ANYA VON BREMZEN is one of the most accomplished food writers of her generation: the winner of three James Beard awards; a contributing editor at "Travel + Leisure" magazine; and the author of five acclaimed cookbooks, among them "The New Spanish Table," "The Greatest Dishes: Around the World in 80 Recipes," and "Please to the Table: The Russian Cookbook" (coauthored by John Welchman). She also contributes regularly to "Food & Wine" and "Saveur" and has written for "The New Yorker, Departures," and the "Los Angeles Times." She divides her time between New York City and Istanbul.
A "Publishers Weekly" Best Nonfiction Book of 2013
A "Christian Science Monitor "Best Nonfiction Book of 2013
"The culinary memoir has lately evolved into a genre of its own,
what is now known as a 'foodoir.' But Anya von Bremzen is a better
writer than most of the genre's practitioners, as this delectable
book, which tells the story of postrevolutionary Russia through the
prism of one family's meals, amply demonstrates...Von Bremzen moves
artfully between historical longshots (minefields being cleared 'by
sending troops attacking across them') and intimate details, like
her schoolgirl mother's lunch ration of podushechka, a candy the
size of a fingernail...The descriptions of meals are
delightful."
--"New York Times Book Review"" "
"Von Bremzen ladles out a rich, zesty history of family life in the
USSR conveyed through food and meals."
--"Entertainment Weekly"
""Mastering the Art of Soviet Cooking" turns a bittersweet eye and
an intelligent heart on Soviet history through food...Beautifully
told."
"--""Los Angeles Times"
"Von Bremzen knows how to tell a story - poignant, funny, but never
lacking."
"--Chicago Tribune"
"Brilliant...a lyrical memoir and multifaceted reflection on Soviet
(and American) cultures."
"--Philadelphia Inquirer
"
"An ambitious food memoir that is also a meticulously researched
history of the Soviet Union...a meditation on culinary
nostalgia."
"--"Julia Moskin," New York Times"
"""Anya von Bremzen's saga of growing up in a superpower always on
the verge of starvation is both rollicking and heartrending."
"--""Time "
"A delicious narrative of memory and cuisine in 20th-century Soviet
Union. In "Mastering the Art of Soviet Cooking," [von Bremzen]
follows in the footsteps of Nigel Slater's "Toast "and Anthony
Bourdain's "Kitchen Confidential" memoirs about life, love and food
that linger long after the last page is turned. Her tale is a
nostalgia-laden compendium of madeleine moments...A banquet of
anecdote that brings an entire history to life with intimacy,
candor and glorious color."
--Ellah Allfrey, NPR's "All Things Considered"
"Mastering the Art of Soviet Cooking is a painstakingly researched
and beautifully written cultural history but also the best kind of
memoir: one with a self-aware narrator who has mastered the art of
not taking herself entirely seriously...A breathtaking balancing
act...Von Bremzen is as much a virtuoso in her writing as her
mother is in her cooking."
--Masha Gessen, "New York Review of Books"
"One-of-a-kind...A nostalgically anti-nostalgic tribute to
20th-century life and food in the land once known as the Soviet
Union...Breathtaking feats of raconteurial skill..."Mastering the
Art of Soviet Cooking" is not only a magic tablecloth, it's a magic
carpet that revisits the roads and lanes of the former Soyuz,
surveying the tales of hardship and hardwon joys of von Bremzen's
relatives and the Russian people."
--Liesl Schillinger, "The Daily Beast"
"Russian treasures! You never know when they're going to pop up. My
heart gladdened at the sight of Anya Von Bremzen's book. This is
history at a personal level, the kitchen table."
--Martin Cruz Smith, "The Wall Street Journal"
"Splendid...[Von Bremzen] describes the U.S.S.R. with the eyes of a
betrayed lover--alternately despairing, dismayed, aghast and yet,
somehow...with love."
--Russ Parsons, "Los Angeles Times"
"At once harrowing and funny as hell, an epic history told through
"kotleti "(Soviet hamburgers) and contraband Coca-Cola."
"--"James Oseland, "Saveur "
"There is no book quite like "Mastering the Art of Soviet
Cooking."..Through all of this lovely and moving memoir's good
humor, bittersweet reminiscences, and gorgeous evocations of food,
there hangs the 'toska, ' the Russian nostalgic 'ache, ' of Anya
and Larisa's conflicted feelings about the past."
"--Christian Science Monitor"
"[T]his is no simple food memoir. Von Bremzen situates every dish
she mentions in its historical, cultural and literary context,
simultaneously delving into her own fascinating family history. Her
book is an education through the senses, written with humor,
affection and a no-nonsense view of her often baffling native
land."
