Please to the Table: The Russian Cookbook

Back in print!

As soon as it was published more than 30 years ago, Please to the Table was recognized as a significant addition to culinary literature. Although it says it's a Russian cookbook, its coverage takes in the entire former Soviet Union, from the Baltic republics to Central Asia, as well as Russia proper and, of course, Ukraine and Georgia.

Author Anya von Bremzen would go on to write many other successful books, including Mastering the Art of Soviet Cooking, a memoir about emigrating from Russia to the US as a teenager. Her collaborator, John Welchman, an art historian and travel writer, helped bring wider cultural context to the book, which is evident in headnotes and sidebars.

At more than 600 pages, Please to the Table is as expansive as it is engaging. We were dismayed when it became unavailable for several years. Thankfully, its publisher, Workman, has made it available again through print-on-demand technology, and we demanded some to be printed for us.

POD, as print-on-demand is often called, does not produce books that are as fine as traditionally printed books. In the case of Please to the Table, this is most evident in the black-and-white photographs, which are definitely grainy. Text, however, is crisp and clean, and the book is printed on good, bright white stock that is as good as we see in new releases from many publishers. You can put this book to use.

And we think you will use it.

Paperback. Black-and-white phototgraphs.