Polina Chesnakova was born in Ukraine to a Russian mother and Armenian father, who both were raised in The Republic of Georgia. Her family immigrated to the United States shortly thereafter and it was in Rhode Island that she was brought up in a tight-knit community of refugees from all over the former Soviet Union. During and after her time double majoring in Eastern European and Religious Studies at the University of Virginia, Polina cooked and baked in a handful of professional kitchens in Virginia and Rhode Island. In 2015 she started her blog Chesnok which paid homage to her family’s Russian and Georgian roots. Her recipes have been published in Saveur, Epicurious, Salon, and Food 52 and she has written two cookbooks: Hot Cheese (Chronicle, 2020) and Everyday Cake (Sasquatch, 2022). Polina has taught baking and cooking both online and in person. She works for Book Larder in Seattle and has presided over the cooking class program as the Culinary Director since 2020. She lives in Seattle with her husband, Lee, and 1 year-old son, Anton.
