At Hanka's Table

Hanka Sawka (Author)

Editorial Reviews

Product Description

A touching culinary autobiography by an expert home cook whose table has offered succor and warmth to friends around the world for 30 years. Over 100 recipes featuring Polish specialties, including those for Christmas and Easter, and other internationally inspired dishes for appetizers, soups, and main and side dishes, and dessert.

Product Details

• Hardcover: 192 pages
• Publisher: Lake Isle Press (August 25, 2004)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 1891105094
• ISBN-13: 978-1891105098
• Product Dimensions: 9.3 x 7.8 x 1.1 inches
• Shipping Weight: 2.2 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 5.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (7 customer reviews)
• Amazon.com Sales Rank: #1,254,919 in Books (See Bestsellers in Books)

  Popular in this category: (What's this?)

  #28 in

  Books > Cooking, Food & Wine > Regional & International > European > Polish

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

9 of 9 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars The Struggle, October 17, 2004

By	otteranarchist (New York) - See all my reviews

The book is not only about the struggles of the artist and the family, but one of passion and great heart in its depiction of the ideas and historical references of that family. A cross between a great cookbook and an impassioned personal history, first for her mother and in-laws under the Nazis, then under the Russians and Communism, Hanka Sawka gives us the modern-day Polish diaspora in blunt terms. We reel hearing of Sawka's mother being murdered in Warsaw, her father-in-law spending ten years in prison for being a Polish patriot, her husband banned from making a living - these incidents giving great weight to the unsettling notion that art and beauty (and depth of character) can only come from great struggle. Though this book is infused with recipes and the claim that food is at the center of its existence, it is the passion of the writer in telling of her love for her family, artistic expression and Poland itself that truly inspires. It is like no other "cookbook" I have ever seen.

5 of 5 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars inspiring book, November 17, 2004

By	Linda H. Winnick - See all my reviews (REAL NAME)

This book is the first I've read that gives an American reader the woman's
slant on what it was like growing up behind the iron curtain. I really had
no idea of sufferings of Polish people during and after WWII, and the
importance of Polish tradition to the people maintaining a sense of who they
are--and of the importance to women in all of that. All of this was new to
me. I also enjoyed the first-hand story of the experience of a family of
modern refugees, and how they found their way in America. It was a very
inspiring book.

5 of 5 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Easy For Your Stomach, October 18, 2004

By	L. Kordas "anOldCook" (Raleigh, NC) - See all my reviews (REAL NAME)

This book is both: a fascinating family life story starting in Poland, behind the Iron Curtain, miraculously emerging into the Open World to continue in pursuit of artistic dreams, and a treasure house of traditional Polish meals enriched during the voyage. The wisdom of the book lies in the combination of both elements based on very deep passion, humanity, peace and love; some of the feelings kept secretly in the bottom of hearts for a long time. Meals, arts, adversities of life, family, dreams, friendships and struggles - these ingredients surprisingly support each other during the years leading finally to the speak-out, which the book really is. You can find them all inside flavored with flavorsome photographs and delightful graphics.