Recipe: Alissa Timoshinka’s Blintzes with Apricot Cheese Curd

With a PHD in Film Studies and a love of cooking, Alissa Timoshinka started her supper club Kino Vino pairing food with films in 2015 by catering for 20 of her friends in her flat in Bethnal Green. Fast forward a short two years and she’s been praised by Vogue, worked with the greats like Olia Hercules and Romy Gill, and entertained guests with stand-out food and film in multiple beautiful locations all across London.

Today she’s sharing a recipe as part of our 7-day release celebrating Severn Sisters Feast – an event organised by Romy Gill to raise money for Action Against Hunger and celebrate female cheffing talent – a cause that for Alissa, raised in a household of multiple generations of women in Soviet Russia, is particularly poignant.

This recipe, Alissa explains, “is a classic of Russian/Ashkenazi cuisine and reminds me of my own grandmother, as well as just oozing the spirit of ‘the grandmother’. It keeps evolving with time as I keep improving it each time I make it, so this version is a bit more refined and sophisticated than the blintzes my gran used to make.”

We spoke to Alissa in the lead up to the event to find out more about food, family and the upcoming feast.

What does food mean to you?

“At this point in my life, the concept of food means so many things to me. It’s a source of inspiration as well as of personal creative fulfilment, food is my career ambition and something that helped me ‘find myself’ professionally. But also food is community – the people whom I have met through working in food as well as through sharing food on Instagram are some of the most fascinating and warm people I’ve ever encountered and that only reaffirms my view that people who are passionate about food and feeding share common values of caring and inclusivity.”

What’re your earliest memories of food?

“My earliest memories of food are all connected to my Jewish-Ukrainian great grandmother Rosalia, who used to live with us when I was little. She is basically the person who raised me while my young parents and grandparents were still busy working (Soviet family units were very big and women tended to have children very early in life as they had the support of other women in their family).

“Rosalia was actually a cook by trade and it’s her baking that I remember most. The traditional Russian Easter bread ‘paskha’ was particularly special; she would always put on clean clothes and say a prayer before preparing paskhas, asking for God’s help with the raise of the dough. She even had the most amusing habit to tell everyone off who would utter any rude/inappropriate words while the dough was proving, and her classic phrase: ‘Not in front of the dough, please’, has become a bit of a family refrain.”

The event is advertised as a platform for emerging female talent, why is that  important to you? 

“As I mentioned earlier food to me is a very inclusive experience so by championing female talent I of course don’t mean to disregard the importance of male contribution but to me there is something very special about women cooking together. Most of the KinoVino events are created by female chefs and front of house and I just love that very special and fun energy that is created when an all-girls team works together. And let’s face it we still live in a male-dominated world, so I am all up for giving the women the spotlight they deserve. It’s also important to mention the wonderful women who will be helping us behind the scenes – Maxine Thompson, Henriette Inman, Joey O’Hare, Saskia Siddey and many more!”

What advice would you give to your younger self & what advice would you give to other women looking to get into the industry?

“I often tend to be very hard on myself, always thinking I should have done that and why didn’t I do this. So in that light I would have advised myself to be more confident and adventurous in following what I really felt was my passion but more recently I have learnt to be more forgiving of my own mistakes, seeing them as part of a journey which make me who I am now. So probably the advice would be not to be too hard on myself and trust that where I am in life at any given point is the right place which will lead me to where I want to be.

“To women entering the industry now I’d say – what an exciting time to be doing that! There are so many talented women out there who are kind and generous with their advice and time. So just get in touch with whom ever you admire and volunteer to help. If you have a genuine love for food and have something to say, you will get the recognition.”