Food and Cooking of Russia - Russian Cookbook

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Description: Russian cooking in the nineteenth century ranked as one of the great cuisines of the world, but since the Revolution its reputation has dwindled. Travelers return with tales of ubiquitous meatballs and cabbage, while restaurants abroad stick to such international safe bets as pancakes and caviare, beef Stroganov and vodka with everything.  

Lesley Chamberlain spent a year in the Soviet Union sampling the best and the worst of home and hotel cooking, and comparing it with the grand old recipes of Elena Molokhovets, Russia's answer to Mrs. Beeton. She found out what classical French chefs thought of the Russian repertoire and what they prepared for the aristocratic families of Moscow and St Petersburg. 

Today, Russians are only now beginning to have the leisure and affluence to take an imaginative interest in cooking. Dishes from the Caucasus and Central Asia are becoming increasingly popular. Magazines have begun publishing articles on the history of Russian food, and Moscow has a unique cookery museum where the diet prescribed for Soviet cosmonauts rubs shoulders with silver tea-glass holders and samovars. 

The Food and Cooking of Russia cookbook sets old, new and exotic side by side and finds in Russian food the same interweaving of traditions from home and abroad as in so many other aspects of Russian culture. Russian cuisine is inseparable from the complexity of Russian history and ideology and has been particularly influenced by the Orthodox Church. Its best dishes are tasty, varied and fascinating in their diverse origins. 

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Condition: Good. Interior flap is clipped.