Ukraine hosts Culinary Battles with First Lady Zelenska as jury member, featuring schoolchildren from six regions

The Culinary Battles competition is taking place in Ukraine. Olena Zelenska, the wife of the Ukrainian president, is a member of the jury for the event, in which schoolchildren from six regions of the country took part.

The Office of the President's press service reports this.

It is noted that the purpose of the competition is:

• to acquaint schoolchildren with culinary professions,
• to tell about the possibilities of professional education in this direction.

Students in grades 8-9 from Kyiv, Lviv, Odesa, Poltava, Chernihiv, and Ivano-Frankivsk regions, along with students from vocational and technical educational institutions, advanced to the final after winning the regional stages of the Culinary Battles.

Ten teams competed in preparing the main dish and dessert during the competition. In particular, they prepared:

• paella with turmeric,
• chili con carne with chicken,
• pancakes with banana,
• vanilla and citrus cookies.

The culinary skills of the students were evaluated by a jury consisting of:

• First Lady Olena Zelenska,
• Swiss Ambassador to Ukraine Felix Baumann,
• Minister of Education and Science Oksen Lisovy,
• Chef Yevhen Klopotenko.

^{Photo: Office of the President}

"It turned out to be very difficult to be a judge. After all, I was rooting for each participant, rejoicing that they have such an inspired passion at such a young age," the president's wife noted.

She emphasized that the goal of the school nutrition reform is for such high-quality and tasty dishes to become the norm for every educational institution in the country.

"And so that you and your friends would be interested in joining this yourself. So that "healthy and tasty" becomes your own trend. Because only quality food gives you strength and mood, I am very proud of you for learning such important and life-affirming things during such a difficult time of our defense," Zelenska concluded.

For reference:

As part of the Winter Support program, more than a million primary school students are provided with free meals in schools.

School nutrition reform in Ukraine began in 2020 on the initiative of First Lady Olena Zelenska. Its main goal is to provide students of educational institutions with balanced and healthy nutrition and popularize the culture of healthy eating among children and their families.

In October 2024, the government allocated 2 billion hryvnias to organize free hot meals for primary schools. As of the end of November, 93% of educational institutions had used the subvention funds and introduced free meals for students in grades 1–4.

Free meals for primary school students will continue in 2025.

At a vocational college, the Mykolaiv region inaugurated its first culinary hub, dedicated to training cooks and retraining staff for educational institutions.

In 2020, Klopotenko became one of the ambassadors of the vocational education reform, which involves updating approaches to training cooks, creating a new standard for this profession, and improving the qualifications of teachers.