Yevhen Klopotenko is working to bring Ukrainian cuisine out of hiding. " The Authentic Ukrainian Kitchen : Recipes by a Native Chef" by Yevhen Klopotenko Published by Voracious, an imprint of Little, Brown and Company. 288 pages $40 Authentic dishes disappeared from Ukrainian dinner tables, going underground, in the early 20th century when the Soviet Union absorbed "the breadbasket of Europe.
" "The USSR wasn't just another imperialist force intent on colonizing Ukraine, but a behemoth determined to eradicate the heritages of its ethnic minorities and create a new, faceless, hegemonized culture devoid of individuality and regional differences," Klopotenko writes in the introduction to " The Authentic Ukrainian Kitchen: Recipes from a Native Chef ," his second cookbook in English. "Eighty years of Soviet rule wiped out entire generations of Ukrainian artists, dissidents and philosophers. It also changed the way the overwhelming majority of Ukrainians thought, dressed and even ate.
" Ukrainian chef Yevhen Kloptenko. To create a new Soviet-centered national identity, the USSR, amongst its numerous programs, created an "ideologically correct" food culture that was adapted to make use readily-available, cheap ingredients. When it did incorporate regional cuisine, like Ukrainian borsch, it was stripped of regional spices and seasonal ingredients.
Spices were replaced with salt. Regional dishes were stripped from canteens catering to farm works and university students. The nationally .
