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.
Just found your website through a facebook video! ( healthy world recipes) and I am so hooked! I can’t wait to make the cucumber tomato avocado salad! we eat out way too much and I am trying to learn how to cook myself. So can’t wait to try out your recipes.
Awesome! Thanks for following and please let me know what you think of the recipes Natalie! 🙂
To all of you:
I love the way you’ve done and doing it!! Love the transparency, humour, polite sarcasm… Hope you have time for everything else as well ;-))
Take care and I’m going to try your strawberry birthday cake 😉
My grandparents were from Czechoslovakia and I discovered your site, and I look forward to trying your recipes.
Welcome to the site Sharon, I hope you will find many new favorites here 😬
can’t wait to get started, my husband is from a Ukrainian background and loves talking about what his mother and grandmother cooked and served for the family. Have seen some people try to duplicate but just wasn’t the good food I know he experienced.
Thanks for following Donna! Please let me know what you and your husband think of the recipes! 😀
HI, Natasha, l like your recipes in fact tried the cheery dessert it was very nice everyone in my family like it, I wish for you and your husband all the best , l am also like cooking and I am planning to do something about it and when it come true I will share my ideas with you, and if you like any information about Egyptian food we can share or ideas .
I am so glad you are enjoying our recipes!! I would love to try Egyptian cuisine! I’m actually very unfamiliar with that cuisine but I’m definitely interested! My email if you would like to share any recommendations or recipes is: natasha@natashaskitchen.com and thank you so much for the offer!
Hi Natasha! Thank you so much for inspiring me into cooking! I feel like I’ve known you for so long even though personally I’ve never met you… unfortunately😆… Your family is lovely, and I wish you luck in finding the right house for you guys right now if you haven’t yet! Blessings your way!!!
Hi Lena, thank you so much for writing in and sharing your encouraging note. I really appreciate it and I’m so glad you are inspired by our recipes 🙂 Blessings to you and your family also!! 🙂
I would like to make the Blueberry Lemon Cake. However, I live at an altitude of 7500 hundred feet. Would I need to alter the recipe? Thank you
Hi Anne, I really am not able to guess since I don’t do any high altitude baking. Has anyone else tried baking at higher altitudes? Did you have to make any changes?
Natasha, thank you so much for your amazing blog and outstanding recipes! We, your readers and foodie enthusiasts, appreciate your sharing.
Your recipes are delicious, nutritious and suitable for beginners and advanced cooks.
Marina, thank you for the compliment and for taking the time to share that. It is appreciated very much 😊
I tried one of your recipes and it turned great which is amazing given I am a terrible cook. When my daughter was in elementary school they were teaching her how to write and had write answers to questions like what is your favorite thing S and what scared you the most. She responded to the second question with the answer my Daddies cooking. She must have done okay in school as she ended up as a NICU Nurse.
I like fast frame photography.
Regards,
Ed
LOL! I’m glad you nailed the recipe! Thanks for sharing your wonderful review Ed! 😀
I love your Avocado Tuna Salad recipe, and want to make it for a luncheon with special people. The only thing wrong is that I’m one of those people who taste ‘soap’ when tasting cilantro. Can you think of a good alternative to cilantro that will still make it taste fresh?
Hi Elaine, I think the next best thing would be fresh chopped dill and add it to taste. I hope you love it!! 🙂
Hi Nat, an interesting site indeed. I note that many (most?) of your featured recipes are not traditional Ukraine. I was a little disappointed, but the other recipes certainly impress. My parents were WWII refugees and chose to settle in Australia, as did so many thousands of other Ukrainians. My mother was simply the best cook and I miss a lot of her recipes – now gone with her. I remember a ‘peasant’ soup made simply of potato (and carrot if available) in a clear broth. I’m not sure what kind of stock she used but the flavour was so rich and the soup so satisfying. Do you know of any such peasant dish?
Keep the true original recipes coming.
Hi Nicholas, No worries, I have hundreds of Russian and Ukrainian recipes. You can find all of my soup recipes on my recipes index page or click here. I hope you love everything you try!
Hi we have a lot in common and a similar story. I too am a Russian refugee I had my 5th birthday in America raised in Chicago, now we live in Boise. I am wondering if you know where to buy Paska out here, instead of making it. Thank you
Hi Mara, there is a European store off Locust Grove and Fairview in Meridian but I have not been there in a couple of weeks so I’m not sure if they sell Easter breads or not before Easter. I can’t think of any other place that might sell them.
Thanks Natasha for sharing your delicious receipes with us. We love it….esplly the last part when u enjoy eating it. Take care n please keep sharing your delicious treats.
My pleasure! Thank you for following 😀
My mom was a uki and I lo v ed her cooking I can do some love to follow this reminds me of home and her
Thanks for sharing that with us Karyn 😀
Natasha and family. Thank you for all that you do. You are such a blessing to our family. We (me, my husband, and our three children) have incorporated many of your recipes into our daily lives. I am encouraged by your love for Jesus, your aspiration for health, and your family values. Thank you!
Thank you for the great compliments and for following my blog! God Bless 😀
Hi Natasha,
I’m a big fan of your delicious recipes and everything you include here in your website. I would really love if you could include an Easter Paska recipe in your website since the Easter is coming.
I found many recipes online, but never experience any of them , so if you can refer or put your own recipe, I would be appreciated.
You will find our Paska and other Easter recipes in our Easter category 🙂
Thank you so much, I missed that 🙂
Natasha, spasibo za recepti. Nadeus’, vi govorite po-russki. Vi priehali v 4, ya v 25 i mogu skazat’ to zhe samoe – God’s plan is the best and He uses all our experiences for good. Uspeha vam i vashei sem’e!
Thank you so much Angelina! 🙂
Our family has hosted an Ukranian exchange student for four years. After completing high school (for the second time), he is now in his second year of college. He is very active in international relations. I would like to be able to prepare more of these recipes for him.
That would be great Genny! Let me know what your family thinks when you decide to make a recipe please!
Hi Natasha, you blueberry lemon cake looks wonderful. I was just wondering if one could make it the day before? Thanks!
Yes, you can absolutely make it the day before. I would add the powdered sugar before serving though. You can keep it at room temperature if it is just overnight, or you can refrigerate, but if you do refrigerate, let it come to room temperature before serving. I hope you love it!
I am so happy I came across your blog. I am of Russian/Polish and Ukrainian heritage. (2nd generation American and proud of it). I have been looking for a blog like yours, I can not wait to try your recipes. Keep up the great work.
Awesome! I’m so glad you are following Malvina! Let me know what you think of the recipes please! 😀
Hey Natasha,
I just randomly searched your website and trying my first ever recipe that’s Teriyaki Chicken. I hope I will come back for more after tonight.
P.S. Put some subcontinental recipes as well and sorry if you already had them as I haven’t gone through complete website yet.
Love and best wishes from Pakistan
Hi Zinnooran, I do have some categories for food by location on my recipes index page if that helps although I’m not sure it will be as specific as you are searching. I hope you love everything you try and welcome to my blog! 🙂