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.

Natasha holding a lasagna casserole

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.

Natasha with family posing on steps next to a house
Natasha with her parents and 4 sisters (Natasha is the middle child)

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.

Natasha and Vadim slicing vegetables in the kitchen

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.

Natasha with family serving food

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 with mom and daughter making pierogi

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 family prepping food in the kitchen

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.

Leave a Comment

Comments

  • katie
    August 23, 2015

    hey! random question.. you mentioned that you live in idaho. do you mind me asking what city? would you recommend it as a place to live? my husband and i are considering moving there.. seems to be much more affordable than portland oregon!! 🙂

    Reply

    • Natasha
      natashaskitchen
      August 23, 2015

      Hi Katie,
      I’ll email you all about it 🙂

      Reply

  • Sima
    August 19, 2015

    Great web really easy to understand recipes with basic ingredients. The search bar isn’t very useful. You should make so people can create an account and add certain recipes at their favorites. Over all I like the website. ( P.S. I like your humor, I will try to eat less piroshki 🙂

    Reply

    • Natasha
      natashaskitchen
      August 19, 2015

      Hi Sima, that would be a nice feature and we will keep it in mind for the future. Have you had an opportunity to explore our photo recipe index? https://natashaskitchen.com/recipes/

      Reply

  • Galyna
    August 15, 2015

    Thank you for your site and a lot of love and inspiration here, it is really great.

    Reply

    • Natasha
      natashaskitchen
      August 15, 2015

      Thank you so much Galyna 🙂

      Reply

  • phil proulx
    August 12, 2015

    Thank you for all the great information on your site!

    My mother blessed us with 20lbs of plums. We typed in plum jam/jelly and Your site popped up (Our plums are bathing in sugar as I type). I’ve never had plum preserves and can’t wait to try them!!!

    One of my co-workers is originally from Moldova. His wife sends food for us weekly……Delicious!!!!

    Looking forward to trying more of your recipes!

    Reply

    • Natasha
      natashaskitchen
      August 12, 2015

      Welcome to my blog! I hope you love everything you try! 🙂

      Reply

  • Cindy M.
    August 6, 2015

    Very nice site! Really like all the improvements and updates! You are truly blessed and I am so happy that our “paths have crossed”!!!

    Reply

    • Natasha
      natashaskitchen
      August 7, 2015

      Thank you so much Cindy for your sweet comment. I’m happy about that too 🙂

      Reply

  • Lyn
    August 5, 2015

    Natashinka, I am so happy for this site! I’ve been living in UA for almost 3 years, and love the food, but…most of my friends don’t bother with written recipes, so I am worried about maybe living in America again someday:) I’ve bought some Ukrainian cookbooks in English, but the results are less than stunning. I like knowing that the recipes have been tested, and will actually turn out for me!
    May God bless you for your time and effort.

    Reply

    • Natasha
      natashaskitchen
      August 5, 2015

      Thank you Lyn for your sweet and thoughtful comment. It’s so encouraging! 🙂 God bless you also!

      Reply

  • Lesley Noble
    August 4, 2015

    Hello Natasha! I am so glad to have found you. I am making your peach galette right now. Loved seeing your family pictures.
    I am a newly retired nurse,(a 50 year career!) who loves being at home and cooking/baking/knitting/gardening.

    I am looking forward to making your delicious recipes!
    God Bless you and thank you for sharing your knowledge!

    Reply

    • Natasha
      natashaskitchen
      August 4, 2015

      What kind of nursing did you do? 50 years?! Wow! Congratulations on retirement 🙂

      Reply

  • Melissa
    July 31, 2015

    Hi Natasha!

    I’ve been going to Ukraine for the past 5 summers to teach English and Bible and every summer I come back wishing that I could find a Ukrainian cook book or somewhere with authentic recipes… LOVE your varenyky dough recipe, and I can’t wait to try others. As I was reading about your purpose for your blog I was so encouraged. Know that you’re blog is helping people fall in love with Slavic dishes and bring a piece of Ukraine to our homes! God Bless you and your family!

    Reply

    • Natasha
      natashaskitchen
      July 31, 2015

      Thank you so much Melissa and thank you for the awesome work you are doing in Ukraine! God bless you in everything you put your hand to 🙂

      Reply

  • Mary J Swendiman
    July 31, 2015

    Hi, Natasha!
    Am so glad I found your site. EVERYTHING sounds so wonderful. Am so glad your family is in our country. You and your husband have achieved peace, success, love and happiness. Congratulations!

    Reply

    • Natasha
      natashaskitchen
      July 31, 2015

      Thank you so much Mary and yes we are incredibly thankful to be so blessed in the US 🙂

      Reply

  • Alla
    July 30, 2015

    Hey Natasha! I love your recipes, you are inspiring, Thank you! I was wondering if you have a post about essentials in the kitchen. such as spices and groceries that you always keep at hand? thanks again and God Bless!

