La popote des réfugiés russes entre les deux guerres

Abstract

Eating à la Russe in Exile : the Food Habits of the Russian Émigrés in France in the 1920s and 1930s. Focusing on the advertisements published in émigré weekly magazines like La Russie illustrée, the present paper wishes to give a glimpse of the food habits of the russian exiles in France between the two World Wars. one would think that the diversity of French edibles covered for the needs of the russians living in Paris. the advertisements, however, suggest a different picture. russian émigrés lacked buckwheat, dill, kvas, delicatess fishes for zakuski and, most surprisingly, dairy products, such as sour cream and fresh cheese. time passing, they did manage to make caviar out of cod roe and vodka out of the alcohol provided by the nearest pharmacy. besides the existence of numerous restaurants and shops, the advertisements reveal the activity of a dynamic food business, whose existence, apart from a few exceptions, ended with WW2.