About
Welcome to Natasha’s Kitchen! I’m Natasha Kravchuk, and together with my husband, Vadim, we’ve been passionately developing and sharing tried-and-true recipes since 2009. Over the years, we have created a trusted recipe resource beloved by millions.
In 2023, I published my debut cookbook – Natasha’s Kitchen Cookbook, which quickly became a New York Times Best-Seller for three consecutive weeks. The book is an extension of our blog with top-quality recipes you can trust.
I come from a family of fantastic cooks, and I’m here to share generations of recipes that are homey, fresh, healthy, family-friendly, authentic, and adventurous. Most importantly, our recipes are meticulously tested and guaranteed to be delicious and reliable.

My Family and Heritage
My culinary journey is deeply rooted in my family’s story. My family came to the U.S. as refugees from Ukraine when I was 4 years old. They brought 5 tiny girls and had nothing but a stack of suitcases. They didn’t know the language, but they worked hard and achieved the American dream. Watch the TV News Segment about our incredible story. My parents’ resilience and passion for food inspire every recipe I create.

Growing up, I was so shy that I thought no one would marry me until my husband came along and swept me off my feet (true story). Over 20 years ago, I married my wonderful husband, Vadim (who is also Ukrainian). We are blessed with two children. Every recipe that I develop is thoroughly tested and approved by each of us and is often critiqued by relatives and friends. We only post the recipes we love and make over and over.
We live in Idaho (famous for its potatoes), and we love the quieter pace of our beautiful state. We strive to walk in love and live our lives by the word of God and the life of Jesus.



Professional Background
We’re so thankful to be full-time foodies and recipe developers. We’re living our dream because of you and I can’t thank you enough! My heritage and diverse professional background, including years in business and nursing, have uniquely equipped me to be the recipe developer, video creator, photographer, writer, and business owner that I am today. We set the bar high so you can expect great recipes and videos here.
The Resume
- 2003-2007: I worked for 7 years as a business intern, which I consider my most valuable education. My boss and mentor taught me the importance of excellence in business and meticulous attention to detail, which has served me well.
- 2007 Earned my Bachelor’s Degree in Business with a double major in human resource management
- 2007-2012 – Worked as a Realtor for 4 years. Fun fact: it was during my realtor days that I learned about blogging (although blogging about real estate was undeniably more boring than food)
- 2012 Earned my Bachelor’s Degree in Nursing and worked as a Registered Nurse in Telemetry. The courses I took in nutrition, as well as being in a caring profession, made for a natural transition into serving my audience with recipes and connections that nurture body and soul.
- Blogging since 2009 – What started as a way to share my family’s recipes and culinary journey, has turned into a vibrant community of millions of home cooks.
To summarize all of the many hats I wear – I am a wife, mom, food blogger, cookbook author, recipe developer, video creator, photographer, writer, influencer, social media boss, and entrepreneur, and I love to sing in my church choir. If I were a sandwich, I’d be a Chicken Bacon Avocado on Focaccia.

How I Got Started Cooking
To be completely honest, I wasn’t always excited about cooking. When I got married in 2003, it became a necessity – “must eat to live” and Mom wasn’t doing the cooking anymore. We had a lot of frozen meals and ate-out too much in the first year of our marriage. I had a free summer (and decided I would improve my cooking skills so we could live and eat healthier.
I dove into cookbook after cookbook and plundered my mom’s recipe books. I was at the library all the time bringing home piles of cookbooks; I was hooked! I even read my mother’s cooking textbook from her college days (Mom completed her culinary program when we moved to the US). I had discovered the joy of cooking. Within a few months, my husband and I each lost weight just from cooking more at home. Now I can’t stop cooking and thinking about cooking and dreaming about cooking… I was born for this!
My recipe collection continues to grow. I love to try new recipes and will share my favorites with you (like our internet-famous Meatloaf and beloved Banana Bread Recipe). I hope you enjoy this blog and find recipes that will become your family favorites as well.



