What's Cooking in the Kremlin

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 -- Robert Service, Oxford University; author of A History of Modern Russia and biographies of Lenin, Stalin, Trotsky and Nicholas II
A riveting account of a uniquely sumptuous cuisine prepared in often grotesque and dangerous settings. Poignant, comical, and in the best sense disturbing -- Paul Freedman, Yale University; 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
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. -- Kristen R. Ghodsee, author of Everyday Utopia, Why Women Have Better Sex Under Socialism, and Red Hangover
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. -- Daniel Stone, bestselling author of The Food Explorer and Sinkable
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! * Tatyana Nesteruk, author of Beyond Borscht and founder of Tatyana’s Everyday Food *
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 Kremlingracefully 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 -- Bonnie Frumkin Morales, author of Kachka: A Return to Russian Cooking
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. -- Darra Goldstein, author of A Taste of Russia, The Georgian Feast
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. -- Publishers Weekly
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. -- Kirkus Reviews - starred review
Entertaining . . . A heady mix of propaganda and paranoia . . . [Szablowski writes] sensitively . . . not just about food but also its terrible absence. * The New York Times Book Review *
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 Economist *
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 * Daily Mail *
Superb on every page * Strong Words *
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 * Food & Environment Reporting Network *