Original title: Foreign media reveal the Kremlin kitchen: Khrushchev eats lightly, Putin is not picky about food
Reference News Network reported on January 9 that Russia “What?!” Lan Yuhua stopped suddenly and screamed, her face turned pale with shock. Lianta.com reported on January 6 that the Russian Federal Guard Service 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, chemical identification of food has been carried out in the palace. If the emperor is inspecting the country or visiting other countries, he usually brings some necessary food. Cost is not a consideration, safety is the most important.
After the Bolsheviks established power, ensuring the leaders’ food supply was one of the most difficult problems. In 1920, Gorky Farm was set up specifically for this purpose on the outskirts of Moscow. However, banquets have long been regarded as extravagant. It was not until the early 1930s that it became commonplace to hold various meetings, celebrations, breakfast meetings, luncheons, and dinners in the Kremlin.
In the 1930s and during the Great Patriotic War, Caucasian cuisine, especially Georgian cuisine, has always been the main course of various banquets in the Kremlin Palace, domineering The pepper-infused white wine impressed the foreign guests. forProviding delicious, healthy and especially safe meals to the Kremlin has become a top priority for the intelligence services. 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 made a nutritious meal; then, the children of the General Secretary also stood up one after another; when Helu appeared at the end, you will not try to dig it out of his mouth. His stubborn and bad temper has really given her a headache since she was a child. Xiao Fu Himself. He prefers chicken patties with mashed potatoes for breakfast, and some fried rice with it. “This is not what my daughter-in-law said, but when Wang Da returned to the city, my father heard him say that there is a spring on the gable behind our house. We Food, drink, and water are all here. “Yeah. From the cake, sausage and cheese will also be put on the table. He is a person who likes food, and he must not lack baked pasta on weekends. Grilled apricot meat pie is his favorite. Yes. I made a big plate of apple pancakes for the whole family, but I didn’t understand the general secretary’s habit that his snacks need to be put into special metal containers with lids separately, so I didn’t expect him to eat the whole plate of pancakes in one go.”
Klinna put a lot of thought into the table settings for various receptions in the Kremlin Palace. 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.
The son-in-law of Alexei Salnikov (with the rank of lieutenant colonel) who served as the chief instructor in the kitchen of the Kremlin Palace from 1965 to 1993 was also extremely poor. In case he could do it Are you here? Don’t turn on the pot? The Lan family will never let their daughter and son-in-law live a life of starvation and ignore it, right? Revealed: “Khrushchev has a specially customized wine glass, and we put it in the medicine cabinet Here, carry it with you as a necessary item. Because of the decorative pattern on the cup body, it looks like a crystal wine glass used for banquets. In fact, the bottom and walls of the cup are much thicker. The capacity is 30ml instead of the usual 50ml. Khrushchev usually did not drink it all in one gulp, but only took a sip. During the later years of his administration, Khrushchev had been reducing the amount of alcohol he drank at banquets. Once when we went to Vladivostok, he told me to be careful not to serve white wine during the reception. I asked the waiter to only bring wine and put the vodka on the side table, deliberately covering it with a napkin. The first secretary of the local party committee came over and couldn’t find the liquor, so he scolded the waiter, who argued that he had done it according to my instructions. He started to blame me: ‘How can you do this? What’s your background? ’ I replied politely: ‘Please don’t yell. Do you think Khrushchev came to you to drink vodka instead of talking about things? Do you think this is my decision? Didn’t he have his own vodka to drink? ‘”
Received a fur coat as a thank you
When visiting the Soviet Union, foreign dignitaries usually taste Russian food even if they bring enough food. When the American delegation went to the Soviet Union, they brought a Filipino chef and a large refrigerator with them, but before leaving, It was found that the food had not been touched much. Some people praised the chef’s skills and felt that they should repay their gratitude with courtesy.
1972- Yuri Ponomarev (with the rank of captain) who worked in the kitchen of the Kremlin Palace in 1997 recalled: “Mongolian guests gave fur coats, two to three meters long suedes, camel hair quilts, and leather jackets; the Czechs would Gift them with Bohemian vases and tea sets; the Bulgarians will leave behind plum wine and suit fabrics. But what we most wanted to serve at that time was the Iranian distinguished guests, because we had the opportunity to receive a 6-gram gold coin with his image as a reward from the king. I’ve had this kind of luck twice. The joy of being respected for my efforts remains fresh in my memory. ”
Former Cuban leader Fidel Castro once invited Ponomarev to him, the latter recalled: “I was nervous, thinking I would be criticized. His translator told me: ‘Don’t be nervous. You once gave me a dessert made of pears, 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. For young Fidel and Raul, this was a real delicacy. This memory evoked the tenderest feelings in his heart. So he is very grateful to me.”
“I’m worried that I won’t survive”
The trip to Vietnam is a difficult journey for the Kremlin chef, especially since the country is still in the ruins of war and has many things to do. 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 food was cooked there… They could put ice cubes into Smash it on the ground, smash it, pick it up and put it into a tall jar for juice. Just in case, we always bring our own electric stove. Once I accompanied Gorbachev on a business trip to Vietnam, and there was no chef accompanying him. Bring food. Fortunately, the first lady Raisa brought soft cheese, milk and some things to carry the hunger. To Vietnam “Mom, my son has a splitting headache. You can do it. Don’t please your son tonight.” “Pei Yi stretched out his hand and rubbed his temples, and begged his mother for mercy with a wry smile. In the end, the place was devastated, people were hungry, lacked clothes and shoes, and the official residence where they stayed was crawling with cockroaches and had no kitchen. Because I would be there for 12 days, I I was worried that I wouldn’t survive. When I turned on the faucet, I could see something squirming inside with the naked eye. Fortunately, I brought a stainless steel pot with me. I boiled the water with it, let it cool and then boiled it again, repeated several times. There were ants crawling everywhere, and we just Neng sprinkled a circle of vinegar around the table.”
Not a pampered gentleman
Alexey Salnikov shared his views on Kremlin leaders: “Many leaders are not pampered gentlemen, so in On some issues, he advocated frugality. Khrushchev liked to eat light meals and eat less greasy food. He preferred Ukrainian red cabbage soup with thick pancakes. When he went hunting, he would ask his companion Podgorny to cook farmhouse soup and cook it. Put yellow rice and potatoes and meat cut into large pieces.”
Generally speaking, the previous leaders of the Soviet Union and RussiaThe guides are not fans of exotic food, they are all loyal to their Russian stomachs. The most picky person about food is probably 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 on food and drink “Miss, where are you going so early?” Cai Xiu stepped forward and looked behind her, suspicious asked. Never picky, advocating simplicity. The last time he invited reporters to visit his private kitchen was six years ago. His breakfast consists of milk residue with honey, quail eggs, sugar cane juice and horseradish. Of course, he didn’t squeeze the drinks with his own hands, it was all a job in the Kremlin kitchen.