Witold Szablowski - Böcker

Rivetinga 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 ExplorerA high-spirited, eye-opening, appetite-whetting culinary travel adventure by an award-winning Polish journalist that tells the story of the last hundred years of Russian power through foodIn the gonzo spirit of Anthony Bourdain and Hunter S. Thompson, Witold Szablowski has tracked downand broken bread withpeople whose stories of working in Kremlin kitchens impart a surprising flavor to our understanding of one of the worlds superpowers.In revealing what Tsar Nicholas IIs and Lenins favorite meals were, why Stalins cook taught Gorbachevs 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 Unions leaders at the very moment they decided the USSR should cease to exist, and whether Putins grandfather really did cook for Lenin and Stalin, Szablowski has written a fascinating oral historycomplete with recipes and photosof Russias evolution from culinary indifference to decadence, famine to feasts, and of the Kremlins Olympics-style preoccupation with food as an expression of the countrys global standing.Traveling across Stalins Georgia, the war fronts of Afghanistan, the nuclear wastelands of Chornobyl, and even to a besieged steelworks plant in Mariupoloften 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 teahe shows that a century after the revolution, Russia still uses food as an instrument of war and feeds its people on propaganda.

Mixing bold journalism with bolder allegories, Mr Szablowski teaches us with witty persistence that we must desire freedom rather than simply expect itTimothy Snyder, New York Times bestselling author of ON TYRANNYA devastatingly original look at the world's worst dictators, through the eyes of their personal chefs, by award-winning Polish author Witold Szablowski.What is it like to cook for the most dangerous men in the world?In this darkly funny and fascinating book, Witold Szablowski travels across four continents in search of the personal chefs of five dictators. From the savannahs of Kenya to the faded glamour of Havana, and the bombed-out streets of Baghdad, Szablowski finds the men and women who cooked fish soup for Saddam Hussein, roasted goat for Idi Amin and chopped papaya salad for Pol Pot. He reveals the strangeness of a job where a single culinary mistake could be fatal, but a well-seasoned dish could change your life. And in doing so, he lifts the veil on what life is like at the very heart of power.

'A spicy and original romp through Russian history' ROBERT SERVICE'Poignant, comical, and in the best sense disturbing' PAUL FREEDMAN, AUTHOR OF TEN RESTAURANTS THAT CHANGED AMERICA'This wickedly delicious tale uncovers the secret, gustatory history of the Kremlin and will leave you begging for seconds' DOUGLAS SMITH, AUTHOR OF RASPUTIN: FAITH, POWER, AND THE TWILIGHT OF THE ROMANOVSWhat's Cooking in the Kremlin is a tale of feast and famine told from the kitchen, the narrative of one of the most complex, troubling and fascinating nations on earth.We will travel through Putin's Russia with acclaimed author Witold Szablowski as he learns the story of the chef who was shot alongside the Romonovs, and the Ukrainian woman who survived the Great Famine created by Stalin and still weeps with guilt; the soldiers on the Eastern front who roasted snails and made nettle soup as they fought back Hitler's army; the woman who cooked for Yuri Gagarin and the cosmonauts; and the man who ran the Kremlin kitchen during the years of plenty under Brezhnev. We will hear from the women who fed the firefighters at Chernobyl, and the story of the Crimean Tatars, who returned to their homeland after decades of exile, only to flee once Russia invaded Crimea again, in 2014.In tracking down these remarkable stories and voices, Witold Szablowski has written an account of modern Russia unlike any other - a book that reminds us of the human stories behind the history.

'A spicy and original romp through Russian history' ROBERT SERVICE'Poignant, comical, and in the best sense disturbing' PAUL FREEDMAN, AUTHOR OF TEN RESTAURANTS THAT CHANGED AMERICA'This wickedly delicious tale uncovers the secret, gustatory history of the Kremlin and will leave you begging for seconds' DOUGLAS SMITH, AUTHOR OF RASPUTIN: FAITH, POWER, AND THE TWILIGHT OF THE ROMANOVSWhat's Cooking in the Kremlin is a tale of feast and famine told from the kitchen, the narrative of one of the most complex, troubling and fascinating nations on earth.We will travel through Putin's Russia with acclaimed author Witold Szablowski as he learns the story of the chef who was shot alongside the Romonovs, and the Ukrainian woman who survived the Great Famine created by Stalin and still weeps with guilt; the soldiers on the Eastern front who roasted snails and made nettle soup as they fought back Hitler's army; the woman who cooked for Yuri Gagarin and the cosmonauts; and the man who ran the Kremlin kitchen during the years of plenty under Brezhnev. We will hear from the women who fed the firefighters at Chernobyl, and the story of the Crimean Tatars, who returned to their homeland after decades of exile, only to flee once Russia invaded Crimea again, in 2014.In tracking down these remarkable stories and voices, Witold Szablowski has written an account of modern Russia unlike any other - a book that reminds us of the human stories behind the history.