Natasha’s Kitchen Today
I started this food and family blog in 2009 as a way to share favorite recipes and events with family and friends. It has grown much larger than I could have imagined with about 1,300 recipes and about 19 million hungry visitors per month. In 2024, we passed 3,500,000 subscribers on YouTube and our channel is growing fast. We’ve been featured on:
- Forbes
- Good Morning America
- ABC News
- New York Times
- Associated Press
- USA Today
- And hundreds more (see Press page for more)
My goal with Natasha’s Kitchen is for you to really discover and fall in love with cooking and find many new favorite recipes your family will love. The ingredients we use are simple and easily accessible, not overly hoity-toity. My motto: if you can read (a well-written, tested, and trusted recipe), you can cook.
Most of the recipes I share come from my mom and mother-in-law, family, friends, and my own experience in the kitchen. I am so thankful to have such amazing people in my life who generously share their rich knowledge of cooking.
It Takes a Village! I’m so blessed to partner with an incredible group of specialists who share their talents to support Natasha’s Kitchen. Whether it’s social media, email marketing, content editing, or video editing, their expertise helps everything run smoothly so I can focus on creating delicious recipes and fun videos for you. I’m so grateful for their contributions and for YOU, our amazing readers, who make it all possible.

Natasha’s Kitchen Recipes
It’s very important to me to share trusted recipes that are reliable and work well in every kitchen and for every cooking skill level. This is why I develop and perfect all of my recipes through careful research and several rounds of testing in my own Kitchen in Idaho (elevation about 2,600 feet).
Every recipe is tested and approved by my family, and often friends, relatives, and even neighbors. All of the photography is done by myself, and I’m the one showing up in our videos. My husband edits the photos and videos (and he’s the videographer, single-handedly running 3 cameras at once).

