Lviv has its pampushky, Poltava has its halushky, Kyiv has its – well – Chicken Kyiv, and now, if master chef Vitalya Kotenko has her way – Eastern Ukraine will have her new ‘Mavka’ dish.
There are few things so tied to a culture as its culinary arts, which is why the USAID Economic Resilience Activity’s campaign “East:Reload” (Cxid: Reload) is helping culinary artists like Vitalya Kotenko promote high-end food manufacturers from Eastern Ukraine.
“Food is a universal language that can reach people’s hearts,“
said Kotenko at an event where she introduced the new dish.
“In this way, I hope to draw attention to the producers of Eastern Ukraine.”
Eastern Ukrainian Gourmet
Kotenko combined some of East Ukraine’s most popular food items and sourced the products from some of the region’s most successful producers to create her signature pork croquette with dogwood jam dish with a side of marsh samphire-infused cheese.
The croquettes are filled with tangy dogwood jam sourced from Zaporizhzhia’s Famberry organic berry farm and breaded with crispy breadcrumbs and biscotti-style rusks.
The marsh samphire, a plant native to the shores of Ukraine’s Azov Sea, comes from the popular Sea Cat restaurant from the village of Shchaslyvtseve in the Kherson oblast and rests inside of cheese sourced from the Leman Cheese Factory near Melitopil in the Zaporizhzhia oblast.
“As a side dish [I used] marsh samphire – a unique product of the Azov region,” said Kotenko.
“This can become one of the gastronomic symbols of the region.”
The colourful dish is garnished with bright red dogwood jam and dark green pine branches, creating a forest look that inspired the dish’s name – Mavka.
The new Mavka dish
Inspired by Mavka
Kotenko, a chef at Kyiv’s innovative “Kanapa” eatery on Andrew’s Descent that specialises in Ukrainian gourmet fare, named her new creation “Mavka,” after the classic Ukrainian folktale.
Master chef Vitalya Kotenko proudly presents her new ‘Mavka’ dish.
“Mavka is a universally recognised character of Ukrainian mythology [that] appears in all regions of Ukraine and is always between the elements and the worlds – between water and forest, between reality and fiction,” said Kotenko.
“This is partly reflected in my dish: there are elements that are associated with forests, steppe, and salt marshes.
The timing couldn’t be better.
After years of delay, Ukrainian film producer Animigrad’s highly anticipated Mavka: The Forest Song animated feature is finally set to hit cinemas in 2022.
Marketing is omnipresent in Ukraine, including with high-profile companies like supermarket giant Silpo and craft bakery LvivArtisan.
Kotenko admits getting inspiration from Lesia Ukrainka, whose version of the folktale is known worldwide and is the basis for the new animated feature.
“This dish is also a tribute to the memory of Lesia Ukrainka,” the chef said at the launch of her signature dish.
“A very important element of my dish is dogwood. Lesia Ukrainka brought several dogwood bushes from trips to the Caucasus and planted them near her estate. It is known that … the poetess cooked a wonderful dogwood jam from berries.”
It is also a way for Kotenko to highlight the connection to Eastern Ukraine.
“In the Zaporizhzhia region there is a unique farm where 23 varieties of dogwood are grown,” she said.
“It’s about the connections between histories, generations, and regions,”
USAID Support
The launch of the dish was supported by USAID Economic Resilience Activity within its campaign ‘East:Reload’ that is designed to support entrepreneurs from Eastern Ukraine to launch new economic endeavors.
“A reload is an upgrade of existing resources, it is a launch of a new way of thinking,” says the project description.
“Eastern Ukraine has a rich history and culture and high industrial potential, and that is why it can become a driver of the development of various economic areas and industries – resetting the consciousness of the population, especially young people.”
The campaign is under USAID’s six-year Economic Resilience Activity that puts special emphasis on working with internally displaced persons (IDPs), women, youth, and other underrepresented groups.
According to USAID Economic Resilience Activity, the program “provides an opportunity for local people to improve their living standards and develop businesses in promising sectors of the economy, as well as enter new markets in Ukraine, the EU, and beyond.”
Kotenko’s Mavka dish can be found at Kyiv’s Kanapa restaurant, part of the Borysov Gastro Family owned by restaurant magnate Dmytro Borysov.
