Join author and chef Olia Hercules and Channel 4 News chief writer and food journalist Felicity Spector in the Home Kitchen at Thyme for an intimate conversation chaired by food writer Molly Tait-Hyland. Olia and Felicity will share stories from their books, Strong Roots and Bread & War, reflecting on their personal histories, the people and places in Ukraine that inspire them, the terrible impact of the war, and how food sustains body and spirit in times of conflict.
Profits from ticket sales will support the Humanitarian Headquarters of the DOF Volunteer Centre, a hub in Mykolaiv delivering bread and other supplies to military units, displaced people, and vulnerable communities in the region.
Following the talk, Olia will be taking over the kitchen at the Ox Barn.
Talk timings:
4:45pm: Guest Arrival
5pm: talk begins
6pm: Talk Finisihes
Ox Barn Restaurant Takeover timings:
tables are available from 6pm
If you are joining us for the talk, we would recommend booking your table between 6.15pm and 7pm
join us for a drink beforehand, please arrive 30 minutes ahead of your table
Ticket Prices:
£70 ticket includes a four course set menu
Add a Preorder book for £20
Attend the talk at 5pm for £15
Olia Hercules
Olia Hercules was born in the South of Ukraine. She studied Italian language and International Relations at the University of Warwick. After spending a year in Italy, Olia settled in London, pursuing a career in journalism. She would later quit her job as a film business reporter to pursue her dream to cook for a living.
Dedicated to researching food culture and culinary traditions of countries less explored, Hercules is the author of three award-winning cookbooks Mamushka, Kaukasis and Summer Kitchens.
Felicity Spector
Felicity Spector is a chief writer at Channel 4 News, where she has spent over three decades covering major international stories, from the collapse of the Soviet Union to U.S. presidential inaugurations. Alongside her broadcasting career, Felicity is a passionate baker and food writer. She has judged the Great Taste Awards for many years and written for outlets such as The Guardian, The Observer and Monocle, all while building a devoted online following.
Blending journalism with food, Felicity uses her platform not only to celebrate chefs and producers but also to highlight meaningful causes. She has travelled in Ukraine extensively, and in summer 2022, organised a convoy of bakery equipment and donated supplies for a Kyiv bakery after their warehouse was destroyed. Since then, she has helped to raise close to £100,000 for Bake for Ukraine and other Ukrainian food charities. She has travelled with volunteers close to the frontline, and spent months in Odesa and Mykolaiv, where the Bake for Ukraine mobile bakery is now stationed. In 2025, she published her debut book, Bread and War: A Ukrainian Story of Food, Bravery and Hope, which explores how food, resilience and community intertwine in times of conflict.
Molly Tait-Hyland
Molly is a writer and editor. For eight years, she worked as contributing editor on the Observer Food Monthly, writing, editing and commissioning. She has also contributed to publications such as Guardian Feast and the Observer Magazine. Recently completing a Master’s in Food Policy at City, University of London, Molly now leads the sustainability strategy and curates the Calendar of Happenings at Thyme. She lives in the Cotswolds with her husband, Charlie Hibbert - Chef Patron of Thyme - their daughter Florence, dog Bonnie, and three much-loved chickens.
Strong Roots by Olia Hercules
‘I am writing this story without knowing its end: it begins long before I was born and will continue long after I die. I am writing this story to help myself heal and to make you understand.’
When Russia launched its full-scale invasion of Ukraine in 2022, Ukrainian chef Olia Hercules decided it was finally time to tell her story. Strong Roots is the story of a century in Ukraine told through four generations of one extraordinary family. It takes us from years of Russification, to Olia’s grandmother’s deportation to snowy wastelands under Stalin, to her Aunt Zhenia's school protest, to her own parents’ flight from Ukraine when their town was occupied in 2022.
This is an ode to the land, to ideas of home and belonging, and to family stories and recipes passed down the generations – the tang of sour cherries, the best way to make borsch. It is an account of resilience in the hardest of circumstances. Strong Roots brims with hope and grief. It lays bare the compromises and betrayals of generations struggling and surviving through war, peace, invasion and exile. It is an uplifting reminder of how much the human spirit can endure when born from a land rich with strong roots.
Bread & War by Felicity Spector
Bread and War is a unique account of the courage and humanity of those who continue to supply food at a time of war and the inspiring Ukrainians who are keeping their country going. From bakeries nd volunteers who deliver food to the front lines, to farmers forced to pull mines from their devastated land with their bare hands - from cafe owners struggling to stay open in besieged Kherson, to the chefs who have turned their talents to cook for soldiers and deliver nourishing food to their positions. This is a book about the devastating impact of war, but it is also about the people who bring inspiration and hope.
The book is filled with stories of incredible Ukrainian ingenuity and resilience. They include the special train which has been turned into a giant kitchen, complete with generator and accommodation for staff, who make up to 20,000 meals a day on board for frontline communities. The restaurateur who is opening new ventures in Kharkiv, despite the daily threat of missiles and drones. The woman who has turned her tiny shop and cafe on the road out of Pokrovsk into a 7 day a week volunteer canteen, feeding hundreds of soldiers, medics and volunteers every day. The young baker from Kherson region who escaped from occupation with her precious sourdough starter among her few possessions, and is using it to bake bread in her temporary new home in western Ukraine.
Felicity will be supporting three charities: Bake for Ukraine, Good Bread in Kyiv and the Legacy of War Foundation.
“It is the roots that keep the trees from falling during a storm. Olia Hercules tells us that the same is true for people and nations”
- Serhii Plokhy on Strong roots
“This is a very special book, extraordinary and deeply inspiring”
- Nigel Slater on Bread & War
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