Did y’all know that Putin’s grandfather was a cook? I hadn’t.
Apparently, it is a widely known (and propagandized) fact in Russia. Putin himself noted the fact in early interviews to secure his popularity in a post Soviet Union world. It likely adds a layer of humility for the leader to have come from a family of cooks.
I recently finished Witold Szabłowski’s What’s Cooking in the Kremlin: From Rasputin to Putin, How Russia Built an Empire with a Knife and Fork. Witold (he’s always referred to by his first name while conducting interviews in the narrative) is a Polish reporter whose other works include How to Feed a Dictator and Dancing Bears. The interviews all took place before Russia’s invasion of Ukrainian and my copy contains a preface and afterword about the impacts it has had on the people whose stories are told.
The book is fascinating and hard to put down. Starting with the story of the Czar’s loyal cook dying with the doomed family and ending with the final thoughts of a cook who worked in the Kremlin and Stalin’s favorite dacha, this book covers roughly a century of Russian (and USSR) history through the view points of cooks. Both men and women are represented in the book as well as former Soviet satellite states. Some of the best stories are also some of the emotionally hardest.
Famine happened in the former USSR, mostly intentionally done to starve the targeted population out of existence. The Nazis killed about 1.5 million people in their siege of Leningrad, while Stalin himself instigated the 3 to 7 million deaths during the Ukrainian Great Famine. Witold’s interviewees note that they were able to survive by becoming bakers or cooks for the few institutes that still had resources and if they were too young to work, their mothers did.
Bread and soup were what kept them alive.
There are many instances where bread and soup come up as important food staples in literature. The Hunger Games nearly always points out the different types of bread the Districts bake and Peta is the son of bakers. He even saves Katniss before the games by giving her burnt bread. Jean Valjean is arrested for stealing a loaf of bread early in the narrative of Les Misérables. Plus the Bible references bread multiple times.
As for soup, one of my dad's favorite stories was that of "Stone Soup" (I wrote a blog post about this several years ago). There are several versions of this tale, but the most common one I know involves soldiers returning from the Napoleonic wars. I also read Chicken Soup with Rice by Maurice Sendak all the time as a kid.
What many of these stories have in common is that bread and soup were an important part of comfort and survival. When made with little processing, bread and soup both pack a powerful nutrient punch. Soup typically has some kind of vegetable and protein, while bread should have whole grains with plenty of fiber. Add in a bit of hard cheese and you've got a great comfort meal.
Soup kitchens are often euphemisms for places that feed the most vulnerable of our communities and bread lines are a term for unemployment (and getting government assistance, especially during the Great Depression). For long journeys (especially at sea), hardtack was often included as a shelf stable supply. Hardtack is dense, long lasting cracker like bread that is softened with hot liquids like coffee, tea, or soup.
I love a nice hot bowl of soup. I made some tonight - butternut squash soup with carrots, honey nut squash, sweet potatoes, red onions, and garlic. I ate it with some apricot bread I picked up at the Farmer's Market yesterday, though I often top it with homemade croutons or a toasted baguette. When I'm really struggling with what to eat for dinner, I often make something I call a "pantry soup". It's whatever I can find in my pantry and refrigerator that could make a good soup. Black beans with onions in whatever broth I have on hand with a bunch of herbs is probably my easiest and favorite (this is the recipe from my food blog - which I haven't updated in a while...I'll get on that).
With the seasons changing to cooler weather and times getting tougher, I won't be surprised if more people start to bake more and share soup recipes. During COVID, bone broth and sourdough starters became wildly popular. I think we'll start seeing this trend again soon.
If you are able to, please pick up a canned good or two for your local food pantry. There are a lot of people out of work right now with the government shutdown and the start of an economic slump. I'm seeing more and more people pan handling on major intersections.
I'm glad I read Szabłowski’s What’s Cooking in the Kremlin. I learned quite a bit about Soviet history through the lens of food and the people who made it. Without a doubt the saddest story was about the women who cooked for the people trying to stop the Chernobyl melt down in the Fairytale Forest. Many died from radiation poisoning and those who are still alive suffer greatly from all kinds of health problems. Bread and soups feature prominently in the book along side the personal stories. The book even includes a few recipes.
What is your favorite soup? Do you have a favorite bread? I love a good gazpacho in the summer and an easy chicken noodle in the winter for soups. My favorite bread is probably naan or spoon bread.
Let me know your favorites in the comments. and whether or not you consider chili a soup (I personally do not, but I'm open to changing my mind).
If you enjoyed this post (or it really pissed you off) please like, share, and/or leave a comment. I love hearing from my readers and I hope you like hearing from me.
Until next week.
