vineyards and pastures of fluffy sheep... My native town inspires me so much that I could go on and on about it. But that’s not the point.
I didn’t dream of becoming a cook or a gastronome; I couldn’t imagine my future in the kitchen. Nevertheless, these things are central to my life today, and I enjoy them enormously. But everything could have turned out differently.
After school, I entered the faculty of international relations, then psychology, and only after that the faculty of hotel and restaurant management. I started my food blog a bit later. Funnily enough, at school I hated writing essays more than anything: putting my thoughts into words and describing them in detail was real torture for me.
But everything changes. I started writing, and at first it was only about food. Back then, it seems, few people focused on a single narrow topic.
Gradually, as my knowledge grew, my words carried more authority in the field of food blogging, and now I write for print and online media. My confidence in live communication turned into frequent workshops on healthy lifestyle and products. Without meaning to, I went beyond food: I write and speak more and more on the relevant topics of dietetics and special nutrition, sport and style.
As a true blogger and a real writer, I question any observation that isn’t backed by checks and facts. I try to cook everything I write about or my readers are interested in. My dedication and attention to detail played a trick on me: I don’t know what my favorite dish or cuisine is. My preferences are much wider: I care about taste, color, smell and the mood they create.
I don’t remember the last time I made lasagna or risotto. But on winter nights I used to spend my time on Spanish paella and Moroccan tagine.
I like the cuisines of the North, the Scandinavian ones. They can teach you how to cook fish. Take gravlax, for example: a little beet and fennel work miracles with salmon.
British cuisine is a tradition of ceremonies with a fairly narrow range of products. At the same time, it was the British who gave us simple and very tasty desserts and pastries, like their signature apple pie or teacake.
I like “spicy” cuisines, like those of Morocco and Mexico. To me, they have the tastiest combinations of meat and condiments, beans and spices, and nut sweets.
I love Thai cuisine for its skillful combination of sour, hot, salty and sweet in almost every dish. It is nothing short of perfect balance.
Recently I’ve fallen in love with French cuisine, but I’m discovering it gradually, carefully tasting each region. And although my lifestyle may seem to be all about food and describing it, there’s always room for activity. I jog and go to yoga classes.
Yoga isn’t even a sport; it’s a state of mind. I’ve been practicing it for 5 or 6 years. I took up jogging not so long ago, but I’m very passionate about it and run fairly long distances: around the city, along the streets and across the bridges. But if I get a chance to turn onto a muddy forest road, that’s the road I’ll choose.
I truly believe we feel healthy and beautiful only when we have a strong body. When you have the desire and the opportunity, you should definitely keep moving forward. Build healthy habits gradually: slow, gradual improvements in health always give better results.
Small daily changes are better than dramatic ones that last only three days a month. And one more thing: take your time to cook. It’s great, and it’s tasty.
