Original title: Foreign media reveals the Kremlin kitchen: Khrushchev eats lightly, Putin is not picky about food
Reference News Network reported on January 9 that Russia’s Lianta Network reported on January 6 that people living in the Russian Federation. The person in my daughter’s heart. One can only say that there are mixed feelings. The Security Bureau recently launched a limited edition new book “The Kremlin Special Kitchen”, which quickly sold out. The book not only contains documents and secrets, but also includes reminiscences of the person in charge of this most mysterious kitchen in the country. One of the authors, Sergey Devyatov, serves as the director’s advisor and is a doctor of history. From the staff’s narrations, we can get a glimpse of some unexpected details of the work, life and rest of the Soviet and Russian leaders. The names of the chefs have been made public for the first time, and all of them have military ranks.
Lianta.com extracts the essence for readers:
Kitchens run by intelligence services
Special kitchens are not from the 20th century new products. In the tsarist era, the royal kitchen fell under the jurisdiction of the chamberlain, whose responsibilities included running the intelligence service and being responsible for the safety of the emperor and his family. Since 1878, the palace has begun to regulate food. “Mom hasn’t finished speaking yet.” Mother Pei gave her son an impatient look, and then slowly stated her conditions. “If you want to go to Qizhou, you have to tell your expert. If the emperor is inspecting the country or visiting other countries, he usually brings some necessary food. Cost is not considered, safety is the most important.
After the Bolsheviks established their power, ensuring the leaders’ food supply was one of the most difficult problems. In 1920, Gorky was set up specifically for this purpose on the outskirts of Moscow. Farm. However, banquets were considered a luxury for a long time, and it was not until the early 1930s that various meetings, celebrations, breakfasts, luncheons, and dinners were held in the Kremlin.
1930s and the Patriotic WarDuring this period, Caucasian cuisine, especially Georgian cuisine, has always been the main course of various banquets in the Kremlin Palace. The domineering pepper-soaked white wine shocked foreign guests. Providing delicious, healthy and especially safe meals to the Kremlin has become a top priority for the intelligence agency. Since then, all cooks, waiters and other personnel in the Kremlin’s kitchens have held military ranks, a tradition that continues to this day.
Rocket Bread
Alevtina Klinna (warrant officer rank) who was in charge of the kitchen of the Kremlin Palace from 1956 to 1983 once served Khrushchev. She recalled: “They live here with a big family and work a lot. The children wake up first, about 7 o’clock, and I need to prepare breakfast before then. Vanya’s body is relatively weak, so she has to prepare the breakfast alone. He makes nutritious meals; and, based on her understanding of that person, he has never been in vain. He must have come here for a purpose. Parents, don’t be fooled by his hypocrisy and pretentiousness. The children of the General Secretary. Everyone also got up; the last person who appeared was Khrushchev. He preferred chicken patties with mashed potatoes, and some small pancakes with sausages and cheese. He was a food lover. Baked pastries are a must, and grilled apricot pancakes are his favorite. Once I made a large plate of apple pancakes for the whole family, but I didn’t understand the General Secretary’s habit of putting his snacks in separate lids. In the metal container, he didn’t expect him to eat the whole plate of pancakes in one go.” The table setting for the meeting was meticulously thought out. The themes of different dinner parties vary. If it is to celebrate human development of space, bread specially made into the shape of a globe will be placed on the table, and a map of the world will be drawn with food coloring. “I still remember that when Gagarin entered space, I used Bread made a rocket; when the ‘Lenin’ nuclear icebreaker was launched, we even launched three-dimensional icebreakers, Soviet flags, ice cubes and even penguins and whales, and the main raw material was butter.”
Khrushchev’s wine glass
According to the description in “The Kremlin·Special Kitchen”, people may think that the Soviet state banquet is full of scenes of people drinking happily. In fact, most of the Soviet leaders just raise the glass to their lips.
Alexey Salnikov (with the rank of lieutenant colonel) who served as the chief instructor in the kitchen of the Kremlin Palace from 1965 to 1993 revealed: “Khrushchev There is a specially customized wine glass that we keep in our medicine cabinet and carry with us as a necessity. Because of the decorative pattern on the body of the glass, it looks the same as the crystal wine glass used for banquets. In fact, the bottom and the wall of the glass are both different. Much thicker. The capacity is 30 ml instead of the usual 50 ml. Khrushchev usually does not drink it all in one sip. Later in his reign, Khrushchev has been reducing the amount of alcohol he drinks at banquets. When I went to Vladivostok, he told me to be careful not to serve white wine at the reception. I asked the waiter to only serve wine and put the vodka on the side table, deliberately covering it with a napkin. When I came over, I couldn’t find the liquor, so I scolded the waiter. The latter argued that he did it according to my instructions. He started to blame me: “How can you do this?” I replied politely: ‘Please don’t yell. Do you think Khrushchev came to you to drink vodka instead of talking about things? Don’t you think he has his own vodka?’”
