My name is Olga and I am the cook, photographer and author behind The Cooking Elf food blog. I am originally from Russia and have had the pleasure of watching my mom and my grandmother cook and bake and make delicious dishes, since as early as I can remember, out of simple and easy to come by ingredients. I always loved helping my mom out in the kitchen, and always wanted to help her with peeling the onions and garlic. To me it seemed like I was doing it so fast, but something tells me that was not the case, maybe because my mom kept telling me to hurry up. =))
As I got older, I moved away to live and study in Auckland, New Zealand. Therefore, no more hearty meals cooked by my mom and grandmother. So I had to learn to cook by myself. And to be honest, it did not go so well at first. =) But living in New Zealand, you tend to watch a lot of Australian TV shows, one of which was Master Chef. They just started their first season, and I was hooked. The dishes they were cooking there, were amazing. And done by home cooks. So I decided to give it a try. First with Russian dishes that I remembered from my childhood and of course with advice and recipes from my mom. With practice, some successes, some fails, the dishes started tasting pretty good. As I got more confident with everyday dishes, it was time to move to desserts. Muffins, cakes, biscuits and so on. And I could not stop myself.
After New Zealand, I traveled for a bit and saw quite a few countries, thus a lot of foreign food, both street food and restaurant quality. Finally I settled in Vienna, Austria. Where I met my husband George. We love to cook and eat together, and experiment with new and challenging recipes.
Both my husband George and I are big foodies and we wanted a way to share all the delicious recipes that we are cooking at home. Thus The Cooking Elf. Here you will find recipes from all over the world. As my husband is from Romania, you will see a lot of Russian/Romanian recipes here, but plenty of other cuisines, as we like to experiment.
All the recipes have been cooked and tested by us, our families and friends.