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.
Hi,
I think all of your recipes are so lovely and are so simple. Do you have a book out?
Ashleigh Kent
Hi Ashleigh, that is so sweet of you to ask! We don’t have one yet but it’s on my life’s to-do list. It will probably more likely happen once our little one starts school 🙂
Natasha,
I made your pierogie dough and blueberry filling and it’s so DELICIOUS,the dough was so soft and wonderful to work with for the pierogies.
Here, I thought my dough was so soft but your dough wins!
Thank you,
Peg-the polish pierogi maker
Hello Peg! I’m glad to hear you enjoy the recipes so much! Thanks for following and sharing your great review!!
Please put all your wonderful recipes into a cookbook or cookbooks. My printer is about to die a slow death from printing almost all of your recipes. I have visited Russia and loved the food!
Hi Kay, a cookbook is on my list of life ‘s goals. It probably won’t happen until our little one is in school. It is a huge time commitment although it is something I would like to accomplish in my lifetime. 🙂
Love your recipes so much. I was always afraid of baking. Ever since I followed your Facebook cooking page I start baking and cooking more and I finally start to like it. May God bless you continually for what u do. Now that I know u are a Christian, I like your page even more:)) Lidia Tennessee
Hello Lidia! I’m so happy to hear you are enjoying my page! Thank you for following and sharing your thoughtful comments! God Bless 🙂
I am inspired by your background and story and I love and share your love for cooking and food. Praise GOD you’ve been able to pursue and live your dream! FOOD is sooo amazing! It’s edible art!
Thank you for following Rachel and sharing such thoughtful comments, it means a lot! God Bless 😀
What a lovely and delicious blog..
We are an older couple, loving good, simple recipes.. Browsing your site, I find many I want and will try for us..
I find that I have to figure out how to reduce recipes as most full recipes are too much for us to eat, especially your wonderful dessert offerings..
That just makes the cooking/baking adventure more rewarding.. :O)
Hello and welcome to our blog!! I hope you both love everything you try 🙂
You have some great recipes, but I am not into videos. Please list instructions for all of your recipes..
I wanted to make the blueberry lemon cake but needed to modify for different size pans
Hi Andy, I do have written instructions for every recipe in detail here on my blog. Just in case you weren’t able to find the blueberry lemon cake recipe, you can find it here :). I hope that helps!
Hi Natasha, i’m glad to have found you! I’m from the Netherlands and i’m in for all kinds off recepies, but especially from the Ukraine. My son has married a beautifull Ukranian girl, Victoria! And i would like to make her a special Ukranian dinner, Can you give me some advise??
Welcome to my blog!! That is definitely a loaded question since we have hundreds of recipes ;). I would definitely suggest searching all of our Slavic recipes here. There are quite a few but it may help you to start there.
Hi Natasha! I just found your website looking for another way to make holobtsi and am so excited to try your idea. It’s almost identical to how my husband’s mama taught me how to make them, but unstuffed! I married my Ukrainian American husband 26 years ago and love surprising his family with their dishes, just re-invented!
Can’t wait to read more of your recipes! If you ever want to cook Italian or Puerto Rican, email me and I’ll teach you as re-payment! 🙂
God bless you and your beautiful family!
I’m glad you found my page as well! Please let me know what you think of the recipes! Thanks for following and sharing your thoughtful comments!
HOLA!
GREETINGS FROM FLORIDA. I AM FROM PUERTO RICO BUT I MOVED TO UNITED STATES.
WHEN I’M IN VACATION I LOVE TO IMPRESS MY FAMILY WITH SOMETHING NEW. I ALREADY TRIED YOUR TUNA AND AVOCADO SALAD. AND TODAY I DID TWO FROM YOUR RECIPIES, THE CHICKEN SALAD AND THE STRAWBERRY CAKE. IT FEELS SO GREAT TO SEE ACOMPLISH A CUISINE GOAL.
LOVE YOUR COOKING !!
BLESSINGS TO ALL YOUR FAMILY AND CAREER.
Hello Luz! Thanks for following and God Bless! 🙂
Your facebook page is absolutely awesome! I am old timer and soon to be 77 . You have inspired me to cook and bake again HAVE YOU WRITTEN A COOK BOOK?
That is so sweet of you to say! I’m so happy our blog brings you inspiration! I haven’t written a book yet but it is on my life’s to-do list. Our youngest is so I’m hoping to sed her to school before taking on that kind of huge project 🙂
I hate to ask because your ancestors are not Hungarian but I was wondering if you may have a Goulash recipe. I’am from S. Texas and I thought you would be much more likely to have a Hungarian recipe than I would. Also , really enjoy your web site. I can tell that you work hard at what you do and it shows.
Hi Richard, thank you so much for the compliment! 🙂 I don’t have a goulash posted but I should! When I come up with something great, I will be sure to share it!
Your story is inspiring ! Baklava is one of my favorites . Thank you for sharing your recipe . I grew up on pieroges and cabbage ( lol ) so finding some similar recipes is exciting ! I too am a retired nurse , so feel a kinship with you . Keep up the good work!
