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 Faith
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 worked hard and achieved the American dream. Watch the TV News Segment about our incredible story. My parent’s 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. Our family attends Life Church Boise. 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.
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.
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 (warning: spammers will get hit in the face with unripe avocados).
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, although I try to post healthy-ish recipes, please talk to your Doctor or nutritionist for medical or dietary advice. I am not liable if you eat too many Cheeseburgers.
Hi Natasha! I just wanted to say that your recipes are the only recipes I trust, they are amazing! I had a question… who is Valentina Ablaev? She is featured in some of you’re recipes, but not from ‘Natasha’s Kitchen’ but from ‘Valentina’s Corner’. Sorry If I am being nosy, I just grew very curious!
Hi Liana! Thanks for the feedback. I’m so glad you’re enjoying the recipes!
Valentina is a food blogger who we had as a guest on our blog.
Hi Natasha!
I loved reading about you and your family’s journey…very inspiring.
I’ve made your cranberry bread recipe and it’s in my oven right now!
I wish you and your family continued success and happy holidays.
BB
Thank you so much for your encouraging words. I bet your home smells so good right now with the cake in the oven! I hope you love it.
Hello Natasha,
I just send a request to receive your recipes on my email, but I fat fingered an 8 in there. Would you please remove jewelle19861@yahoo.com request and send to the one below?
Thank you ! Julie Ruiz
Hi Julie! Thanks for letting us know, we’ll be sure to correct it.
Love so many of your recipes so I “followed” you on Facebook. Had to unfollow quickly because the number of posts was insane!! It totally overshadowed everything else on my feed
Hi SK, I’m so happy you’re loving my recipes! Are you sure you followed the official Natashas Kitchen page on Facebook with the blue check mark? Unfortunately there are imposted pages out there.
Natasha, I love your recipes.
I get tired of trying to find new supper ideas. I have been married for 47 years and it gets old.
You are so enthusiastic in the kitchen takes you want to try your recipes.
We don’t like to eat out very often.
Keep up the great work .
Aw, thank you so much, Anette! That means a lot to me. I’m so glad you’re being inspired to make new recipes here.
Help!! I can’t boil eggs. Actually, I can’t PEEL eggs. I’m at my wits end. I’ve followed LOTS of cooking professionals, read ALL the tips, tricks, videos, etc. My peeled eggs lose about 40% of their whites on average. They look like a horrible case of acne. I just now boiled 24 eggs, 4 are almost cleanly peeled, 17 look like they’ve been shot, the rest didn’t survive at all & are in the trash. I’m not a beginner cook—my mom started teaching me to cook before age 5 & I’m now 63 years old! What am I doing wrong?????
Hi James! I have a recipe for Boiling eggs perfectly. Hope that helps.
Hi Natasha.. Also an Idahoan living in Meridian. I was just watching a recent video on FB making Latke’s I notice you always seem to peel your potatoes.. Isn’t that where a ton of the nutrition is? I’ve not made potato pancakes in many years. Thoughts on grating with the skins on?
Hello! It depends on what I’m cooking and depends on personal preference too. I just personally like peeling it!
I can’t thank you enough for making me a much better cook for my family in my late 50’s!! Even my little grandkids can’t get enough of your videos and beg me to let them watch! I just recorded my 7yr old Granddaughter pretending to be you doing a cooking segment with her play kitchen and it’s adorable, she now wants to be a chef! Keep the recipes coming esp those that are heart healthy since my husband had a quad heart bypass, thanks so much and God bless you!
Hi Annette! That is so sweet. Thank you for sharing that with me. It makes me so happy.
I don’t know if this is the right place for my comment but here goes. I find that I am not a fan of the change in your emails where you list the dishes for example; casserole 1, casserole 2, and so on. I prefer to see the names of the recipe. I have been a user of your recipes for years and love them! Some I have printed of course. That’s it, thank you!!
Thanks for your feedback, Cindy. We’ll take note of that.
Love your recipes and videos. Keep cooking and Keep The Fath🙏❤️💯
Natasha, I traveled the Soviet Union, including Kiev, in 1990 as a college student in Japan. I immigrated to US in 1997. I love your family story and am happy that you are doing well in your calling. God bless you!
Thank you and hoping for the best for you too!
Do you have a recipe for a mushroom Swiss burger? My husband has started following you since he has retired and is the main cook with me still working. He said if anyone would have a good recipe for this that it would be you. So I told him I would just email you and ask. Thank you for your time. God bless you and your family!
Thank you for your good comments and feedback! However, I don’t have a recipe for Swiss Burger at the moment but thanks for the suggestion!
Dear Natasha,
I’ve been loving and making your recipes for years and LOVE them! Keep up the wonderful work. Question: Can the Sweet Potato Casserole recipe be frozen before and after baking?
Thank you for your kind words, I appreciate it! You can make this recipe ahead and freeze it. Please go to this section in the recipe “Make-Ahead & Storage” for the tips. Hope that helps.
Hi Natasha, My fiance make a lot of your recipes. We had your meatloaf last night and it was amazing. I’m going to make your shrimp casserole and I have a question, can you use bagged cheese or do you shredd your own? I was wondering if I can use bagged cheese in this recipe? I also wanted to know if the shrimp gets overcooked if you boil it first? I’m guessing it doesn’t from the instructions. Thanks so much for all your amazing recipes.
Hi LorI! Yes, you can use bagged cheese or shred your own. The shrimp is not over cooked by boiling and then baking. We boil the shrimp first to ensure it’s fully cooked since the casserole doesn’t get baked for very long.
Since finding your blog, recipes are actually making to our table instead of just Pinterest. I love the accompanying videos and love your little antics that somehow make the preparation less intimidating. What a wonderful history you have with your family and career. Keep up the great work.
I love your recipes and how you bring in your heritage, family, and professional background. I’m a Brazilian/ American/ Norwegian dietitian/nutritionist, I have lived in the U.S. (spent 25 years near you, in Utah, and now I’m in Nebraska). I recently left my full-time role as a diabetes educator to focus on my practice, blending culinary medicine and cultural roots. Any tips for someone just starting? My Instagram is nutri4you2, and I’m working on my website. Thank you for the inspiration—you’re doing amazing work, and I’m sharing your recipes with my patients!
Hi Sonia, thank you for your inspiring message! I sure appreciate it!
wow! you are sooo amazing! I am only 9 and you have really inspired me. when I first started cooking and baking, I did not know what to do but when your website was introduced to me by my mom my life in cooking and baking had changed! so I just wanted to say: THANK YOU FOR ALL THAT YOU HAVE DONE TO SHARE THE ARTS OF COOKING!
We LOVE your show,especially Sharky! You really make cooking fun!
Would you be willing to try wearing your hair up in a bun?
Then your show would be absolutely perfect!!!
Natasha’s on Facebook I noticed difference names below
Natasha’s Kitchen. Com. This name is Rajaa El. There is another name also . I need to know is that you or someone taking over your recipes. Please let me know. I will ignore the recipes until I hear from you. I love your recipes.
Hi Joan! There are many fake accounts on Facebook pretending to be me. My real account has a verified checkmark next to my name in my profile. Please help by reporting fake accounts to Facebook when you see them.
I am not sure, but I think someone has posted items saying it is from you. I wish I knew how to copy and paste so you could see the Facebook page with your name on it. There was a recipe that looked good, and it said if I wanted the recipe I had to join, and I thought I already had joined. You may want to look into this. I wish I could be of more help.
Thanks for the heads up, Joan. The way for you to recognize if it’s from our Official page is that my page has a check mark beside my name. Unfortunately, there are a lot of fake accounts out there but we always do our best to report them.