Dinners with Stalin: A Culinary History of the Soviet Empire

A talk with Erik Scott about food in the USSR. From the Jordan Center:

He looks at how the Soviet effort to promote a diet representative of the state’s internal diversity created opportunities for non-Russian culinary specialists and imbued Soviet material culture with complementary and conflicting national meanings. Focusing on the celebrated food and drink of Joseph Stalin’s homeland, he follows the dissemination of Georgian dishes and wines, accompanied by distinct dining and drinking rituals, from the upper echelons of Soviet power to the broader Soviet public. Drawing on archival materials, cookbooks, restaurant menus, and interviews, he examines how Georgian cuisine both affirmed and challenged Soviet authority and considers its enduring political and cultural significance in the post-Soviet era.

Organized by the Jordan Center at NYU’s Department of Nutrition, Food Studies and Public Health.