--"The Oregonian"
"A masterful telling of Soviet history through the eyes of a
cook... a collection of fantastic stories that you hear only when
sitting on a bar stool or in a church pew. Von Bremzen offers
remarkable -- and personal -- insight about the Cold War, its
politics, military strategy and the human suffering that
accompanied it."
--Minnapolis "Star-Tribune
"
"[Von Bremzen] is a profoundly gifted writer, able to lace
information with observation, observation with wit...[This book]
feels rather like a novel, richly populated and filled with deft
dialogue, yet it's also crammed full of history. Imagine Robert
Caro crossed with a Chekhov play, if it were funny."
"--LA Weekly"
"Moving...funny...fascinating...Soul-stirring for any emigrant to
read, "Mastering the Art of Soviet Cooking" is a beautifully
written tale of heartbreak and ultimately happiness."
--"Epicurious"
"Splendid...Von Bremzen is a gifted storyteller who writes with an
easy elegance. In "Mastering the Art of Soviet Cooking," she
achieves a perfect balance between her narrative's varied
ingredients. The result: a feast for readers."
"--Book Page"
"Wry, provocative, genre-busting."
--"Wall Street Journal "(Europe edition)
"Through a kaleidoscopic mix of family life, politics, history, and
jokes, Von Bremzen evokes in her book a whole Soviet-era world of
deprivation and delight."
--"Tablet" magazine
"The funniest and truest book I've read about Russia in years. Ms.
von Bremzen had the brilliant idea of transporting us back to the
Soviet era of her youth by way of its hilarious, soulful,
mayonnaise-laden, doctrinally-approved cuisine. This is both an
important book and a delight."
--Ian Frazier, author of "Great Plains" and "Travels in
Siberia"
"I don't think there's ever been a book quite like this; I couldn't
put it down. Warm, smart and completely engaging, this food-forward
journey through Soviet history could only have been written by
someone who was there. Part memoir, part cookbook, part social
history, this gripping account of Anya von Bremzen's relationship
with the country she fled as a young girl is also an unsentimental,
but deeply loving tribute to her mother. Unique and remarkable,
this is a book you won't forget."
--Ruth Reichl, author of "Tender at the Bone" and "Comfort Me with
Apples"
"A delicious, intelligent book. When I read it, I can taste the
food but also the melancholy, tragedy, and absurdity that went into
every bit of pastry and borscht."
--Gary Shteyngart, author of "Super Sad True Love Story"
"I have delighted in Anya von Bremzen's writing for decades. But
her prose is at its tangiest, richest, and tastiest in these pages,
when she writes about her childhood in the USSR. "Mastering the Art
of Soviet Cooking "is as much a history of Soviet life as it is a
personal story. Both narratives are provocative and delicious, and
both are worth telling your children."
--Mario Batali, chef, author, entrepreneur
" "
"Three cheers for Anya Von Bremzen's poignant, vivid, often
hilarious book about trying to survive--and have a square meal--in
the last decades of the Soviet Union. The author's acute political
perceptiveness, mordant wit and notable culinary expertise keep the
reader delightfully engaged throughout."
--Francine du Plessix Gray, author of "Them: A Memoir of Parents
"and" Soviet Women"
"Anya's description of the saltiness in vobla is as poignant and
image-filled as her reflection on a life that started out one way,
but ended up in a better place by chance and fate. Her experience
of growing up a child of two different worlds tells the beautiful
tale of so many American immigrants."
--Marcus Samuelsson, chef-founder, Red Rooster Harlem, and author
of "Yes, Chef"
"This is much more than a memoir or an extended meditation on food
and longing: this is history at its best, accessed through the
kitchen door. Written with verve and seasoned with perfect doses of
that irony that communist societies excel at cultivating, this book
is a rare and delightful treat, as much of a page-turner as the
best of novels and as enlightening an introduction to Soviet
history as one could ever hope to find. Anya Von Bremzen proves
with admirable flair that the adage "you are what you eat" applies
not only to individuals and families, but also to entire nations,
and that cookbooks may indeed be the most translucent of windows to
the soul."
--Carlos Eire, author of "Waiting for Snow in Havana: Confessions
of a Cuban Boy"
""Mastering the Art of Soviet Cooking" is a monumental but deeply
human book that reads like a great Russian novel, filled with dark
humor and nostalgia. It opens up an entire universe, teaching us
about the many deep meanings of food: cultural, political, social,
historical, personal."
--Ferran AdriA, chef-proprietor, El Bulli
"A fascinating, colorful and at times oddly tender look at the
history of the former Soviet Union as seen through Anya von
Bremzen's intimate recollections of food--including foods never
eaten or never to be sampled again. Von Bremzen does a soulful job
of capturing Russians' 'complicated and even tortured relationship
with food.' What emerges is her own complicated yet loving
relationship to the culture she and her mother willingly left
behind, but could never quite abandon."
