' Polina Chesnakova - Simply Recipes'

Location: Seattle, Washington

Expertise: Soviet diaspora cuisine

Food writer, recipe developer, cooking class instructor, and cookbook writer.
Authored Chesnok (2025), a cookbook highlighting recipes from the Soviet diaspora.
Featured in Culture, The Washington Post, Saveur, The Kitchn, Seattle Magazine, and Simply Recipes.

Experience

Polina Chesnakova is a food writer, recipe developer, cooking class instructor, and cookbook writer. Polina's work is featured in Culture, The Washington Post, Saveur, The Kitchn, Seattle Magazine, and Simply Recipes. She released her first cookbook, Chesnok, in 2025.

Born in Ukraine to Russian and Armenian parents from Georgia, Polina Chesnakova grew up in Rhode Island eating the foods of the Soviet diaspora.

On one night, she may have savored Penovani Khachapuri (Georgian Flaky Cheese Bread) with crisp puff pastry, and on another, Varkenyky (Ukrainian dumplings) smothered in sour cream. And for dessert: buttery Armenian Gata. This is the kind of home cooking that Polina grew up eating at the hip of her mother and aunts—the food that she now prepares for her own friends and family, in moments of celebration and joy, as well as in moments of loss and change.

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