The Communist Cookbook That Defined Prague's Cuisine

[no_hypocrisy]

For years, one book dictated how and what people could eat.


In the newly independent Czech Republic of the 1990s, cheap comfort food—such as goulash, pork knuckle, and dumplings—dominated every eatery. Meanwhile vegetarians were encouraged to feast on fried cheese and stewed cabbage. (The late Anthony Bourdain famously called it “the land vegetables forgot” in an episode of his travel show No Reservations.) For the most part, tourists loved Prague in spite of the food rather than because of it. But Czechs didn’t understand the criticism. After 40 years of communism, the culinary splendor that once dominated Czech culture was a distant memory due, in part, to one very specific cookbook.

-snip-

The cookbook’s authors, František Syrový and Antonin Nestával, were relatively well-known chefs at the time (Nestával had even represented Czech gastronomy at the 1967 Montreal Expo). But the book emphasized limiting food imports and cooking economically, so it didn’t include anything you might expect to try at a culinary competition. Nutrition was also a core component of the book: The idea was that the the better-balanced people’s meals were, the harder people would work. In the book, calorie count and vitamin details were listed alongside ingredients and instructions, and certain recipes were suggested for certain professions. Portion sizes were designed by the hundreds, indicating that select dishes were to be cooked in large quantities each day.

Cooks that wanted to deviate from these recipes had to get approval from the Ministry of Health, a request that could take years to go through. Most people opted for the easier route, which is how thousands of nearly identical menus came to be established across the country. Paired with limited ingredient diversity, the nation suffered a creative drought: It wasn’t just that all the same dishes were served, but the dishes were prepared exactly the same way, resulting in identical versions of dishes, too. Each bite was calculated as a means of productivity, and dining for pleasure was considered extravagant. “Special” meals were no longer considered, and the scope of Czech cuisine shrunk.

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[SCantiGOP]

1. Sounds like paradise

No more: What do you want to eat tonight? I don’t know. What do you want to eat?

Want to go out? Yeah. Where you want to go? I don’t know, where do you want to go?

[Hortensis]

2. Lol. But pretty sure they got more than enough of

their version of what comes in those 20-gallon containers of sauce slopped on everything.

Our list is much shorter because getting serious about home cooking has ruined for us most of the chain options in our "Ruby Tuesday" price range. When friends drag us to one, I look for the simplest preparations and ask "no sauce, please" just in case they glob something undisclosed on or in.

Thanks, No Hypocrisy. Fun read, and you also reintroduced me to Atlas Obscura. I'd forgotten about it.