--Lucette Lagnado, author of "The Man in the White Sharkskin Suit:
One Family's Exodus from Old Cairo to New York"
"Anya von Bremzen describes the foods of her past powerfully,
poetically, and with a wicked sense of humor. Anyone can make a
fancy layer cake sound delicious. To invoke an entire culture and
era through an intimate story about a salad or soup--that's taking
food writing to a whole different level."
--David Chang, chef-founder, Momofuku
"Here's a surprise: a wry account of how the Soviet Union "tasted."
Larisa Frumkina, the mother of the author, the daughter of a top
military intelligence officer (endlessly, brilliantly resourceful,
she appears to come straight out of Russian literature), becomes an
EmigrE, a Pathmark shopper, and a co-conspirator with her daughter
in Soviet food nostalgia and self-discovery. A wink, a laugh, a
transgression, a sweet sad life over the generations that throws an
epic history into a new light."
--Stephen Kotkin, professor of history, Princeton University;
author of "Magnetic Mountain: Stalinism as Civilization"
"One of the most unexpectedly pleasurable reads this year. Beyond
the innately voyeuristic thrill of reading about the details of
Soviet life, "Mastering" is funny, intimate, evocative and
rueful."
--"Kirkus Reviews"
" "
"Celebrated food writer Von Bremzen pulls back the curtain on
Soviet life in this sweeping, multigenerational memoir."
--"Publishers Weekly"
"Most Westerners imagine Stalinist Russia as a food
desert...Although this view has plenty of truth, it lacks nuance
and humanity, as von Bremzen reveals so eloquently in this
memoir...[Von Bremzen] shows the personal side of Soviet life,
recounting the terror of war and secret police as well as the power
of human resilience."
--"Booklist "
"The culinary memoir has lately evolved into a genre of its own,
what is now known as a 'foodoir.' But Anya von Bremzen is a better
writer than most of the genre's practitioners, as this delectable
book, which tells the story of postrevolutionary Russia through the
prism of one family's meals, amply demonstrates...Von Bremzen moves
artfully between historical longshots (minefields being cleared 'by
sending troops attacking across them') and intimate details, like
her schoolgirl mother's lunch ration of podushechka, a candy the
size of a fingernail...The descriptions of meals are
delightful."
--"New York Times Book Review"" "
"Von Bremzen ladles out a rich, zesty history of family life in the
USSR conveyed through food and meals."
--"Entertainment Weekly
"
""Mastering the Art of Soviet Cooking" turns a bittersweet eye and
an intelligent heart on Soviet history through food...Beautifully
told."
"--""Los Angeles Times"
"An ambitious food memoir that is also a meticulously researched
history of the Soviet Union...a meditation on culinary
nostalgia."
"--"Julia Moskin," New York Times
""A delicious narrative of memory and cuisine in 20th-century
Soviet Union. In "Mastering the Art of Soviet Cooking," [von
Bremzen] follows in the footsteps of Nigel Slater's "Toast "and
Anthony Bourdain's "Kitchen Confidential" memoirs about life, love
and food that linger long after the last page is turned. Her tale
is a nostalgia-laden compendium of madeleine moments...A banquet of
anecdote that brings an entire history to life with intimacy,
candor and glorious color."
--Ellah Allfrey, NPR's "All Things Considered"
"One-of-a-kind...A nostalgically anti-nostalgic tribute to
20th-century life and food in the land once known as the Soviet
Union...Breathtaking feats of raconteurial skill..."Mastering the
Art of Soviet Cooking" is not only a magic tablecloth, it's a magic
carpet that revisits the roads and lanes of the former Soyuz,
surve
"Delectable...von Bremzen moves artfully between historical
longshots (minefields being cleared 'by sending troops attacking
across them') and intimate details, like her schoolgirl mother's
lunch ration of "podushechka," a candy the size of a
fingernail...The descriptions of meals are delightful, despite the
anomaly at the heart of her book: during the Soviet period, there
was almost nothing decent to eat, unless you were a party
official...But von Bremzen makes the best of her material,
conjuring the whiff of fermenting sauerkraut in an enameled bucket,
the sight of sinews and fat glistening in a cheap goulash 'with an
ivory palette' and the sharp and creamy taste of the ubiquitous
"salat Olivier" in the 'kitschy, mayonnaise-happy '70s.'"
--"New York Times Book Review"
"Von Bremzen ladles out a rich, zesty history of family life in the
USSR conveyed through food and meals."
