Signed Chesnok Book (Preorder)
$35.00
| /
Note: this is a preorder. Books will be available for pick up at the shop on Tuesday 3/31 following the book signing event on Sunday 3/29/2025. They can also be shipped out to you following the event.
Chesnok is as much a story of immigration as it is a cookbook. The author Polina Chestnakova was born in Ukraine to an Armenian father and Georgian mother with Russian roots. When she was two when her family emigrated to Rhode Island, where she came to understand the foods of Soviet diaspora--and her identify--through family gatherings, church tables, and picnics.
The sad irony of this book is that it reminds us how tightly knit the diaspora really is at a moment when war threatens to tear the region apart. Ten years ago the author says she would have simply called this food Russian. Today it's more complicated than that.
She's the first to tell you that this book is full of traditional recipes. We appreciate that she's putting this out there unapologetically. In an age of fusion cooking and the constant search for something new and unusual it's always worth taking a deeper look at tradition. We find it's the traditional recipe and techniques that are the most overlooked.
Hers is a world fill of sour dairy, of hearty grains and ferments. Of herbs and smoked meat and fish. Of dumplings and stuffed breads. Of eggplants, and tomatoes and pomegranate seeds.
The recipe, and their stories, are evocative. The kind of recipes to gather around and share. This is home cooking at it's best. Polina's tables are the embodiment of her family's cross cultural history. Were lucky she sharing it with us. Chesnok means garlic in Russian. The idea is simple: many cloves one bulb.
More about the author:
Polina Chesnakova, author Chesnok: Born in Ukraine to Russian and Armenian Immigrants from Georgia. This is her 3rd cookbook, following Hot Cheese, and Everyday Cake. Her work has also appeared in the Washington Post, Epicurious, Saveur and elsewhere. Polina currently lives in Providence RI.
Publisher: Hardie Grant