What's Cooking in the Kremlin: From Rasputin to Putin, How Russia Built an Empire with a Knife and Fork - Paperback
$20.00
Skip to product information
What's Cooking in the Kremlin: From Rasputin to Putin, How Russia Built an Empire with a Knife and Fork - Paperback
$20.00
by Witold Szablowski (Author), Antonia Lloyd-Jones (Translator)
A New York Times Editors' Choice
"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 "Riveting--a delicious odyssey full of history, humor, 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 A high-spirited, eye-opening, appetite-whetting culinary travel adventure that tells the story of the last hundred years of Russian power through food, by an award-winning Polish journalist who's been praised by both Timothy Snyder and Bill Buford In the gonzo spirit of Anthony Bourdain and Hunter S. Thompson, Witold Szablowski has tracked down--and broken bread with--people whose stories of working in Kremlin kitchens impart a surprising flavor to our understanding of one of the world's superpowers. In revealing what Tsar Nicholas II's and Lenin's favorite meals were, why Stalin's cook taught Gorbachev's cook to sing to his dough, how Stalin had a food tester while he was starving the Ukrainians during the Great Famine, what the recipe was for the first soup flown into outer space, why Brezhnev hated caviar, what was served to the Soviet Union's leaders at the very moment they decided the USSR should cease to exist, and whether Putin's grandfather really did cook for Lenin and Stalin, Szablowski has written a fascinating oral history--complete with recipes and photos--of Russia's evolution from culinary indifference to decadence, famine to feasts, and of the Kremlin's Olympics-style preoccupation with food as an expression of the country's global standing. Traveling across Stalin's Georgia, the war fronts of Afghanistan, the nuclear wastelands of Chornobyl, and even to a besieged steelworks plant in Mariupol--often with one-of-a-kind access to locales forbidden to foreign eyes, and with a rousing sense of adventure and an inimitable ability to get people to spill the tea--he shows that a century after the revolution, Russia still uses food as an instrument of war and feeds its people on propaganda.Author Biography
Witold Szablowski is an award-winning Polish journalist and the author of How to Feed a Dictator ("an outright pleasure to read" --Bill Buford) and the New York Times Editors' Choice Dancing Bears ("mix[es] bold journalism with bolder allegories" --Timothy Snyder). When he was twenty-four he had a stint as a chef in Copenhagen, and at age twenty-five he became the youngest reporter at one of Poland's largest daily newspapers, where he won awards for his features on the issue of immigrants flocking to the EU and the 1943 massacre of Poles in Ukraine. He lives in Warsaw.
Number of Pages: 384
Dimensions: 0.9 x 7.6 x 5 IN
Publication Date: November 07, 2023
Details
This product is crafted with quality materials to ensure durability and performance. Designed with your convenience in mind, it seamlessly fits into your everyday life.
Shipping & Returns
We strive to process and ship all orders in a timely manner, working diligently to ensure that your items are on their way to you as soon as possible.
We are committed to ensuring a positive shopping experience for all our customers. If for any reason you wish to return an item, we invite you to reach out to our team for assistance, and we will evaluate every return request with care and consideration.
