Olia Hercules was born in Kakhovka, in the South of Ukraine. She trained at the renowned Leiths School of Food and Wine, then worked as chef de partie in restaurants, including Ottolenghi, and as a recipe developer. Her first book, Mamushka, went on to win the Fortnum and Mason Award for best debut cookbook and was followed by Kaukasis, Summer Kitchens and Home Food.

After the full-scale invasion of Ukraine in 2022, Olia co-founded a global initiative to raise money for Ukraine through cooking, #CookForUkraine, which has raised over £2 million pounds to date.

Olia was featured in Vogue UK’s list of top Most Influential Women of the Year 2022. Olia and her friend and #CookForUkraine co-founder Alissa Timoshkina won awards from 50 Best Restaurants (Champions of Change), Guild of Food Writers Special Award, as well as the OFM special award for their work on the initiative.

Olia’s family memoir Strong Roots: A Ukrainian Family History Through War, Exile and Hope with Bloomsbury will be published on June 19th.

Olia runs online workshops through her community platform on Patreon and teaches in person cookery classes at home in East London.

She lives with her husband, food writer and photographer, Joe Woodhouse, and two sons in London.