What's Cooking in the Kremlin: A Modern History of Russia Through the Kitchen Door

'A spicy and original romp through Russian history' ROBERT SERVICE 'Poignant, comical, and in the best sense disturbing' PAUL FREEDMAN, AUTHOR OF TEN RESTAURANTS THAT CHANGED AMERICA 'This wickedly delicious tale uncovers the secret, gustatory history of the Kremlin and will leave you begging for seconds' DOUGLAS SMITH, AUTHOR OF RASPUTIN: FAITH, POWER, AND THE TWILIGHT OF THE ROMANOVS What's Cooking in the Kremlin is a tale of feast and famine told from the kitchen, the narrative of one of the most complex, troubling and fascinating nations on earth. We will travel through Putin's Russia with acclaimed author Witold Szablowski as he learns the story of the chef who was shot alongside the Romonovs, and the Ukrainian woman who survived the Great Famine created by Stalin and still weeps with guilt; the soldiers on the Eastern front who roasted snails and made nettle soup as they fought back Hitler's army; the woman who cooked for Yuri Gagarin and the cosmonauts; and the man who ran the Kremlin kitchen during the years of plenty under Brezhnev. We will hear from the women who fed the firefighters at Chernobyl, and the story of the Crimean Tatars, who returned to their homeland after decades of exile, only to flee once Russia invaded Crimea again, in 2014. In tracking down these remarkable stories and voices, Witold Szablowski has written an account of modern Russia unlike any other - a book that reminds us of the human stories behind the history.

About the Author :
Witold Szablowski is an award-winning Polish journalist and the critically-acclaimed author of books including Dancing Bears and How to Feed a Dictator. Szablowski lives in Warsaw.

Review :
A spicy and original romp through Russian history through the tales and recipes of the cooks who served rulers from Nicholas II to Vladimir Putin A riveting account of a uniquely sumptuous cuisine prepared in often grotesque and dangerous settings. Poignant, comical, and in the best sense disturbing This wickedly delicious tale uncovers the secret, gustatory history of the Kremlin and will leave you begging for seconds This book will make your mouth water. Witold Szablowski's delicious dive into Russian imperial history comes complete with recipes for Stalin's favorite Georgian Walnut Jam, the Blockade Bread that people ate during the World War II Siege of Leningrad, and the Turkey in Quince and Orange Juice served to Winston Churchill and Franklin D. Roosevelt in Yalta in 1945. A fascinating and insightful culinary extravaganza that explores how the way to the famed Russian soul has always been through the collective stomach. Riveting - a delicious odyssey full of history, humour, and jaw-dropping stories. If you want to understand the making of modern Russia, read this book. A captivating, heart-rending, and fascinating book that is more important now than ever with the Ukraine conflict. The chapter about the famine in Ukraine was especially touching for me, as my grandparents and great-grandparents lived through it. You won't be able to put it down! I thoroughly enjoyed this book. As a chef and the daughter of Soviet Jewish refugees, I have experienced a lifelong fascination with, mingled with repulsion toward, the food on my ancestral table. What's Cooking in the Kremlin gracefully captures this perpetual tension-it is what inevitably arises when an extraordinary cuisine becomes a weapon deployed against the very people who've made it By turns poignant and playful, What's Cooking in the Kremlin offers an invaluable history of Russia viewed from the kitchen and told through engaging stories and oral histories given by cooks who survived the vagaries of the Kremlin's whims and who toiled through the great afflictions of collectivization, the Siege of Leningrad, the Chernobyl disaster, and more. A culinary travelogue infused with dark and savory legends from Russia's kitchens, dachas, cafeterias, and canteens . . . enriched with recipes gathered during [Szablowski's] travels throughout Russia, Ukraine, Belarus, and several ex-Soviet republics. Readers will be satiated by this easily digestible gastronomic history. An original work of social history, Polish journalist Szablowski alternates narrative with interviews (and recipes) to delve into some recondite and often apocryphal stories of the people who cooked for the Russian elite ... A bitter history lesson taught with humor and grace. Entertaining . . . A heady mix of propaganda and paranoia . . . [Szablowski writes] sensitively . . . not just about food but also its terrible absence. The vignettes in this book reveal a different side to political figures and thereby dent the image they foster. It is hard, for instance, to see Mr Putin in the same way after hearing of his childlike obsession with ice-cream. The great strength of What's Cooking in the Kremlin is the way Szablowski has managed to track down people, many now very old, who have vivid food memories from another time Superb on every page Fascinating tales of hunger and brutality . . . A Studs Terkel history of food, life, death, and dictatorship that's admirable for its honesty, tenderness, and immutable sorrow . . . The oral histories ripple with tension. . . . Delightful