Kremlin gourmets: what was served on the table for Soviet leaders

2024 Author: Richard Flannagan | [email protected]. Last modified: 2023-12-15 23:55

It is known that in Soviet times, chefs employed by the Kremlin not only underwent a thorough, months-long inspection, but also had military shoulder straps. This was explained by the fact that the special services were responsible for the food of the first persons of the Land of the Soviets, and all the cooks automatically became KGB officers. Each leader had his own preferences and requirements for the dishes served, and there was always something special prepared for the receptions.

Vladimir Lenin

The leader of the world proletariat was very unpretentious in food, sometimes he could not even clearly explain what he ate for lunch or dinner. If it were not for the health problems that Vladimir Ulyanov had in his student years, he would not have paid attention to his nutrition at all. The periods when he managed to eat quite regularly are associated with imprisonment and exile. In prison, hot food, albeit in the form of a stew, was provided regularly, and in exile in Shushenskoye, the food of the future leader was very healthy: fresh meat, fish, dairy products.

Of the drinks, Vladimir Ulyanov preferred beer, but he drank a little of it, no more than a mug, and during long meetings with colleagues he ordered a cup of black coffee. Tea was the main drink in the post-revolutionary period.

After the revolution, the house of Vladimir Ulyanov and Nadezhda Konstantinovna was served by a cook who prepared diet meals. Ilyich was very fond of the mushrooms, which he collected himself. The leader also loved hunting and, as long as his health allowed, he ate freshly prepared game with pleasure.

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Joseph Stalin

The taste preferences of the father of nations have changed over time. In the pre-war period, the diet of Joseph Stalin and his family was based on simple dishes, mainly Russian or Ukrainian cuisine. Frozen cabbage soup was especially popular. Thanks to the special cooking method, the cabbage in them turned out to be amber-transparent and very tender. During the picnics, barbecue and many different sandwiches were invariably present.

Iosif Vissarionovich also loved baked potatoes, which were constantly cooked for him, and if the potatoes had time to cool, then the portion was thrown away, and the next batch was put on the stove in order to serve the dish freshly prepared. Stalin respected fish, in his basement at the Blizhnyaya dacha two pools were equipped for it, because only freshly caught was always prepared. However, the father of nations also loved smoked, salted and dried fish.

Before the war, Stalin began to gradually return to the national Georgian cuisine, but he always observed a balance, consuming Georgian dishes on holidays and special dates. At the same time, the feasts themselves were accompanied by a drinking ritual, with a toastmaster, long ornate toasts and drinking jokes. And the menu was appropriate: lobio, chakhokhbili, kharcho, suluguni.

The shish kebab for the leader was prepared in a very special way, from a two-week-old lamb that ate only mother's milk. It was cut up so as not to damage a single internal organ, allowed to rest for a day, then pickled. As a result, the meat turned out to be juicy, tender, melting in the mouth.

Stalin was not particularly fond of participation in receptions where the so-called "diplomatic" food was served. He hardly touched food, content himself with a sandwich with fish or caviar. Over the years, when Stalin was already living alone, his diet was disrupted, which could not but affect his health. The only normal meal took place after the meeting of the Politburo, closer to 23-00, before that he only had a snack or drank tea with sandwiches. Significantly, he invited those who he least trusted to share the late meal with him. Only after they began to eat did he start eating himself. At the end of his life, Stalin believed that there were only enemies around him and sometimes he even cooked for himself on an electric stove, fearing poisoning.

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Nikita Khrushchev

Nikita Sergeevich loved simple and hearty food. On his table there were often dumplings, dumplings, pies, pancakes. Of all the first courses, his favorite was the hunting kulesh. Blood sausage was a regular guest on his table, as were fried meat, stuffed pork with homemade sauces, and a variety of fish.

The whole family of the General Secretary loved ice cream, and the chef prepared it very often. They also did not refuse traditional desserts: jelly, jam, various compotes. Fresh fruits and vegetables were obligatory on the table. For breakfast, porridge was certainly served, and after dinner at 19-00 - only homemade kefir.

The banquet menu has always amazed with its variety. There are jellied prawns and pike-perch stuffed with crabs, which are side by side with hunting kulesh and fried blood sausage.

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Leonid Brezhnev

Leonid Ilyich was a real gourmet. He loved game, and not only fresh cooking, but also fresh shooting, so the team of cooks invariably accompanied the General Secretary on the hunt, ready to skin and immediately cook the recently shot wild boar.

According to the testimony of contemporaries, Brezhnev loved most of all kurnik and freshly prepared light soup, he really liked the traditional Ukrainian borscht. All dishes were prepared under the personal control of the wife of the Secretary General, Victoria Brezhneva. When dental problems arose, he asked him to cook soft food, and he loved only cold cutlets.

Over the years, Leonid Ilyich became concerned with the problems of excess weight and began to eat very little, although tables were always crowded at government receptions. At home, at his dacha, at work in the Kremlin, he had scales everywhere. If the General Secretary managed to lose weight, then he was literally happy. If he even gained 500 grams, he immediately demanded to replace the scales first, then weighed himself in all the rooms. And he very severely limited himself to food. For dinner I could be content with cabbage and tea, sometimes cottage cheese or a couple of cheesecakes.

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Yuri Andropov and Konstantin Chernenko

Their reign was quite short. In both cases, the Secretaries General were on a special diet due to illness. Yuri Andropov ate without salt because of the kidneys, and Konstantin Chernenko spent more time in a hospital bed than in the Kremlin.

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Mikhail Gorbachev

The first and only President of the USSR and his wife ate very simply and did not like it when, after the next meal, a lot of food remained unfinished. For breakfast, the Gorbachev couple always ate porridge, cheese, and bread. Mikhail Sergeevich tasted the cheese during business trips abroad and since then he has always been present on his table. He preferred coffee as a drink, but during speeches, the waiter changed a cup of tea with milk in front of the President every 15 minutes.

During his foreign visits, Mikhail Gorbachev safely tried exotic dishes, but Raisa Maksimovna was imperceptibly replaced by frog legs or snake meat with the usual chicken. The wife of the President herself watched her weight and the weight of her husband, so she asked the cooks not to serve him pastries and fatty foods.

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The Nobel Prize ceremony is held annually on December 10 in Stockholm. All awards, except for the Peace Prize, are presented by the King of Sweden, and after the award ceremony, all laureates and their guests are invited to a special Nobel banquet. The menu of the banquet, which has been held since 1901, has never been repeated, and the entire course of the gala dinner has been verified to the second, and the timing of its holding has never been violated.