‘Freedom dumplings’: the chefs cooking in solidarity with Ukraine

Bakers, bartenders and cooks are using food and drink to show support and to fundraise for relief efforts

In Culver City, a Chinese restaurant is selling bright blue and yellow “freedom dumplings”, the colors of the Ukrainian flag. In West Hollywood, a popular cocktail bar is offering a special “Pruzhnyy”, or resilience, cocktail, made with Ukrainian Khor vodka. Bakeries across California are making special batches of hamentaschen, a Jewish cookie associated with resistance to tyrannical government officials, and pampushka, a Ukrainian garlic bread.

It’s all part of a wave of solidarity among California chefs, who are using food to show support for Ukrainians after Russia’s invasion and to fundraise for humanitarian relief efforts.