Like fellow Ukrainian Olia Hercules, Dinara Kasko is using food as a platform for peace. The pioneering pastry chef, who won a place on the 50 Next list of gastronomic gamechangers for her unique cake designs, is raising money and awareness to support those suffering in her home country. 50 Best meets the internet sensation sparking a pastry revolution
In the first post, Dinara Kasko dazzles in scarlet lipstick, a striking, heart-shaped cake in her hands. In the next, she huddles, make-up free, in an underground bunker with her two children, aged three and seven. The stark contrast of her Instagram posts reflects just how much the young Ukrainian’s life changed overnight when her country began being bombed by neighbouring Russia. One day, she was a pastry chef famous for her brightly coloured, architecturally rich cakes made from 3D printers; the next, she was a war refugee.
“On the evening of 23rd February, I went to a business meeting, then a restaurant. We drank cocktails and everything was fairly ordinary,” says the 34-year-old, who is now living with her kids in the north of England. The next morning, she had to evacuate her home in Kharkiv, leaving her business behind. “I lost my studio; I lost everything.”
Kasko is now using Instagram, the platform she credits for the far-reaching success of her career, to boost awareness of the ongoing war and to raise money for medical supplies and other equipment. Initially using her website to take direct donations, she now runs giveaways, asking her 735,000 followers to donate small amounts to be in with a chance of winning one of her unique, geometric silicone cake moulds.
“We have bought cancer drugs and other medication, as well as equipment,” she says. “I continue to fundraise because the war is still going on in Ukraine and the people there need our help.”
Drawing on her experience in architecture and design, Kasko creates unique, geometric cakes
A social media sensation
Born and raised in Kharkiv in north-eastern Ukraine, not far from the Russian border, Kasko always had a keen eye, working as an architect and as an interior and exterior designer for eight years. At the same time, she started baking and attending classes in French pastry, and in 2015 she began making architectural cake moulds as a hobby, sparking attention through social media and garnering a large following.
“Instagram gave me everything,” she explains. “It was my platform; it was like television for me, so I had my own TV channel.”
Within a few years, she had turned her passion into a business and was selling her mass-produced cake moulds in 100 countries, while teaching culinary art online to students all over the world. She sells moulds shaped as hearts, pineapples, bananas, coffee beans, origami creations and more, with recipes for feather-light fillings flavoured with the likes of apricot and grapefruit.
A pioneer in her field, she has inspired a new generation of home cooks and professional bakers, earning her a place among the Entrepreneurial Creatives, sponsored by Estrella Damm, of the 50 Next Class of 2022 – a list of people shaping the future of gastronomy. “It’s very important to have this award, because it means my work is recognised,” she shares.
But the war changed everything for Kasko and her team. Just before it started, she had invested $60,000 to create an online store for confectioners, with a large warehouse and more than 100kg of chocolate. When the conflict started, she gave away the ingredients to feed people in shelters while she fled Ukraine, travelling through Moldova, Romania, Portugal and many more countries before settling temporarily in the UK.
Kasko created 3D cakes for the reveal of the 50 Next Class of 2022 in Bilbao
An ambassador for Ukraine
While at first she was unable to work, Kasko and her team are now back in business, making new moulds with warehouses in Poland and the US. She presented her unique cakes at the 50 Next celebrations in Bilbao in June 2022 and hopes to travel to France in September, representing Ukraine wherever she can.
“It's important to share my designs, my cakes and the Ukrainian brand,” she says. “I am proud that I'm Ukrainian and I want to promote Ukraine as much as I can. I'm not going to stop. I'm very strong.”
Kasko is not the only Ukrainian using food to fight war. Her fellow 50 Next winner, Ievgen Klopotenko, is feeding refugees and those who have left their homes while also providing food for those fighting on the frontline. He has been granted permission to visit other countries as an ambassador for his nation’s cuisine, and his campaigning helped win UNESCO intangible cultural heritage status for the beetroot soup dish, borscht.
Meanwhile, London-based cookbook writer Olia Hercules has raised more than £1m for relief efforts after teaming up with long-time Russian friend Alissa Timoshkina. The pair won 50 Best’s Champions of Change award for their work with the #CookforUkraine initiative. 
To support the people of Ukraine, Kasko is fundraising alongside fellow gastronomes Ievgen Klopotenko and Olia Hercules
But Kasko is aware that global interest in Ukraine is waning, as news channels cover the war less and less. To keep people’s interest, she intersperses her posts about the conflict with videos and stories about her eye-catching cakes and online courses. Now she wants to ensure the media keeps covering her country’s plight, and she is urging fellow cooks not to forget about Ukraine.
“We need to talk about it,” she says. “All we can do is talk about it as much as we can, because the war didn't stop. News channels around the world stopped talking about it, but we still have a war and, unfortunately, people are dying every day.”
Kasko hopes to return to Kharkiv someday when it’s safe to do so, but she acknowledges that day may be years from now. In the meantime, you’ll find her baking cakes, giving classes and speaking up for her country on Instagram.
Watch Dinara Kasko receive her award at the 50 Next event in Bilbao:
The 50 Next Class of 2022 was announced at a live awards ceremony in Bilbao, Spain, on Friday 24th June 2022 – meet this group of young, talented individuals on the 50 Next website. To stay up to date with all the news and announcements, follow us on Facebook, Instagram, Twitter and YouTube.
