Borscht was called a Russian dish in the Turkish MasterChef: Ukrainians reacted sharply

The popular cooking show MasterChef in Turkey made a gross mistake by calling Ukrainian borsch a "Russian dish." Ukrainians are demanding an apology.

The Ukrainian diaspora in Turkey reacted to the mistake especially vividly. The culinary project's Instagram post has gained more than 250 comments, in which Ukrainians explained that borsch is not just a Ukrainian dish but an intangible cultural heritage of UNESCO.

In one of the episodes of the program, one of the project's judges, who is also a famous Turkish chef and restaurateur Somer Sivrioğlu, read out the task to the participants. He asked them to cook a "Russian soup borscht."

The Ukrainians, who have been living in Turkey for a long time, could not react calmly to such a gross mistake. They point out that it was not an amateur cook who called borsch "Russian" but a professional chef with many years of experience who should have known the national cuisines of different countries.

Ukrainian diaspora in Turkey left comments on the page of the Turkish MasterChef, saying that "Borsch is definitely not a Russian soup. Such a big mistake cannot be forgiven in such a program. We, as the Ukrainian diaspora living in Turkey, would like you to explain this in the next program. Ukrainian beetroot soup (Borsch) was first cooked in Kyiv in 1584 and it is documented", "UNESCO has recognized borsch, traditionally made from beets, cabbage, potatoes and carrots, as intangible cultural heritage of Ukraine", "If such professionals do not have reliable information about food, what can we say about the ordinary participants of this show! It's a shame not to know basic facts about food and call yourself a master", "Borsch is Ukrainian! Do your research, please! Shame on you", "Shame on you", and "It's safe to say that baklava is not a Turkish but a Greek dessert".

It is extremely important to recognize and call borsch a Ukrainian dish because Russia has been trying to prove the opposite for centuries, and after the full-scale invasion, Russian Foreign Ministry spokesperson Maria Zakharova even said that Ukrainians "do not share borsch" and are therefore guilty of "Nazism" and "extremism."

As a reminder, Ukrainian borsch was included in the UNESCO list of intangible cultural heritage in need of urgent protection. The relevant decision was made at the 5th extraordinary meeting of the Intergovernmental Committee for the Protection of the Intangible Cultural Heritage on July 1, 2022. This happened at the initiative of the Ministry of Culture, expert Maryna Sobotiuk, and celebrity chef, winner of MasterChef 5 Yevhen Klopotenko.

As OBOZ.UA previously reported, pensioners from "Putin's squad" recorded an appeal dedicated to the topic of borsch. They said it has always been a "Russian dish". Some of them said that borsch is "much tastier" in Russia than in Ukraine.

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