Key points
- The first pilot Borscht Championship 2026 took place on September 12 in the village of Halychyn in the Zhytomyr region.
- Fourteen teams from fourteen Ukrainian regions participated.
- The jury evaluated the dishes based on taste, authenticity, and presentation.
- The top two places were taken by teams from Kherson and Kirovohrad regions.
- The championship was held within the V Gastronomy Festival “White Borscht and More”.
- The festival gathered over 500 participants and guests and more than 30 creative collectives.
In the village of Halychyn in the Zhytomyr region, the winners of the first pilot Borscht Championship 2026 were announced.
The championship took place on September 12 and aimed to popularize the regional diversity of Ukrainian borscht, document local recipes, and unite communities around gastronomic heritage.
Fourteen teams from Sumy, Lviv, Chernihiv, Zakarpattia, Zhytomyr, Khmelnytskyi, Mykolaiv, Donetsk, Kherson, Ternopil, Ivano-Frankivsk, Vinnytsia, Zaporizhzhia, and Kirovohrad regions participated. The teams presented local and family recipes for making borscht.
Among the dishes presented were borscht with carps from the Andrushivka community in Zhytomyr, dry borscht from the Severynivka community in Vinnytsia, a “piddibany” borscht from the Novokalynykivka community in Lviv, a Kremenets cherry borscht from Ternopil, and two green borschts – one following an ancient recipe from the Novobuzhka community in Mykolaiv and a Donetsk green borscht from a team from Kramatorsk.
The jury evaluated the dishes based on three criteria – taste, authenticity, and presentation.
According to the results, two borschts received the same number of points, so two first places were awarded: the team from Kherson won with a family borscht with a spicy kick, and the team from Kirovohrad won with a family “zabylen” borscht made from fermented tomatoes.
The championship became part of the festival program, during which more than 30 creative collectives from 10 regions performed throughout the day, including folk ensembles from Zhytomyr communities and guests from Rivne, Sumy, Vinnytsia, and Ivano-Frankivsk. Polish and German national communities from Zhytomyr also presented their songs and dances.
Overall, the festival gathered over 500 participants and guests.
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