Contributed by Ms Anna Zhukova, Restaurant Manager at Copthorne Auckland City.

Russian-native Anna Zhukova has been with Millennium Hotels and Resorts New Zealand since 2014, and was previously based at Copthorne Harbour City before its refurbishment and rebrand to become M Social Auckland.

To celebrate the 2018 FIFA World Cup which was recently held in Russia (also the first World Cup held in Eastern Europe), M Social Auckland’s Beast & Butterflies paid homage to the host country by offering Borscht Soup, a traditional Eastern European mainstay dish – just for the football season (14 June to 15 July). Lovingly made with beetroot, beef, potatoes, cabbage, tomatoes, and a dollop of sour cream, Anna shared her grandmother’s recipe of the hearty and comforting dish to the delight of many customers. New Zealand was well into the winter season then.

Anna shares with us some personal memories of her family and what Russian cuisine means to her.

I was born and raised in Russia, with a close-knit family comprising my maternal grandparents and my mother. I was raised with love by my grandparents as my mother was studying in medical university at the time.

I lived in Russia till 2004, before travelling, studying and living abroad. I moved to New Zealand in 2014 to work, while my family stayed in Russia.

What I remember the most about my childhood is my grandmother’s cooking. She loved to cook for us, her family. She inherited many recipes from her mother and grandmother, but she really liked to cook in her own way. I remember summer vacations that I spent with my grandparents, where there was always warm, homemade breakfast and lunch on the table, even though granny had already left for work. I still have no idea what time my granny had to wake up to prepare the food!

She loved to make vareniki, a type of dumpling filled with potatoes and caramelised onions or cabbage. She made them in huge batches and there were always two to three bags in the freezer. When we visited, she would give us some frozen vareniki so we could cook it at home.

Another of her specialities is borscht. The borscht soup recipe I shared with my colleagues at Beast & Butterflies is based on the flavours and textures I recall from my childhood. I remember when my family and I visited my grandparents, my granny always had a big pot of borscht ready for us. You could smell it once you entered the house! No one ever refused a serving of her magic soup.

The interesting thing was that my granny cooked her soup differently each time. If she was short of cabbage, she simply added more potatoes or beetroot. If there weren’t fresh tomatoes, she made it with tomato paste. Not enough meat? She cooked it with more vegetables. But every single time, her borscht still tasted amazing.

When I asked her how she did that, she told me that each time she cooked, she was thinking about us – her family. I think that made her cooking extra special and extra delicious!

I do miss my grandmother a lot, as she passed away two years ago. It was hard when my M Social Auckland colleagues asked me to share the recipe, but I’m glad I had the chance to recall these precious memories.