Lesley Chamberlain lived in Soviet Russia in 1978–79 and recorded her experiences in the form of two hundred recipes interwoven with details of Russian culture and history and her own practical advice. From blini to cabbage soup, and caviar eggs to “Russian salad,” she reveals the continuity of Russian life, despite political repression, in which the bourgeois cooking of the nineteenth century coexisted with old dishes dictated by the church calendar and new inventions to “make do” with the frequent shortages of vital ingredients under the Soviets.

 

First published in 1982, this fine collection of recipes and entertaining literary quotations has become a classic introduction to the rich culinary history of the region. This new Bison Books edition contains period illustrations and a new introduction by the author.

Lesley Chamberlain studied Russian and German languages and literature before working as a journalist for Reuters in Moscow. She has traveled extensively in Eastern Europe, Central Europe, and Russia, and now works as a writer and a freelance scholar. In addition to her cookery books, her published works include Nietzsche in Turin: An Intimate Biography and In the Communist Mirror.

"The Food and Cooking of Russia draws you first to read its history of the cuisine and its author's descriptions of past meals. . . . Above all it tempts you to try out its mass of recipes."—Daily Telegraph

"The first really good book on this fascinating subject. I read it from cover to cover as one would a novel."—Observer