Recommended Reading: Mastering the Art of Soviet Cooking

Mastering the Art of Soviet Cooking by Anya Von Bremzen; Broadway Books, NYC, 2013 (327 pages)

“A memoir of food and longing.“

Mastering the Art of Soviet Cooking by Anya Von Bremzen

Broadway Books, NYC, 2013 (327 pages)

A memoir of food and longing. This is a book of nonfiction, woven from family anecdotes and historical facts spanning ten decades of Soviet and post-Soviet experience.

Anya Von Bremzen is an ex-Muscovite, moving to the US with her mother when she was thirteen. Anya has established herself as one of the most accomplished food writers of her generation: the winner of three James Beard awards and contributing author to many cook books and food magazines (liberally taken from: Mastering the Art of Soviet Cooking)

This book by Von Bremzen had been sitting on my bookcase for several years… but I think the delay had purpose and served for a deeper meaning.  Just like the old adage, when the student is ready, the teacher will appear.; when I was ready to read this book, it blew my mind as I was ready for it.

Mastering the Art of Soviet Cooking is a multi-faceted jewel; it features beautiful and articulate writing, an effective enmeshing of familial relationships, love and spiritual nourishment of food within a culture, ebb and flow of problematic political regimes, and is replete with stoic matter-of-fact humour, told from an insider’s perspective with Russian-Jewish roots. From a wise child’s perspective living in downtown Moscow, who sees things simply and without judgement. Von Bremzen is a narrator that tells as things are, and her motivations for survival are based on understandable childhood wants and needs (love, belonging, satiety, and safety).

For me personally, Von Bremzen combines several of my favourite things:  food, history, personal stories, and overcoming adversity.  Being Ukrainian in heritage, I’ve always been interested in my roots and what life was like in the ‘old country’. Ukraine often gets lumped into Russian/ Soviet culture (much to their chagrin), and if you look historically, many European countries have been trying to expand into Ukraine’s borders for political and economic gain.   That aside, I’ve always been interested in and fascinated by Russian history. Von Bremzen gives a very personal and multi-faceted approach to the Russian perspective during the Lenin years, Stalin years, and post-Stalin years. She also includes brief commenting on the earlier years of the Putin regime--as an adult and American citizen, visiting a modernized Moscow, and travelling through ex-Soviet lands for her professional research.

What you get a window into is Von Bremzen’s own family dynamics and how they manoeuvre their existence through the regime, while at the same time, highlighting the beauty, creativity, and adaptability of Russian culture. The importance of food is paramount, especially at a time when food shortages were rampant and vicious in their impact. She is able to translate the stoic humour & sardonic acceptance to difficult situations, and highlight the resolve of Soviet culture to overcome adversity, even in habitually dire conditions. And what is the icing on the cake between political and social issues of the era, are languid and loving odes to the importance and value of food in culture. It’s something that I personally connect with, as growing up there was a taught love and respect for food. I think love is shown through food in Eastern European families. I remember growing up and my dad scolding me ‘not to play with bread’, because bread was precious and deserved respect.  This idea is highlighted perfectly in the quote (p 148) “Wheat bread was symbolic, sacred. On in duction to Komsomol, students were asked to name the price of bread. Woe to the politically retarded delinquent who blurted out “thirteen kopeks.” The correct answer: “Our Soviet bread is priceless.”  

This book is constructed and composed like the food it describes; rich, complicated, layered, and rooted in generations of history. Created with love.

Side note: Aside from her memoir-writing, Von Bremzen is a highly accomplished food and travel writer. Have a look online and introduce yourself to some of her other many accomplishments and skills.