Customer Reviews

The Art of Russian Cuisine

5 star:		(11)
4 star:		(1)
3 star:		(0)
2 star:		(1)
1 star:		(1)

 

 

First allow me to say that I am a person who grew up in Russia so I have to say that I am speaking with some authority. I came here when I was young and I have tried many of the foods in this book and I must say that this is the best and most conscise cookbook on Russian Cooking.

The book is very fat and thick but that is exactly why it is so good for its wealth of differnt varities of food for different occasions, from weddings to Easter(Kulichi). The book is 632 pages long including the index. The book is constrcuted in different chapters depending on what you want to cook. It also gives the americanized phonetic saying of how to say these foods in Russian which in my opinion would be very useful for both cultural and traveling reasons if you want to order the food there. The book has many chapters as I said earlier among them are "Fish" "Soups" and "Meat."

Among the most convenient things is the details told in teh making of the cookings. The details are so detailed stricken that it is impossible to go wrong.

There are many foods here that Americans remember as being Russian among them "borshcit" which are told here to make.

Plus some of the best thigns about this endeavor is the fact taht the recipe is written by a Russian Women which means that she knows how to cook this. This isnt' simply a book written by a visitor the country, this is written by a woman who grew up in the Soviet Union, having been a food critic for a very high circulating gazzette. The recipes are sometimes simple and sometimes a little bit more hard just like in any cookbook. Plus one of the other enticing features of the books contents is the fact that the book includes recipes from different Russian cultures, such as the Georgians and Ukranians and Belorussians. That is an incredible brush of stroke since many great "Russian Foods" are not russian at all but come from different Russian cultures.

In the end, in my opinion this is the most detailed and conscise book on Russian cooking I have looked over yet. The thickness of the book says it all. The book includes a americanized way of pronouncing the cooking in Russian and is very detailed in its description of the food. Buy the book if you want a sort of "almanac" of Russian Cusisine.

It took me a long time to find a good Russian cookbook. This is the best one I discovered so far.
I was born in Russia, however, never learned how to cook Russian food. I missed my grandmother's cooking from my childhood. So, I started looking... "Taste of Russia" & "Please to the Table" are wonderful cookbooks with great recipies. However, they are not the recipies I remember my grandmother cooking. "The Art of Russian Cuisine" includes almost all the recipies I could think of.
I definitely recommend this book to those of you who wants to taste the real Russian food, the one that Russians cook daily or for holidays.

This is *the definitive* book on Russian cooking. I've never been much of a cook, but now I cook with it all the time and it always comes out right -- exactly the way my mother and grandmother used to make it! Plus, all the recipes are framed with tidbits of Russian history and culture, and the context these dishes were eaten in.

This is a wonderful book, complete and easy to use. When I made the Ukrainian Borscht, it turned out exactly like the borscht I'd had in Russia--even the color was perfect. It is also interesting to read, with cultural and historical information and exerpts from Russian literature. It is a wonderful resource.

A very comprehensive and well written Russian cookbook. I am very involved in Russian cooking and have read and tried recipes in most of the Russian cookbooks available. Every book has its strength, but this is by far the best overall

A treasury of over 500 recipes including fish, poultry, appetizers, meat, veggies, soups, dumplings, desserts, breads, etc.

Particulary impressive and grand are the sturgeon recipes, especially Sturgeon with mushroom and crabmeat sauce. Also, particularly fond of the pel'meni!

For dessert, the Tula Spice Cakes are delightful.

Thorough, well presented exploration of Russian cuisine, with ample instructions with ingredients that are easy to acquire.

This particular collection of recipes is by far the best found. The author has included some of most traditional and best loved dishes like Russian Pound Cake to Bliny. This book is a must for anyone interested in Russian cooking or would like to try something out of the ordinary. For those folks that are experienced cooks and chefs, this book is great to enhance any menu or party. I highly recommend this book for anybody how loves food with a festive flare!

Love her quotes from Russian literature and summary of food preparation at the beginning of each chapter -- reading these intro sections makes your mouth water. In addition, most of the recipes are Russian or Franco-Russian, in contrast to certain other "Russian" cookbooks which include an overwhelming number of non-Russian ones from Commonwealth or Baltic countries (if I wanted recipes from those regions I wouldn't be shopping for a Russian cookbook, would I?)

I have tried many recipes in this book, and most have turned out quite well (her borshch is excellent). However, i use some as a general guide and improvise, and to jog my memory of the time i used to cook with my grandmother -- they are just not up to her standards. A number of them seem "sovietized" (my opinion, i've never lived there, but i know money was tight and some unusual or expensive ingredients were difficult to find for many years).

Example: my granny's paskha recipe calls for 5 lbs. bakers cheese, 20 yolks, 4 cups sugar, whipping cream, nearly 2 lbs. butter, lots of vanilla beans (among other things); Volokh's recipe is quite frugal in comparison.

I realize that good food takes time, but some recipes are WAY too time consuming, particularly those in the Pirogi section due to the way the chapter is structured, which forces you to flip back and forth between pages to assemble.

Overall, an excellent, comprehensive collection of Russian recipes (with a few from non-Russian Commonwealth regions). The Wild Game chapter is particularly impressive.

Excellent book. It is so easy to use and it is so well-organized. Without much experience in cooking, I always came out with tasty "real" Russian dishes when cooking with this book.

I grew up in Russia.
Very good recipes, an excellent introduction to Russian cooking tradition.
Not the most complete.
The book is excellent at taking into account the availability (or the lack of) certain ingredients in US supermarkets.