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

  • Natasha
    November 30, 2012

    Hey Natasha,
    I was wondering if you can post videos of you making the food and also everything written below the video,,I would really appriciate that if you would consider it. Thank You Veryy Much.

    Reply

    • Natasha
      natashaskitchen
      November 30, 2012

      Videos are coming in very near future. We almost got all the gear :).

      Reply

  • Anna
    November 29, 2012

    Nice to meet you, u cooking diva you!

    Reply

    • Natasha
      natashaskitchen
      November 29, 2012

      Oh Anna. 😉

      Reply

  • Katie
    November 28, 2012

    WOW NATASHA I am soo happy to find this you have no idea i am married into not russian family and my husband always wants me to cook russian food but more things he never tried and finding this page is amazing !!!! Love the fact that you even post pictures for those like me understand better by pictures i love it thank you and God Bless your work !!!! If you will be doing anything and everything for his Glory he will Bless you !!!!!! thank you for your work and sharing :)))))))))))))))))
    P.S. you have a beautiful family:) and also its encouraging to know you love food and you don’t look like you eat more than cook i like that a lot :))))))))

    Reply

    • Natasha
      natashaskitchen
      November 28, 2012

      Ha! Thank you 😉 welcome to the site and I hope you and your hubby love everything you make from this blog!! 🙂

      Reply

  • Natasha
    November 27, 2012

    I love your blog!! I printed several of your recipies that I intend to try very soon (Chicken Kotleti, Basic Russian Variniki, Ptichye Moloko and Russian Piroshki). I also loved to look through some of your recepies and compare the ingredients we put in ours, such as Okroshka and Oliviye. Thanks for doing this!

    Reply

    • Natasha
      natashaskitchen
      November 27, 2012

      The chicken kotleti, ptichye moloko and piroshki are among my favorites! Good picks!

      Reply

  • Galya
    November 14, 2012

    I love your website!!
    Do you know any tasty Brussels sprout recipes?

    Reply

    • Natasha
      natashaskitchen
      November 14, 2012

      That is actually an ingredient I haven’t experimented with much. I’ll keep it in mind though and will share if I come up with something 🙂

      Reply

  • Joanne
    November 13, 2012

    Hi Natasha,
    I just finished making a roaster of “holupchi”.
    I am not sure what name you have them listed under, as I wanted to look at your recipe and baking time.
    Since it is late in the evening, I was wondering if you’ve ever backed them at a low temperature overnite?

    Reply

    • Natasha
      natashaskitchen
      November 13, 2012

      I haven’t, but it would be ok to pop them in the fridge and bake tomorrow. 🙂

      Reply

  • Natashka
    November 6, 2012

    Hi Natasha, I love your blog and recipes are very good! Your family is beautiful!

    Reply

    • Natasha
      natashaskitchen
      November 6, 2012

      Thank you very much 🙂

      Reply

  • Nadia
    November 4, 2012

    Natasha I love your blog. I am ukrainian born in Toronto Canada. Speak read write and cook ukrainian. Where are you originally from and how did you end up in Idaho? Nadia

    Reply

    • Natasha
      natashaskitchen
      November 4, 2012

      We lived in Seattle for awhile then moved to Idaho and have been here about 14 years. I was born in Ukraine 🙂

      Reply

      • Nadia
        November 11, 2012

        Hi I had an amazing cake last night at my cousins birthday. Many ukrainian relatives and we started a family tree. We had a cake called smytannyk. Do you have anything for this? It came from a Jewish Russian bakery. Nadia

        Reply

        • Natasha
          natashaskitchen
          November 11, 2012

          It sounds good! I don’t have one yet. If you find a great recipe, let me know! 🙂

          Reply

          • Nadia
            February 2, 2013

            Natasha hope your exams go well. I work in health care also and I know what it is like to study. I check your blog every few days and great recipes are always there. I made shuba this rizdvo…amazing .

  • Rick
    November 2, 2012

    Dear Natasha, I found your website while looking for a recipe for Boccone Dolce (I have bookmarked your recipe) but I couldn’t move on without telling you how much I enjoyed looking at your recipes and pictures. I have been looking around all day! All so well done and I can hardly wait to try some of them. Blessings to you.

    Reply

    • Natasha
      natashaskitchen
      November 2, 2012

      Thank you Rick. I really appreciate your nice comment and welcome to the blog!!

      Reply

  • Natasha
    November 1, 2012

    Hi Natalia!
    I am Natalia/Natasha too , I was thinking if you do moldovian/Romanian food too. I hope you wont close does this blog because it will be really useful for me Especially in the future., Thank You Good Luck,,May God Bless You.

    Reply

    • Natasha
      natashaskitchen
      November 1, 2012

      Hi Natasha, I have no plans of closing the blog any time soon. If you have some good Moldavian/Romanian recipes to share, I would love to try them. 🙂

      Reply

  • Johnnie
    October 29, 2012

    I have been missionary for any years to Russia and Ukriane. Mostly to Neizhen Ukraine over 17 years working with youth and collage students (Ukraine and American) conducting Christion for the children there. At firstitwasfor the Cherinoble children, then, expanded to reach more children for JesusChrist.
    Thanks for your blog
    While in Ukriane I bought slow smoked chicken legs (drumstick and thy). It is absolute the best ever. Everyone who went over with. E loved. I bought it in anopen air market. Leni (my primary translated who is now married with 4 beautiful girles and her husbands director of Gideans for all Ukraine. Anyway my question is what wood did dye youse to smoke the Chicken
    Leni and I visited the home of the Famely who sold the chicken and they said they used no maranade or rub. They also said they used fruite wood and some woodfromthe forest that was not translated to me. Local fruite wood would be cherry or apple. This is the best info Icould get. Although Ispent a lot of time in Ukraine I could not do without a translator. I do not even do English well.
    May God always bless you and your Famely .
    Johnnie

    Reply

    • Natasha
      natashaskitchen
      October 29, 2012

      Hi Johnnie, I wish I had a good answer for you, but we don’t have a smoker at home so we don’t do any meat smoking. My parents smoke mostly fish and I don’t recall them ever doing chicken. Sorry. Thank you for your kind words; God bless you as well and the work you are doing there!

