New wars bring new fundraising efforts. Since Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, Ukrainians who already lived in London or moved here as a result of the war have conducted a subtle but concerted gastronomic campaign on behalf of their country. Somehow, this avoids all shrillness – unlike the dreadful and relentless Cook for ‘Palestine’ movement. 

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The Ukrainian food scene doesn’t crow about good and evil but it takes a position on those questions anyway – of course. A wartime enterprise can’t do anything else. But with front people like the beautiful, tireless Olia Hercules, who has raised millions for her homeland through culinary ‘cultural diplomacy’ missions, it’s an altogether more skilful piece of food politics than other wartime campaigns.

My question, though, as someone who now can’t enjoy a great many good restaurants because of the anti-Semitism of their chefs, is: would Ukrainian food taste all the better for the righteousness of the cause? And, indeed, is it even good? Isn’t it just borscht and scary hunks of meat? 

Olia Hercules emphatically says........

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