    Reply

    • Natasha
      natashaskitchen
      July 31, 2015

      Thats a great idea! I’ll put it on my to-do list. Thanks for the idea!! 🙂

      Reply

  • Curt
    July 27, 2015

    I’m so glad I found you! My wife is Kazakh! I love Russian cooking but we eat a wide variety of foods. I love to cook and appreciate your recipes! I hope to span the gap between Russian and American cooking!

    Best wishes,

    Curt

    Reply

    • Natasha
      natashaskitchen
      July 28, 2015

      That was one thing we noticed when we started this blog; there was a huge gap – almost a void that needed filling 🙂

      Reply

  • Yared
    July 27, 2015

    Love your stuff, do you have an Instagram account or Facebook?

    Reply

  • Aaron
    July 25, 2015

    Awesome recipes and website run by an amazingly beautiful and talented young woman, keep it up 🙂 ps your husband is a very lucky man!

    Reply

    • Natasha
      natashaskitchen
      July 25, 2015

      Thank you 😉

      Reply

  • Kathie
    July 15, 2015

    Thank you for sharing. I miss old world food. I only have a few recipes. This website gives me so many more!

    Reply

    • Natasha
      natashaskitchen
      July 15, 2015

      Kathie, welcome to the site and I hope you’ll find lots of new favorites :).

      Reply

      • Oxana
        July 17, 2015

        Natasha, UMNICHKA!!!!! all blessings to you, your family and your outstanding blog!!!

        Reply

        • Natasha
          natashaskitchen
          July 17, 2015

          Thank you so much Oxana 🙂

          Reply

  • jacqueline
    July 8, 2015

    Nice blog and recipes. But why say you married up..a joke? Sounds like you think you are no good enough for husband. If you weren’t good enough God would not let you two meet and have children.

    Reply

    • Natasha
      natashaskitchen
      July 8, 2015

      I was complimenting my husband. I do think he’s my better half 🙂 I think we were made for each other.

      Reply

  • Ode Dixon
    July 4, 2015

    Oh my goodness Natasha! I have never seen so much similarities between myself and anyone before. I’m an RN and also have a Bachelor’s degree in Business. I am starting a food blog (deeply working on the details right now), and like you, I am an immigrant although from Nigeria, West Africa.

    I will be sharing recipes from my native homeland although mostly modified to fit my current lifestyle.

    I will be most honored if you can respond directly, I could learn so much from you on this journey I’m about to embark on. I still work every other weekend at the hospital and I got to ask you how scary it was to make that final leap to becoming a full-time blogger.

    Sincerely,

    Ode Dixon

    Reply

    • Natasha
      natashaskitchen
      July 4, 2015

      Hi Ode! It’s wonderful to meet you! We took baby steps to get there. Our blog is 5 1/2 years old and it was almost exactly a year ago that I quit my job as an RN to meet the demands of the blog. I gradually went down in hours and eventually it became pretty obvious that this was what I had to do. It was more exciting than scary 🙂

      Reply

  • tata
    July 4, 2015

    I really appraciate you ,as you are a wife, mom, food blogger, worship leader and nurse. you are really good blogger and I love pictures. God bless you.

    Reply

    • Natasha
      natashaskitchen
      July 4, 2015

      Thank you so much for your words of encouragement. Your comment really blessed me. God bless you and your family also! 🙂

      Reply

  • tanya
    June 30, 2015

    How do I dubscribe to your blog?

    Reply

    • Natasha
      natashaskitchen
      June 30, 2015

      Tanya, just click here and follow the steps :).

      Reply

  • Robert Benlien
    June 7, 2015

    Hi Natasha,
    I can across your website while looking for a pelmeni recipe (even though we have cooked it many times in the past. Your site is a delight and so well designed. Awesome is fitting.
    My wife and I along with our children lived in Russia 1993- 96. We were Christian missionaries in the Mari- El Republic. We enjoyed so much living among the Russian and Ukrainian people.
    We also loved the food and. We have been back forth to Russia about 20 times over the years and always anticipate seeing our friends and eating the russian recipes.
    Thank you for such a wonderful page.keep following Jesus and you will have joy and great success in all you do.
    Robert B.
    6/7/15

    Reply

    • Natasha
      natashaskitchen
      June 7, 2015

      Hi Robert! Thank you so much for writing in and sharing your amazing story! God bless you and your family in your awesome ministry work! Thank you very much for the great compliments and kind words 🙂

      Reply

  • Linda
    June 3, 2015

    Hi, Natasha,I’ve enjoyed this piece about you and your family featured in the Bauer Pottery news letter. It appears that you have a good life here in America. I’m glad. Born and raised in Southern California, I’ve never tasted Russian or Ukraine cuisine; however, the recipes sound very tasty, I wish you continued success and happiness. Linda

    Reply

    • Natasha
      natashaskitchen
      June 3, 2015

      I’d love to see that article! I didn’t even know about it! Do you have a link or could you forward it to me? natashaskitchen@ yahoo.com Thanks Linda 🙂

      Reply

As Featured On

Never Go "Hangry" Again!

Get weekly updates on new recipes, exclusive giveaways plus behind the scenes photos.