The Ukrainian capital now has an official gastronomic symbol: Kyiv Pie.
The dish was designed to boost the tourist image of the city. Shaped like the sun and about the size of the palm, it has various fillings for any taste.
“Everyone loves some freshly baked pie crust,” Oleksii Volkov, one of the Kyiv Pie creators, told the Kyiv Post. “We made a treat for everybody.”
Kyiv Pie’s development was initiated by the Kyiv City State Administration and involved the Association of Chefs of Ukraine and the Ukrainian Food Travel Association.
The dish comes in six variations and costs Hr 33 ($1.2) apiece. Since June 18 sold at the tourist information center TourInfo Kyiv right in the city’s heart, on the main Khreshchatyk Street.
Pinch of history
Kyiv has never had a single signature dish that would spark an instant association with the Ukrainian capital.
The city is known for Chicken Kyiv, fried or baked chicken fillet stuffed with butter, coated in eggs and bread crumbs. The dish is usually served at local restaurants with mashed potatoes.
There is also the Kyivska Perepichka sausage in fried dough, probably Kyiv’s oldest fast food, that has roots in Soviet Ukraine.
But Volkov, who has been organizing gastronomic tours in the capital for about six years, says that none of those is a truly Kyiv dish.
“Chicken Kyiv cutlet is borrowed from the French côtelettes de volaille, Kyivska Perepichka has a Soviet heritage,” he says.
According to Volkov, every culture has a signature pastry, just like Italian pizza and Georgian Khachapuri. After diving deep into the history, Volkov and the team discovered that for Ukrainians, this pastry is a pie.
Volkov says that in the 17th century Cossack Ukraine, locals presented pies with various fillings to metropolitan bishops and high-ranking officials on holidays and other festive occasions. It was considered to be a symbol of honor.
The Kyiv Pie stuffing recipes were also inspired by history.
One of them uses smoked beef, which was a common method of cooking meat in an open fire oven in the Trypillia culture—an ancient Ukrainian culture— according to Aleksey Povtoreyko, the vice-president of the Association of Chefs of Ukraine.
Another Kyiv Pie recipe uses sturgeon, which was the most common fish cooked in the 18th century Ukraine, Povtoreyko says.
The team initially had three shapes in mind for the Kyiv Pie: a roll, a dumpling or the sun. The latter was favored by Kyiv Mayor Vitaliy Klitschko and eventually got selected.
Tasty treats
Every Kyiv Pie is made almost entirely of local products.
All of them have the same basic ingredients such as dough, butter, salt, pepper, thinly sliced onion and garlic.
There are six types of filling including sturgeon, chicken, beef and mushrooms. The sweet version is made with caramelized apples sprinkled with cinnamon. The last one is suitable for vegans and mixes celery, parsley and parsnip roots. Instead of the egg wash used to brush the rest of the pies, the vegan version is covered with sugar water.
The team is planning to add new flavors. They also will soon launch a mini version of the pie, which will be twice as small as the original ones.
The team says that the new signature dish is already growing in popularity among foreign visitors in the capital. However, they want it to be sold in more than one spot and encourage local eateries to join the initiative to bring Kyiv Pie to the counters all across the city.
Buy Kyiv Pie for Hr 33 ($1.2) at the TourInfo Kyiv stand located right in front of the Dnipro Hotel (1/2 Khreshchatyk St.) To join the initiative and get the recipes, contact the chefs association at www.chef.kiev.ua.
