There is an episode of Chef's Table on Netflix dealing with the same effect on Russia's cuisine, and how this chef was trying to resurrect all sorts of traditional Russian dishes which had in effect been lost for 80 years because they were seen as too bourgeoisie. It incidentally also went into how the Western sanctions against Russia had only strengthened his project, because it led to an ersatz locavore movement and forced him to use Russian-available ingredients. For example, he tries to use only honey instead of sugar, because the latter wasn't really present historically in Russia.
Mmm. Honey marmalade with an ancient Greek connection. Subtle overtones of anti-capitalism, retro cool and holistic herbal healing. Think you just spotted a new hipster breakfast trend. Sourdough it, mix with your Euromuesli, gourmet burger/wrap or pizza that stuff and cash in. Minimalist line drawings of naked Greek athletes: boom. Fad.
One thing I discovered and really liked during my stay in CR is soup. Contrary to potages or soups of my country they often contain meat, and ingredients with various textures. I liked it so much I bought a book on the topic: Polevky by Alena Doležalová. It’s filled with beautiful pictures and most recipes features variants.
One thing they haven't forgotten is how to brew beer. If you visit to Prague I would recommend visiting one of the old state-run restaurants, Lokál Dlouhááá: http://lokal-dlouha.ambi.cz/en/
Second that recommendation! While not state-run anymore all the "Lokáls" and Kantina serve amazing food with lots of ambiente from the old cold war times
Just went here to say that. Amongo the ones I visited I can also endorse V Cípu, with great "specials" section. Be careful, as beer is cheap and great almost everywhere but it can effectively hamper your sightseeing ;)
I think there is something misleading about comparing high cuisine with middling cuisine. Like when people compare French and British cuisine: the former developed as the cuisine of kings in the 16-17th century and then kind of trickled down to expensive restaurants, while the latter developed during the industrial revolution and was something that every salaried man could afford to eat at home.
A similar story happened with communist cuisine: as a matter of fact most people were not eating that well before WWII, and for them communist cuisine was definitely an improvement. The majority of the population could not afford restaurants anyway.
If you're interested in this kind of topics there is "Cuisine and Empire", by Rachel Laudan (that's where I took most of the ideas).
While we are clearing things up: the purpose of specific recipes was standardization and quality control. The purpose of ČSN was something like ISO today.
The author was quite confused with a lot of the facts. (She had the Germans invade a year late. Dr. Thorne is the Academic Director at NYU Prague.) The topic is interesting; it deserves an author with at least a cursory understanding of the subject matter.
No it wasn't. There is always a level of social engineering and control behind decisions like that from communist government. Not to mention that it would have been intimately tied to a deeply flawed economic model (which resulted in predictable outcomes like shortages AND rationing, which then resulted in more direct government control) and pure corruption with decisions benefitting party-connected individuals.
Yes it is. Your post is reflection of your opinion of the system, formed by whatever means, but it hasn't shown any sign of trying to understand the problem that the system was solving. In this case, how to make sure an unified, standardized product is being produced.
After 1989, many foods that were produced by these recipes (ČSN means Czechoslovak State Norms) went downhill quality-wise, by trying to make it cheaper to produce (by changing the ingredient mix in favour of the cheaper ingredients, using cheaper substitutes, etc).
How do I know? I was born, raised and lived in that system. I've seen it firsthand.
>...but it hasn't shown any sign of trying to understand the problem that the system was solving. In this case, how to make sure an unified, standardized product is being produced.
Yes. They were trying to solve a non-issue in a way that aligned with the ideological (social and economic) position of the communist movement. I get it. I just refuse to interpret those kind of actions in a charitable light by linking them to modern professional organizations that create voluntary standards. It's similar to looking at the way the Venezuelan government destroyed their economy and arguing that it is no different from typical social welfare policy of a Western market-based nation because it was all done to combat poverty or something.
It's pure distortion to interpret this cookbook as merely a quality or standards measure. It misses the mark and distorts the reality of why it existed.
>How do I know? I was born, raised and lived in that system.
I grew up in Eastern Europe. I've seen it first-hand as well.
I understand that not every law or regulation was meant to be push an ideological position but let's be clear, it is no coincidence that the identified problem and the particular solution on this matter just so happen to neatly align with ideological considerations. Considerations like:
1) top-down regulation that mandated what a 'real' Czech meal is.
2) needing to wait years for permission to deviate from the official recipes.
3) maintaining the system long past the original problem (if it ever existed) became a complete non-issue.
4) mandating meals that align with the optics of what a 'proletariat' meal should be.
5) aligning this policy with economic policies that combat self-inflicted problems of shortages, inflation, lack of external trade.
etc,etc,etc
>many foods that were produced by these recipes (ČSN means Czechoslovak State Norms) went downhill quality-wise
Maybe, but I think even that interpretation is flawed. What you interpret as quality going 'downhill', is really a product stratified across different price/quality levels to cater to different markets. You can get high-quality meals for more money, and lower-quality meals for less money. That does not mean quality went down, it means choices increased when a suffocating and market-distorting regulation is lifted.
The entire article suffers from a common misconception that former communist countries "suffered horribly from lack of innovation," when it was a negative against many other positives of the time. Food was cheaper and higher quality than now. For example, Czechs still love this cookbook because it set a high bar for quality of ingredients for schools and work cafeterias. They don't see it as confining as much as defining.
They were not really good anyway. They took classic local recipe and standardize it to lowest denominator and made them cheap and failproof. There is new wave of interest in Czech traditional cuisine + there was always homemade versions, but I dont think there is any cookbook translated to English.
If you are curious search for Austrian, German or Hungarian cookbooks, all of those share the same roots and overlaps.