--"Entertainment Weekly
"
"Moving..funny...fascinating...Soul-stirring for any emigrant to
read, "Mastering the Art of Soviet Cooking" is a beautifully
written tale of heartbreak and ultimately happiness."
--"Epicurious"
"Through a kaleidoscopic mix of family life, politics, history, and
jokes, Von Bremzen evokes in her book a whole Soviet-era world of
deprivation and delight."
--"Tablet" magazine
"The funniest and truest book I've read about Russia in years. Ms.
von Bremzen had the brilliant idea of transporting us back to the
Soviet era of her youth by way of its hilarious, soulful,
mayonnaise-laden, doctrinally-approved cuisine. This is both an
important book and a delight."
--Ian Frazier, author of "Great Plains" and "Travels in
Siberia"
"I don't think there's ever been a book quite like this; I couldn't
put it down. Warm, smart and completely engaging, this food-forward
journey through Soviet history could only have been written by
someone who was there. Part memoir, part cookbook, part social
history, this gripping account of Anya von B
"The funniest and truest book I've read about Russia in years. Ms.
von Bremzen had the brilliant idea of transporting us back to the
Soviet era of her youth by way of its hilarious, soulful,
mayonnaise-laden, doctrinally-approved cuisine. This is both an
important book and a delight."
--IAN FRAZIER, author of "Great Plains" and "Travels in
Siberia"
"I don't think there's ever been a book quite like this; I couldn't
put it down. Warm, smart and completely engaging, this food-forward
journey through Soviet history could only have been written by
someone who was there. Part memoir, part cookbook, part social
history, this gripping account of Anya von Bremzen's relationship
with the country she fled as a young girl is also an unsentimental,
but deeply loving tribute to her mother. Unique and remarkable,
this is a book you won't forget."
--RUTH REICHL, author of "Tender at the Bone" and "Comfort Me with
Apples"
"A delicious, intelligent book. When I read it, I can taste the
food but also the melancholy, tragedy, and absurdity that went into
every bit of pastry and borscht."
--GARY SHTEYNGART, author of "Super Sad True Love Story"
"I have delighted in Anya von Bremzen's writing for decades. But
her prose is at its tangiest, richest, and tastiest in these pages,
when she writes about her childhood in the USSR. "Mastering the Art
of Soviet Cooking "is as much a history of Soviet life as it is a
personal story. Both narratives are provocative and delicious, and
both are worth telling your children."
--MARIO BATALI, chef, author, entrepreneur
" "
"Three cheers for Anya Von Bremzen's poignant, vivid, often
hilarious book about trying to survive--and have a square meal--in
the last decades of the Soviet Union. The author's acute political
perceptiveness, mordant wit and notable culinary expertise keep the
reader delightfully engaged throughout."
--FRANCINE DU PLESSIX GRAY, author of "Them: A Memoir of Parents
"and" Soviet Women"
"The funniest and truest book I've read about Russia in years. Ms.
von Bremzen had the brilliant idea of transporting us back to the
Soviet era of her youth by way of its hilarious, soulful,
mayonnaise-laden, doctrinally-approved cuisine. This is both an
important book and a delight."
--IAN FRAZIER, author of "Great Plains" and "Travels in Siberia
"
"This is much more than a memoir or an extended meditation on food
and longing: this is history at its best, accessed through the
kitchen door. Written with verve and seasoned with perfect doses of
that irony that communist societies excel at cultivating, this book
is a rare and delightful treat, as much of a page-turner as the
best of novels and as enlightening an introduction to Soviet
history as one could ever hope to find. Anya Von Bremzen proves
with admirable flair that the adage 'you are what you eat' applies
not only to individuals and families, but also to entire nations,
and that cookbooks may indeed be the most translucent of windows to
the soul."
--CARLOS EIRE, author of "Waiting for Snow in Havana: Confessions
of a Cuban Boy"
"Anya von Bremzen describes the foods of her past powerfully,
poetically, and with a wicked sense of humor. Anyone can make a
fancy layer cake sound delicious. To invoke an entire culture and
era through an intimate story about a salad or soup--that's taking
food writing to a whole different level."
--DAVID CHANG, chef/founder, Momofuku
"Here's a surprise: a wry account of how the Soviet Union "tasted."
Larisa Frumkina, the mother of the author, the daughter of a top
military intelligence officer (endlessly, brilliantly resourceful,
she appears to come straight out of Russian literature), becomes an
emigre, a Pathmark shopper, and a co-conspirator with her daughter
in Soviet food nostalgia and self-discovery. A wink, a laugh, a
transgression, a sweet sad life over the generations that throws an
epic history into a new light."
--STEPHEN KOTKIN, professo
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