Before the war, Bohdan Rybak had nothing to do with working in the kitchen.

He is a lawyer by education.

But he was really inspired by blogging.

Even a year ago, he talked about the garden and vegetable garden in his video diaries.

And now his profiles in social networks are filled with food recipes for soldiers.

"With the beginning of the war, of course, I could not just sit at home.

Went to the Military Commissariat, mobilized to the ranks of the Armed Forces.

I got into the anti-tank artillery division.

Other guys were working in the kitchen then.

I was just watching.

And, to be honest, I didn't like everything.

When our previous cook was demobilized for health reasons, I realized that I wanted to radically change our menu and the diet of the soldiers.

I went to the commander and offered him to put me in the kitchen.

In general, I knew what I was going for.

Because the work of a cook in the army is quite difficult.

You are constantly busy, you have no weekends and breaks.

Because if you don't cook, you either go to buy food or make a menu for the next day," says Bohdan Rybak, senior cook of the economic department of the supply platoon.

And on his pages in social networks, Bohdan continues his blogging activity - he keeps diaries of receiving food for his unit, edits videos of the dishes he prepares.

And although it takes up all his free time, the cook is convinced that his reports from the kitchen are an important component of a kind of public monitoring.

After all, it is through his publications that you can see how and with what they are fed in the army. 

"So today I returned from the warehouse, where I received the following products: beans in tomato sauce, zucchini caviar, canned peas, snack salad, butter, onions, carrots, potatoes, good apples, condensed milk, direct-squeezed apple juice, natural sardines, sprats, frozen chickens, Bavarian sausages, bread, milk chocolate, Artek waffles, cookies, some energy bars and canned pineapples, Bohdan lists the products.

- And I took all this on video and published it."

According to the chef, the menu for each day is formed according to the products that are available.

The assortment in the army is quite rich and allows you to expand the list of dishes.

Bohdan admits that he usually focuses on the tastes of the fighters themselves.

And most of them want the food to be like home.

Therefore, among his main recipes are several types of borscht, and the second dishes already depend on those products that he got from the warehouse.

"Now everything is good with the provision, so our diet is different every day, it is practically never repeated, with the exception of the first courses.

Twice a week I prepare red borscht and once a week green borscht, Bohdan shares the details of his service.

- This is exactly the recipe for sorrel borscht in the Zdolbun style, I asked my wife, because I did not remember exactly how it was prepared.

And she also gave me a good idea on how to use processed curds.

They are often given to us, but the boys do not eat them very much.

They spoil.

Therefore, my wife told me a recipe for cheese soup, which uses melted cheese.

And my boys liked this dish." 

And Bohdan Rybak strives to constantly update his chef's menu.

That is why most people look for new recipes on the Internet.

He admits that bograch, which he had never cooked before, was a real challenge for him.

First, I looked over all the recipes for this dish, then tried them on my reality.

And now he often feeds his boys with this rich and tasty soup.

"In general, food plays an important role for humanity.

This is an important component of our culture, our life.

And you don't need to think about the fact that war is an excuse to eat cold stew from a can, - the military cook convinces.

- For soldiers, this is a kind of relief.

And I am very pleased when the boys eat my dishes - especially the red borscht, which I have learned to cook very well during these months - and say: it's like I've visited home.

Therefore, for me, the work of a cook is not so much about calories and vitamins, although that is also important, but even more about psychological therapy for fighters." 

Every day Bohdan Rybak with the call sign "Volynskyi" films the preparation of his dishes on video, edits them and posts them online.

He says that it is also a kind of therapy for him.

Because even when all the work is done in the kitchen, he does what he likes.

All this, according to the chef, allows him not to lose his taste for life even in those difficult conditions.

The war has been going on for a year.

And in order to preserve their emotional health, psychologists advise all people to do at least one action every day that they used to do before the war. 

"In psychotherapy, this is called 'maintaining predictability.'

It is these actions that bring us back to a peaceful life, at least emotionally, says psychologist Olga Yevlanova.

- And if in the trenches there is an opportunity to eat something tasty, similar to what your mother or wife cooked at home, it recharges your batteries incredibly.

If you explain with images, it is like an island of peace in the chaos that our boys see in the war." 

According to the psychologist, food is the basic human need without which our life is impossible.

Therefore, because of its consumption, life tastes better.