Get Featured: If you would like your recipe featured on this site, email it to me by clicking here.
Community Guidelines: I love how this food blog has grown into a supportive cooking community – your comments, questions, tips, and success stories make every recipe better. Review my Comment Policy, then join the conversation.
Disclaimer: Per my Nutrition Disclaimer, this blog includes only my own opinions and is not professional advice. It is not intended to be dietary advice or a diet plan. Please talk to your Doctor or nutritionist for medical or dietary advice. I am not liable if you eat too many Hamburgers.
love, love, love your blog! I just started mine in January and am on a hard learning curve. Ouch! I did my 100th post this weekend, still cross eyed,,,
Darie, it does take a long time to figure out this blogging gig. We have published over 500 posts and we are constantly learning new things. At the same time that’s what keeps blogging exciting and on your toes. Have you checked out pinchofYum.com? They have some great resources for new were bloggers. Congratulations on your 100th post 🙂
I’ve gone to so many blogs for recipes but yours is the first I’ve read the “About” section. I love it! Thank you for sharing! Looking forward to trying more of your recipes! The first one I tried was the Creamy Shrimp Alfredo Pasta recipe. Can you say yum?!
Brenda, thank you so much for stopping by and for the great feedback. I hope that you’ll find many new favorites :).
MUCHAS FELICIDADES ¡¡¡¡
QUE DIOS TE BENDIGA .
ME ENCANTAN TUS FOTOS Y TUS RECETAS
FATTY
Thank you so much :). You’re so sweet 🙂
Great website! One of THE BEST!! Thankss for sharing all the love
Thank you so much Irina 🙂 You’re so nice 🙂
Hi Natasha,
I work with someone from Ukraine, who loves to cook also. We are always talking about cooking and her country. I am from Oregon, and Minnesota, nd am an LVN, and former pastor’s wife. I love to try new things, and I love to bake most of all. I am so happy that you are a Christian and is there a Ukranian community there in Idaho?
My best friend from high school, lives in Nampa, Idaho.
The Lord bless you!!
There is a fairly large Russian/Ukrainian community here – nothing like in bigger cities (our community doesn’t have a “reputation” necessarily), but it is nice that there are several Christian churches that are Russian/Ukrainian 🙂 God bless you also and I’m so happy you stopped by my blog 🙂
What a lovely life story and wonderful food! I just found your blog yesterday and am looking forward to pinning and cooking many of your recipes. Thank You. 🙂
Thank you in advance from pinning and sharing! Welcome to the blog. I’m so happy you’re here 🙂
Natasha, I am Ukrainian and married to a Lithuanian. They also make a Napolean Torte which is wonderful. It is also rolled out and baked vey thin and then layered with a cream filling and fruit,, you squash down the layers so that the flavors meld. Do you have anything similar? It would love to impress my husband with it.
I have something similar called the spartak cake. I have a vanilla and chocolate version on my blog.
Oops! That last comment didn’t go through well. I just wanted to say I love your blog and can’t wait to try out more of your recipes. I’m from Portland, Oregon and best friends with Ukrainians, except I’m Romanian! I’m so glad to hear that you are believers and pray that God blesses you with this website.
Ps. That so cool that you have a BS in nursing and business. I also just got one in nursing!
Hi Jenn and thank you so much for your sweet comment! 🙂 I’d love to learn to cook more Romanian food also. I think our tastes are probably very similar. So nice to meet you here and God bless you also! P.S. Congratulations in getting your BS in nursing! That is a huge accomplishment! 🙂
Thank you vey much with all these recipes I could make a cooking show
You’re so welcome 🙂
Came across your blog looking for a borscht recipe. i recently visited Russia for two weeks and fell in love with their food. I am looking forward to trying out some of your recipes. Great site! Thank you.
Welcome to the site Mark :). I hope you’ll find many new favorites.
thankyou for the delicious recipes
Great help. Thanks
i love to cook and I love to try all different cultures of food. I am 1/2 Italian and while I love the food … ahhh! gnocchi … I also love the flavors, spices and techniques of so many countries.
I will definitely be trying your recipes and you make them so fun!
I just started my blog, but I’ll be adding recipes and also skin care and essential oils (not foodie!), so visit if you get a chance, as I love my God as well!
Congratulations on starting a blog!! That is awesome! I wish you a blessed and successfully journey 🙂
Looking forward to trying your Chicken Rice Recipe. Looks delicious! Thanks for sharing. God bless you and your family. ❤️
Thank you so much Merilee :). It’s defnitely a favorite on my site. I hope you LOVE it! 🙂
I just discovered your blog as I was searching for a borscht recipe. My son will be serving a two year mission for our church in L’viv Ukraine. He leaves on jan 28. I want to have an open house this Sunday for friends and family and serve a variety of Ukrainian foods. What can you suggest? I’m am a well seasoned cook, but am unfamiliar with this style of cooking. I was hoping for a couple soups and possibly a couple cookie type desserts(finger food). I am also an idahoan! Long live the great potato state! Any help you can offer will be greatly appreciated.
Classic soup options:
https://natashaskitchen.com/2012/03/16/borscht-recipe-ii/
https://natashaskitchen.com/2013/01/06/moms-split-pea-soup-recipe/
https://natashaskitchen.com/2009/11/30/russian-mushroom-and-potato-soup-recipe-2/
Cookie options:
https://natashaskitchen.com/2010/01/11/russian-tea-cakes-recipe/
https://natashaskitchen.com/2014/09/09/moms-pryaniki-cookies-video-tutorial/
You might consider some appetizers as canapes are very popular there:
https://natashaskitchen.com/?s=canapes
Hi Natasha,
Stumbled across your blog on Pinterest. Absolutely love your blog!!! Can’t wait to try some of your recipes.
As a fellow believer, just want to say how encouraged I am to see you give glory to God and may He continue to bless you greatly in your endeavours. You have a beautiful family too.
Madeline thank you so much for your sweet comment! 🙂 I’ve been so blessed over the years to meet fellow believers and make so many new friends through this blog. I look forward to getting to know you; since we are from the same “family” after all 😉
What an amazing blog… I am a foodie/chef myself, and I am trying to become acclimated with Ukrainian food/culture as I recently learned that this is a significant part of my heritage. I am looking forward to exploring classics along with new foods… thanks for doing what you do! Keep up the great work…can’t wait to cook my first Ukrainian meal for my grandmother 🙂
Thank you Kristen! I hope you find many new favorite recipes here! 🙂
It would be cool if you guys could make an android app for our phones 🙂
It’s something we are considering, but don’t quite have the know-how yet. Thanks for the tip! 🙂
Hi Natasha,
I am from Latvia originally, and I came across your food website when looking for Russian borscht recipe. I’ve just made the soup and it’s so tasty! For my own personal interpretation I added spicy chorizo sausage instead of the beans. I think it goes well together. I will be checking your site regularly for more savoury recipes. Thanks a lot.
Welcome to the site Solvita. Thank you for the great review and I hope you’ll find many new favorites :).
Hi! I love you blog! I ran into it on Pinterest. I was looking for a cheesecake recipe for my husbands birthday. Which came out delicious! Thank you for the easy tutorial. I am having some friends over in a few weeks and found some great appetizers on here. I see you live in Idaho. We used to live in McCall. Really miss it there. Well, thanks again for your delicious recipes. I will post pictures of my appetizers on here. Happy New Year!
So nice to meet you Monica! We love visiting McCall. We almost went this month but the rental property we were looking at was no longer available. Maybe it’s for the best since my due date is coming up soon :). I’m so happy you enjoyed the cheesecake! I’d love to see your appetizers!