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A review by namucat
Mastering the Art of Soviet Cooking: A Memoir of Food and Longing by Anya von Bremzen
5.0
I came into Mastering the Art of Soviet Cooking with the expectation of finding only several recipes and perhaps they’re own history, inside the scope of Russian history and the writer’s own personal story but what I got was so much more than that and I couldn't be happier!
In this memoir, von Bremzen takes the reader through a fascinating story of not just random Russian recipes, but whole generations of her family and the socio-political landscape that shaped them, with food often serving as the glue holding together the trainwreck that was the fall of the Russian Empire and its’ Soviet years.
Being a topic often disregarded, especially at times when famine is the rule, it was refreshing to read a memoir of those troubled times so focused on what is often a huge part of personal and family life. As von Bremzen writes, in the worst moments, life was measured through the time between meals, sparse as they were, so the importance of said moments is obviously to be remembered.
Stepping outside the URRS, I also found it extremely compelling to read about Anya herself and, who is perhaps the true heroine of this book, her mother, Larisa Frumkin. Besides their experiences growing in Russia and its’ various regimes, their longing to find their roots while so far away from home, as emigrants in America, resonates with anyone missing home and finding it in the taste of their childhood. Their adventures both in the kitchen and with fellow escapees, to find the perfect flavors of their chimerical madeleines, were both trilling and heartbreaking and, as someone that never had true Russian cuisine, I cannot wait to try out a kulebiaka!
(This book was read thanks to NetGalley and Crown Publishing. Thank you so much!)
In this memoir, von Bremzen takes the reader through a fascinating story of not just random Russian recipes, but whole generations of her family and the socio-political landscape that shaped them, with food often serving as the glue holding together the trainwreck that was the fall of the Russian Empire and its’ Soviet years.
Being a topic often disregarded, especially at times when famine is the rule, it was refreshing to read a memoir of those troubled times so focused on what is often a huge part of personal and family life. As von Bremzen writes, in the worst moments, life was measured through the time between meals, sparse as they were, so the importance of said moments is obviously to be remembered.
Stepping outside the URRS, I also found it extremely compelling to read about Anya herself and, who is perhaps the true heroine of this book, her mother, Larisa Frumkin. Besides their experiences growing in Russia and its’ various regimes, their longing to find their roots while so far away from home, as emigrants in America, resonates with anyone missing home and finding it in the taste of their childhood. Their adventures both in the kitchen and with fellow escapees, to find the perfect flavors of their chimerical madeleines, were both trilling and heartbreaking and, as someone that never had true Russian cuisine, I cannot wait to try out a kulebiaka!
(This book was read thanks to NetGalley and Crown Publishing. Thank you so much!)