The singer of Russian ‘shchi’ soup with a telling surname

Many will be surprised, but the last name Pokhlebkin is not the pseudonym of a group of chef-theorists, but the real name of a living person. True, his first name was not entirely familiar to the Russian ear: William, like Shakespeare. The oddities surrounding him don't end there.

By profession, he was an expert in international relations, a graduate of MGIMO University, a historian specializing in Scandinavian studies, who worked for many years at the Academy of Sciences. Cooking was his passion, not his primary specialty. He considered ‘The History of Norwegian Foreign Policy’ to be his main scholarly work. Nevertheless, it was he who began to speak to his readers not in the language of grams and liters, but about the history and culture of cooking, its spirit and character. It was he who reminded his compatriots that ‘shchi’ soup can be made not only from cabbage, but also from beetroot tops or nettles and that meat can be fried without fat in a dry frying pan. His ‘Culinary Dictionary’ became a manifesto of freedom, boldly placing ‘solyanka’ soup next to ‘soy’, which, in Soviet times, was a form of gastronomic dissidence.

Pokhlebkin's culinary work merged all his talents: as a historian, a practitioner and a brilliant storyteller. His books ‘Tea’, ‘All About Spices’, ‘National Cuisines of Our Peoples’ (about the cuisines of the Union republics) and ‘Entertaining Cooking’ were published in the USSR. And his ‘History of Vodka’ was awarded the prestigious international ‘Lange Ceretto Prize’ in 1993.