Aw, thank you so much Mary! I’m glad to hear that! Thank YOU for following and please let me know what you think of the recipes!
Natasha, About 60 years ago, when studying nursing, I met an old man from Russia who was caring for his bedridden wife. The only thing he cooked for them to eat was what he called “kasaruba”, a soup made with sauerkraut. He assured me it was very healthy. Would you know of such a soup?
Hi Pat, this is the only sauerkraut soup that I have posted. I hope that helps! 🙂
Hi Natasha! I am so happy I discovered your Facebook page. I love all of your recipes. They’re so easy and healthy. I am going to document each one so that I can refer to them later. You’re blessed!😊
I’m so glad you found my page! Thanks for following and enjoy!
Dear Natasha and Vadim!
This post is long overdue – I thought about it for quite some time.
I’ve come across your website by accident after my wife passed away about a year ago and for the
first time in my life (after more than 30 years of marriage) I had to learn how
to cook myself. We come from Ukraine (Odessa) but before that the only things
that I knew how to cook were olivier and mashed potatoes. The first recipe from your website I remember
I used was pickled zucchini (that was genius by Vadim), marinated tomatoes (huge hit
with no leftovers no matter how much I make), Zuppa Toscana, Russian Katleti, baked chicken
drumsticks, chicken mushroom casserole, fall of the bone ribs and on and on and on.
Every recipe has been great, delicious and easy to make. But more than anything it has brought
some joy to my life – and you have a lot to do with it. It’s more about making great food –
it’s about enjoying what you do and making the most out of your life. I can feel it in every recipe and every video
Natasha has posted. I will be forever greatful to you. Keep up a great work and all the best to you !!
Thanks,
David
AWWW!! David, your words mean so much to me. Thank you for taking the time to share your heartfelt review with me. I’m tearing up reading your comment. Now I need to print it and read it to my husband. I’m so sorry to hear about your wife… that must have been a very difficult loss. I am truly glad to hear that our blog brings you joy through cooking. I am so humbled to read your message – probably the best review I have ever received. Thank you David! 🙂
Thank you Natasha! Your blog was like meeting my wife – love at the first sight. I don’t even look for recipes anywhere else – that’s how much I like it. You have a great family – I can tell from the pictures. Like you said about your parents’ garden – ‘A labor of love’. I hope to use your wonderful blog and new recipes for many years to come 🙂 Thanks again Natasha !!
Aw, that’s awesome, it’s my pleasure David! Thanks for following David 🙂
Hope someday you can cook some Indian food 🙂
Hi Jay, to be honest, I don’t have any experience in Indian cuisine but it would be fun to explore some day 🙂
I love your recipes! God bless you and your beautiful family!
Sonia Ferraz
From Brazil, South America
Thank you so much Sonia!! God bless you and yours also! 🙂
Hello, Natasha!
So.. First of all, let me congratulate you for your recipes.. I know that cooking can be quite demanding sometimes and once you you get in a kitchen one should be ready for both wonders and complete disasters (in my case, I tend to have have more of the second… )
It’s been a year I’ve been trying to improve my cooking skills, and DID get better, but I’m still far from the best cooker I can be.. Also I have some personal reasons to learn about Eastern Europe cuisine (I’m actually Brazilian). I want to cook for my family and make them healthier.. Eating good, tasty food and not that “flavour-free” mainstreamed thing (unfortunally, I tried those and they’re just a no, no for me now. I even got sick because of this.)
Going straight to the point, I’d like to ask you not a recipe but something they will give me freedom – books. You mentioned you’ve read plenty of cookbooks in your journey to wake up the cooker in you. If that’s possible, would you give a few suggestions of books that could help me out..? It´s totally fine if they are a bit technical involving chemistry, biology and nutrition stuff in.. I just want to give the best I can for my family 🙂
And also get free from reading TONS of recipes to try.. I sometimes don’t even know from where to start, what´s considered the basic cooking, how to put together the recipes, food combining, etc, ect.
In any case, thank you for everything..
Hi Leticia, I would suggest some of the books I have listed in the old shop section of my blog. I hope that helps! 🙂 I have found that Ina Garten is my favorite from food network but I have quite of few of Giada’s books as well.
Thank you for your answer! I’ve taken a look at your shop section, and it has helped indeed.. Guess each time I go to the kitchen and study about cooking/nutrition Im getting closer to my dreams!
Again – thank you for your reply!
Hope the best for you and your family, Natasha 🙂
I’m so glad that helped and I wish you success in your dreams and goals 🙂
HI Going to try your salmon patties tonight. Loved the look of the healthy veggie snacks and want to try some but can’t seem to find a print version of the recipes. Will they be added to your site soon? I hope so.
Hi Francesca, the print-friendly is on every recipe. You can find the print button on the top right of every recipe or scroll down towards the end of the recipe where you will find the print-friendly section and a print button.