Olia Hercules is a lyrical storyteller; skilled in taking her readers on a culinary crusade through the flavour-packed region of Eastern Europe. Born in 1984, in the town of Kakhovka in southern Ukraine, she started her culinary career at the prestigious Leiths School of Food and Wine. She then worked as a chef de partie in restaurants – including Ottolenghi – before making her way as a recipe writer. Hercules has been the author of three successful cookbooks Mamushka, Kaukasis and Summer Kitchens. Through these books, she has taken an underrated cuisine – one largely misconstrued as revolving around potato-and-pickles – and made it à la mode.
Upstart: why it took the West so long to pay attention to China’s rise
Beijing has accumulated power by avoiding emulating the methods of its main competitor, argues Oriana Skylar-Mastro in her new book.
