RUSS 222 - Russian Foodways

Semester Offered: Second Semester
Full Course
Credits: 4 credits
Attribute: 4HU, CD

“Tell me what you eat, and I will tell you what you are,” Brillat-Savarin pronounced in 1826. This course examines the vital role of food and drink in Russia and its borderlands (Georgia, Armenia, Ukraine, Central Asia) from a historical, cultural, environmental, and culinary perspective. Topics include: the dual peasant and aristocratic (French) origins of Russian cuisine; food, drinking and national identity; food and memory; vegetarianism; foraging and hunting; feasts and famines; Russia’s kitchen- and dacha- gardening traditions; current trends (fast food, local food, farm-to- table). Sources include cookbooks, literary works, essays, films. Entails substantial kitchen time. No cooking experience required

Enrollment Limit: 25
Instructor: A. Forman, T. Newlin