Olia Hercules was born in Ukraine and lived in Cyprus for 5 years before moving to London to study a BA in Italian language, followed by an MA in Russian and English. A number of jobs followed before her interest in food as an amateur reached its apogee and she decided to retrain as a chef at Leith's School of Food and Wine. She kicked off her culinary career working at London's Union Market before landing her dream job as a chef-de partie for Ottolenghi's. Olia's focus nowadays is mostly on her son, her writing, her food styling and the occasional foray into film and television.

Find out more about Olia at oliahercules.com, on Twitter @oliasgastronomy and on Instagram.com/oliahercules.