LUNCH ON THE BALCONY: Recipes from the table of Russia’s last imperial family

Excelente producto.

Although this book shares the recipes that the Romanov family enjoyed, it also delves into some history of the family which I enjoyed reading about.

Today memorable meals with friends and family, sharing special recipes and celebrating special occasions with our favorite food and drinks is still an intrinsic part of life in the 21st century just like it was in the late 19 th and early 20 th centuries for the last Imperial family of Russia. This fascinating book brings traditions, food, pageantry and, yes even simplicity of the Romanovs. The book has diary excerpts, history, and even recipes that are easy to follow and to make even for a curious novice in the kitchen. In past books from the diaries of the Romanov daughters I always read the entry “had tea” and by reading this book that is broken down into sections I now have a better understanding of what had tea meant ! The sections of the book are well thought out and begin with Tsar Nicholas ll birthday and end with meals eaten in captivity.

J'aime beaucoup cet écrivain en général,mais ce livre est très décevant,je ne l'ai pas gardé d'ailleurs.

For much of this year I have been reading about the role of food and its preparation as a part of history. Betty Fussell and others have argued that food is an important, though often ignored, means by which to study past societies. So, I adore this book. I have not loved any Romanov book quite so much so much since Kleinpenning’s translation of the Hesse correspondence. It is a lovely collection of photographs, domestic details, extant menus from not only grand dinners but meals from the Romanov suite’s periods of captivity as well as some of the recipes. Azar pulls these fragments together from correspondence, personal memoirs and her own thoroughgoing research. The menus have a degree of repetition which may have much to do with available animals and what could be cultivated. Or it may be revealing of expectations and conventions for what could be served at banquets. This is not a criticism. I am thrilled and amazed that something as ephemeral as a daily menu, albeit from a palace, has survived at all. It is tribute to Azar’s expertise and skill that she can extract these diverse materials and shape them into ‘a good read’ that is also informative and very touching. It’s all there: Alix’s poor digestion and consequent avoidance of meat, Nicholas’s love of simple, archetypal peasant food, the moveable dining table at the Alexander Palace. Those who follow Azar on You-tube will be au fait with the recipes that she has posted, such as Tver pepper biscuits and the much loved ice cream. However this book extends the range of recipes greatly. For me, the greatest find was Alix’s handwritten recipe for Farmer’s cheese to be used as the filling for a pastry. There is/are a lot of recipes which utilise a fair bit of pastry and minced meat and I’m not sure how many I’ll be making but I am delighted to know of these things and to extend my knowledge of the Romanov’s domestic life. For that is something that the study of food can provide: a window onto the intimacy of family life, not only its struggles but its closeness and its happiness. And this is primarily a happy book about the Romanovs. It suggests holidays, feasts, family gatherings full of conversation,laughter, flirtations and this provides a welcome counterpoint to Sandro’s complaints about the tortuous pace of the glacially slow meals or Ambassador Buchanan bleating about the poor quality of food served at Tsarskoe Selo during WWI. What a debt we all owe Ms Azar and her co-authors for all their wonderful investigations and translations.