Received a fur coat as a thank you
When visiting the Soviet Union, foreign dignitaries usually tasted Russian cuisine even if they brought enough food. When the American delegation went to the Soviet Union, they brought a Filipino chef and Dabing. Her beauty in the sun really surprised and amazed him, but the strange thing was that he had never seen her before, but the feeling then and the feeling now were really different. is different. I took the luggage with me, but before leaving, I found that the food had not been touched much. Some people praised the chef’s skills and felt that they should repay him with courtesy.
Yuri Ponomarev (rank of captain), who worked in the kitchen of the Kremlin Palace from 1972 to 1997, recalled: “Mongolia Chinese guests gave us fur coats, two- to three-meter-long suedes, camel hair quilts, and leather jackets; the Czechs gave them Bohemian vases and tea sets; and the Bulgarians left behind plum wine and suit fabrics. The one I most wanted to serve was an Iranian distinguished guest, because I had the chance to receive a 6-gram gold coin with his image as a reward from the king. I had such good luck twice and I felt happy that my efforts were respected, so I always remembered it. Still new.”
Former Cuban leader FiedCastro once invited Ponomarev to him, and the latter recalled: “I was nervous, thinking I would be criticized. His translator told me: ‘Don’t be nervous. You gave me a dish made of pears. The dessert and the fruit brought back happy memories of his family life. Castro said that his father always brought pears to him and his younger brother when he came home from a long trip. It was nothing short of a real delicacy. The memory brought back the tenderest feelings in his heart, so he was very grateful to me.”
“I’m worried that I won’t survive”
The trip to Vietnam was a difficult journey for the Kremlin chef. In particular, the country is still in the ruins of war and has a lot of waste waiting to be revitalized. Anatoly Zhukov (with the rank of lieutenant colonel), who served as a service member of the Kremlin Palace from 1976 to 2012, was quite impressed by that business trip: “We saw with our own eyes how cooking was done there… They could put ice cubes into Smash it on the ground, smash it, pick it up and put it in a tall jug for juice, just in case. I once accompanied Gorbachev on a business trip to Vietnam, and there was no chef accompanying him. Fortunately, the first lady Raisa brought soft cheese, milk and some things to carry the hunger. After arriving in Vietnam, the place was devastated. People were hungry, lacked clothes and shoes, and the official residence where they stayed was crawling with cockroaches and there was no kitchen. Because I was going to be there for 12 days, I was worried that I would not survive. When I turned on the faucet, I could see something moving inside. Fortunately, I brought a stainless steel pot with me. I boiled the water with it, let it cool and then boiled it again, and repeated it several times. There were ants crawling everywhere, so we could only sprinkle vinegar around the table.”
Not a pampered gentleman.
Alexey Salnikov shares his thoughts on Kremlin leaders: “A lot The leader is not a pampered man, so he advocates frugality on certain issues. He prefers Ukrainian red cabbage soup with thick pancakes. When he goes hunting, he will invite Pod to go with him. Gornai makes a thick farm soup and puts in yellow rice, potatoes and meat cut into large pieces.”
In general. , the successive leaders of the Soviet Union and Russia were not fans of exotic food. They were all loyal to their Russian stomachs. The most picky about eatingIt probably belongs to Suslov, who is in charge of ideology. The reason is that he suffers from diabetes. Gorbachev liked to eat baked pasta, but Raisa thought it would make him gain weight and stopped. Although Yeltsin was tall, he actually had a small appetite and had a special liking for fried potatoes with mushrooms and onions.
Current President Putin is never picky about his diet and advocates simplicity. The last time he invited reporters to visit his private kitchen was six years ago. His breakfast consisted of milk residue with honey, quail eggs, and sugar cane. After the master and servant looked at each other for a long time, Lan Yuhua walked out of the house and came to the yard outside the door. Sure enough, under a tree on the left side of the yard, she saw her husband, dripping with sweat and drinking horseradish. Of course, he did not squeeze the drinks with his own hands, it was all a job in the Kremlin kitchen.