Borsch in Lviv

 
 
 

Chef Ana prepares borsch at the Darwin Restaurant.

Vocabulary

ribs	hot (2)	ingredient
taste	bargain	thing (2)
gem	prepare	quarter (2)
site	cuisine	conventional
scene	design	heritage
pork	trade	bouillon
grate	touch	place (2)
clear	broth	final touch
add	keep (2)	leaf/leaves
beet	bitter	separate
pan	vinegar	stomach
saute	beans	vitamins
chop	distinct	it’s time
fry	provide	dumpling
paste	passion	accompany
bake	put on	sensitive
stool	staple	head chef
tasty	follow	Cossacks
sour	bacon	burst (2)
herbs	onion	resemble
real	portion	pause (2)
menu	cabbage

 
 
 
 

Video

 

 
 
 
 

Transcrit

Fresh vegetables directly from the farm. We’re visiting this market with chef Ana. Here she finds all the vitamin filled healthy ingredients she needs. She pauses to chat with the traders while she’s there.

Ana Duchnevich, Head Chef: “The people here are very friendly. You can bargain with them and taste things. That’s the way things should be.”

The market is right next to Lviv’s old quarter. The architectural gem dating back as far as the fourteenth (14th) century. It made this a UNESCO heritage site.

The Darwin Restaurant is in the heart of town. This is where Ana Duchnevich is the head chef. The restaurant, which is above a bookstore, resembles a Victorian Library. The unconventional design is typical of Lviv’s restaurant scene.

In the kitchen, Ana DUchnevich is preparing Ukraine’s most famous soup, borscht.

Ana Duchnevich, Head Chef: “First we make a meat bouillon for the borscht. I like to use pork ribs for that. They make it really tasty. We place the ribs in cold water to keep the broth clear.”

Later, potatoes, cabbage and bay leaves will be added to the broth. But first the chef cooks white bean in a separate pot. The oldest known borscht recipes date from the middle ages. Back then it was made with bitter hog-weed. These days it’s red beet that provides the borscht vitamins and its distinctive color.

Ana Duchnevich, Head Chef: “Every housewife has her own recipe. We try to make borsch like our grandmothers did.

I hope we succeed.”

The beats are sauteed in oil. Instead of vinegar, the chef adds lemon juice to make it easier on sensitive stomachs.

Then it’s time to prepare the other vegetables. Chopped onions and grated carrots are fried in a pan, accompanied by tomato paste.

Ana got her passion for cooking from her mother.

Ana Duchnevich, Head Chef: “I loved cooking and baking as a child. When my mother cooked, she used to put me on a stool in the kitchen. We made dumplings together, and we made borsch. I helped as much as I could.”

She’s been head cook at the Darwin since 2008 and is one of Ukraine’s few female chefs de cuisine.

Once the broth with cabbage, beans and potatoes is ready, she adds the beats and other vegetables, followed by salt, pepper and fresh herbs.

Ana Duchnevich says the borsch is bursting with vitamins.

The final touch is a dab of sour cream, and a little parsley.

Ana Duchnevich, Head Chef: “We serve the borsch with Ukrainian bacon roll-up, spring onions and black bread. For those who like it hot like real Cossacks, there’s red pepper.

Borsch is a staple of Eastern European cuisine, and every Ukrainian restaurant has it on it’s menu. In Lviv’s Darwin Restaurant, a portion costs around 4 euros.

 

 

 

Questions

1. Ana the chef gets her ingredients from the supermarket. True or false?

2. Is shopping in the marketplace or open market boring and tedious, or fun and colorful.

3. Do many tourists like to visit the suburbs or outskirts of Lviv?

4. Describe the interior of the Darwin Restaurant.

5. Is borsch healthy? Is it a modern or traditional dish? What are the ingredients for borsch?

6. Ana learned to cook at a culinary academy Is this right or wrong? How did Ana learn to cook?

7. Does she cook everything at the same time?

8. Are most chefs men or women, or 50-50, half men, half women? ?

 
A. What is your favorite soup or dish?

B. Do you have a favorite restaurant? What’s your favorite restaurant?

C. Can you cook? Would you or your friends like to be a professional chef?

D. My friends and I would like to own a restaurant.

E. Are most cooks and chefs men, women or half-and-half? Who usually cooks at home?

F. What will happen in the future?