      Reply

  • Ana
    October 26, 2012

    where is the recepie of pancakes with buckweat?

    Reply

    • Natasha
      natashaskitchen
      October 26, 2012

      Click HERE for the recipe :). You can now find them under breakfast and lunch tabs.

      Reply

  • Katy Wyatt
    October 22, 2012

    Hi, Natasha!

    My name is Katy Wyatt. I’m an American student studying abroad in Russia, and as such, I’m planning on trying to learn how to make different kinds of food. That being said, one of the things I thought I would try is making the food, and then including the recipe on my blog so that it’s easily accessible. What I was wondering is if I could have your permission to type up your recipes on my blog (so it would be easy to find for the actual blog post), and I could add a picture my (probably much less glamorous) end result to the recipe before linking it back to your site, just to prove that anyone can do it and so that the recipe is readily accessible if people are reading the blog and decides that something looks/sounds delicious.

    You have a fantastic site, and I would be ecstatic if I could try to learn your recipes and help spread the Russian love around.

    Thank you very much!

    Reply

    • Natasha
      natashaskitchen
      October 22, 2012

      That would be fine as long as you shared the recipe in your own words without direct copy/past. Google will ding you big time if you do. I’m glad you like the recipes. 🙂

      Reply

      • Katy Wyatt
        October 23, 2012

        Thank you so much! And thanks for the heads up ^^ Looking forward to cooking!

        Reply

  • Nadia
    October 3, 2012

    I have an amazing recipe I would love for you to try and post. It is my mothers and delicious and easy! Please email me:-)

    Reply

    • Natasha
      natashaskitchen
      October 3, 2012

      I just sent you an email 😀

      Reply

  • Julie
    September 24, 2012

    Hi Natasha,
    First of all I just wanted to thank you for all the wonderful russian recipes. I come from a ukrainian family and my older sister did all the cooking so I didn’t really get to learn any of my mom’s recipes and after I got married 3 months ago I realized I had no idea how to make most of my husband’s favorite russian dishes and this site has been a LIFE SAVER!!!!! Anyways to get down to the point I was wondering if you’ve ever tried the amazing white sauce that they serve at Teriyaki places and if you know how to make??

    Reply

    • Julie
      September 24, 2012

      Uhhh sorry kind of got mixed up there I meant to say russian food, instead of weddings.. LOL

      Reply

      • Natasha
        natashaskitchen
        September 24, 2012

        Hi Julie, that’s what I figured. I made a little edit to fix that 🙂 I don’t think I’ve tried that sauce. Sorry that’s not much help. I’m so glad you enjoy the site and find it useful 🙂

        Reply

  • Luba Y.
    September 21, 2012

    “I am not liable if you eat too much piroshki” – this totally cracked me up!! Love your sense of humor! 🙂

    Reply

  • Mary Mouser
    September 21, 2012

    Hi Natasha, I met your husband while at Ann Morrison park on a playdate with my daughter and grandkids. We shared camera/lens stories (I had my ‘big momma’ lens on at the time) then eventually websites and I’m finally getting the time (where does it go?) to really check it out. I am impressed! How wonderful reading your story and seeing your love for heritage recipies … and Vadim’s photography of it is wonderful. I can see you both lead very busy lives and may God continue to bless your passion for sharing good food and God’s love with others! Mary

    Reply

    • Natasha
      natashaskitchen
      September 21, 2012

      Oh I’m so happy to hear from you 🙂 Welcome to the blog. I hope you find recipes that you and your family will love. I’ll make sure my husband reads your message also.

      Reply

  • Julie
    September 21, 2012

    Hi Natasha. My name is Julie. I’m interested in the picture of the cake where you, your husband, and son are at Royal Bakery. There is a chocolate cake on the picture. What is the name of that cake and do you have a recipe of it for me please? Thanks so much.

    Reply

    • Natasha
      natashaskitchen
      September 21, 2012

      Hi Julie, cake is called “Evening Desire”, I don’t have a recipe for it. A girl that works there told me that it’s like Spartak but with the twist.

      Reply

  • Blytvyniuk
    September 18, 2012

    Privet – just wanted to say how much I THANK YOU for this wonderful wealth of Ukrainian/Russian cooking! My husband Zahar is Ukrainian and is always missing comfort foods from home and I’ve always done my best to satisfy those cravings…and with your amazing site I’ve been able to do that even better!! We BOTH thank you! 🙂 Continue with your beautiful inspirations!!

    Reply

    • Natasha
      natashaskitchen
      September 18, 2012

      Oh that’s just fantastic! I’m so happy to hear that you and your husband enjoy the recipes. Zahar is a very cool name by the way!

      Reply

  • Vika
    September 14, 2012

    Wow what a great website!! I’m in the same situation as you were one… Just got married and not that great at cooking. But like you said, “must eat to live” so I’m in desperate search of good recipies. Your website looks awesome and I will definitely use it again and again!! Thank you so much for sharing these awesome recipies!

    Reply

    • Natasha
      natashaskitchen
      September 14, 2012

      Welcome to the site Vika and congrats on getting married 😀

      Reply

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