Mastering the Art of Soviet Cooking: A Memoir of Food and Longing

By Anya von Bremzen

Book Overview

A James Beard Award-winning writer captures life under the Red socialist banner in this wildly inventive, tragicomic memoir of feasts, famines, and three generations "Delicious . . . A banquet of... This description may be from another edition of this product.

• Format: Hardcover
• Language: English
• ISBN: 0307886816
• ISBN13: 9780307886811
• Release Date: September 2013
• Publisher: Crown
• Length: 352 Pages
• Weight: 1.47 lbs.
• Dimensions: 9.4" x 1.1" x 6.4"

Customer Reviews

More then food: A Fascinating peek behind the Iron Curtain

The author of this book, Anya von Bremzen, is a Russian Jew who immigrated to Philadelphia as a preteen to escape the increasingly harsh life of the USSR. Despite the fact of joining the diaspora at such a young age, she has an extreme wealth of information and research that is of interest to a variety of readers. Food is a major part of this book. Heck, it’s a major part of culture in general. The ingredients, recipes, cooking styles and culinary preferences are a treasure trove of information about any group of people. Each chapter is organized by different eras of the USSR, and each include a recipe that was typical of the era. You have the waning years of of imperial Russia with its opulent fine dining for those who could afford it and simple peasant meals for the rest. It then talks about early post revolutionary USSR and WWII that was marked by starvation and utilitarian food. Then it goes into the Kruschev era where Soviet food started to take shape as its own cuisine taking influences from all the different ethnicities within the nation. Then it continues on into the stagnation era, the fall of the USSR, and into modern Russia where fine dining and international cuisine is being served in the hippest of spots that wouldn’t look out of place in Midtown Manhattan or SoHo in London. The author goes into great detail about all the who, what, when, where and why’s for each of the eras cuisine. However, this book is not just about the food. Rather it uses food as a central theme to discuss a plethora of topics. It discusses the lifestyle and trends of Soviet people from all social classes. The family dynamics, mentality and habits of its people through the generations. Their living conditions and occupations. Their tangible culture and hobby’s that keep them entertained. The hardships, economics and politics, the many ethnicities of each Soviet Republic, the diaspora and immigrant experience and of course plenty of historical context. It’s a very intimate and vivid portrait of Soviet life, written in the way that makes you feel like you are sitting at the dining room table, eating pelmini and taking vodka shots with the family. The author did a wonderful job documenting these memories, focusing on the most minute of details, so the world won’t forget this part of history as we move father and farther away from that part of history. The only thing keeping this book from getting 5 stars is honestly the beginning. It drags on and on to the point it feels like the author is rambling on about random topics. I always finish a book, even if I dislike it, and I was dreading having to slog through this book. However, once the first few chapters are done and Anya von Bremzen finds her flow and starts actually tackling the topics in hand, it blossoms into a wonderful story that Is not just for lovers of food, but also lovers of history, sociology, cultural anthropology, economics and memoirs.