Editura GastroArt announces a new editorial available in Cărturesți bookstores: What's new in the New Romanian Gastronomy by Adriana Sohodoleanu. We invite you to read the afterword written by Cosmin Dragomir. You can order the book here
In 1841, in Iași, the first printed cookbook in Moldova appeared, whose authors, Mihal Kogălniceanu and Costache Negruzzi, signed the first edition with only their initials. The success of the volume and/or perhaps even the pressure of anonymity – the frustration of not being recognized as a scumbag and dough-breaker make the future prime minister write, shortly after the book's appearance, this user manual with clear instructions for posterity and with an obvious narcissistic hope: "I will tell you this much that I recently published - together with Mr. CN, another Prometheus manque like me - a book that, overturning all established powers, trampling all the rules received by assembly and the custom of the land, is to make a terrible revolution in all of Moldova in the form of making dumplings and dumplings; I want to talk about a collection of 200 recipes of dishes, which will make us the best reputation among cooks and the grateful future will undoubtedly give us the beautiful name of: the introducers of the culinary art in Moldova. We are satisfied with that"[1].
It was indeed a favorable time for revolutions and upheavals. At least that's what history guarantees us, and it's not wrong. Maybe sometimes it's just unfair. The principalities threw away their islich, shalwars and cucubuc and indulged in western models whether it was about clothing, dance, design or good manners. Gastronomy could not remain inert to these changes. Culinary Moldova, as it looks today, also owes something to the two pasoptic revolutionaries, as well as gastronomic ones.
Well, imagine that Mihail Kogălniceanu is our contemporary and the text quoted above was posted as a status on social networks or even in groups of householders where conservatism is even more blatant. It would have been explained to him that "it is not done that way!". He would have been asked: "who will work here?".
In the matter of recipes, uncompromising intransigence takes on colossal proportions. My mother and grandmother are the only reliable references. We confine ourselves in an indestructible self-referentiality to the tastes, habits and even habits (you know the dish with the wife's food that the man didn't like because it wasn't burnt like the one from childhood?) the way of cooking and the seasoning we were used to. Sociological studies have shown that the biggest adaptation problems of the diaspora are related to food.
But, we forget that there are millions of mothers and grandmothers, we forget the Seas and their hats, we ignore the valid general truth transmitted via folklore through "how many brothels, so many customs". We are sick of standardization and, even if we are hungry, we have no appetite for potential chewable revelations. We are convinced a priori that a dish, so not a meal (sic!), will either stick in our throats, or fall hard on our stomachs. We are like the unmentionable grandfather of Prometheus who slapped his grandson's hand and told him to stop playing with that wood, that it is good as it is and that it angers the gods.
It's the same with the modernization of the Romanian kitchen or with the Romanian kitchen of the 21st century (the baptism belongs to Cezar Ioan). I prefer this phrase to all the others in order not to validate or take advantage of any of the competitive subtendencies already taken for granted by Adriana. As an immediate consequence of what I have written above should be put personally at odds with the choice of the title of the book, which could seem biased. Is not! The author's choice is the right one, reducing the entire analyzed trend to the most common phrase, explicit and with a dose of pioneering.
With the author's consent, I will use the honorable opportunity of the postface to talk more about gastronomy and less about the book.
I think that Romanian cuisine, older, newer, so-and-so, needs as many voices as possible to support it. I think he also needs more books, and the present one stands out from the typical gastronomy volumes from us where we are used to recipes and practical advice and almost no theorizing. The reader now has the opportunity to hold in their hands (and I hope you are browsing the print version and there are no pirated pdfs still circulating) a scientific research yes to the book. Moreover, it is a research that was all the more difficult because it was conducted directly on a constantly changing front. The new Romanian kitchens are not nailed-down concepts, in fact they were taken to heart during the documentation, and even now they are being finished during the reading. Although it has been a few years since it was introduced, modernization is still in its infancy here. There is also the risk that the cuisine will deflate and tend towards other fashions. While I'm writing this text I remembered and I'm actually flipping through a volume from 1921 entitled "The Newest Cookbook".
A book like this has a dual role: to shed light on a rather ambiguous matter and to educate. The two converge, because perhaps now more than on the occasions when we tasted and spoke with the main actors of the volume we have all the information to better understand "what to eat" Romanian gastronomy of the 21st century. We have to admit - at least this is what I deduce from the thousands of off and online interactions with the field - that we have an elephant in the kitchen and we don't really know how to behave. Some would caress his trunk, others would pluck his ivories. Some would pat him on the stomach, others would be afraid of the breath unseen in the vicinity. Some would campaign for rewilding, others would take it to the ZOO. As if, according to an empirical statistic, most people are afraid that they might be replaced by the doula in the yard or the bichon in the studio. There is a clear antipathy towards small and portioned portions, a popular reaction that "you can't get enough" and a barrel of vegeta or delicate that is about to explode. During Kogălniceanu's time they would have taken the pitchforks and axes, today we put the mouse and keyboard to work. The people are dumbfounded that they have to eat less and fancy. It is fixed as in the case of cricket flour that EU compels us let's consume it. I'm surprised that the fake news didn't appear with a black van equipped with a mobile kitchen in which Setilă and Fomilă are seized and forced NOT to fill themselves with all kinds of non-pantagruelic nonsense. Unfortunately, this book is not going to reach those fake news sharers.
I believe that the biggest image problem of modern gastronomy is the minimalism displayed en-detail. We are used to ordering a maximum of three dishes. Appetizer or soup/soup, main course and dessert. The experience in such(another) restaurant comes as a package with the tasting menu (ie wholesale). With 5/7/9 different dishes, each with x elements (ingredients, textures, sauces). Eating becomes exploratory and less utilitarian. Philosophical even without the purpose of ostentatiousness. And no, not at all, it is not intended for the three meals of the day. It's Sunday, festive, more going out than going out. Occasionally, not daily. Thus it does not replace but compensates for the routine. This is when we talk about fine dining. Because there is also an intermediate category of restaurants with modern Romanian cuisine (generally bistros) where the portions are more generous. And there the inventiveness, the local product and its quality are what define the concept on the plate, but which is molded on a different strategy of serving the customer.
It is true that some innovations of the new generation of chefs they can work as a rebound and give grudges to the challengers. They have had the opportunity to explain and explain themselves in these pages. It is true that certain generations and social strata (the overwhelming majority of members) are ultra-conservative and rarely accept deviations from known tastes. It's been that way since the world. Here is an example that is about two centuries old. "Maybe Louis-Ettienne Maynard, the French chef of Alexandru Vodă Ipsilante, could serve who knows what green, yellow, pistachio or blue sauces at the royal table, when Dincă - the gypsy made a dish of "clapon cu cocanari" or flapon, please, with Tarigrad almonds, let the boyars leave all the sauces and all the combinations to the French and eat Dincă's food until they lift them up"[2]. After almost two hundred years we observe the same lack of appetite for new and the same appetite for triferment. In the meantime, the flapper with cuconari disappeared from the traditional kitchen and pizza made its way into the frequency of cooking, ordering and consumption without much effort. It was also easy for him because it is a dish with identifiable ingredients (I mentioned it because it is one of the examples successfully accepted by all generations).
Another image problem of modern Romanian cuisine is its frequent unrecognizability. Even the bravest of us have doubts about eating blindfolded. And last but not least, the price. The kitchen is expensive!
But all three potentially negative features are actually the quelque chose of the story. They make her intriguing, seductive, sexy. A plate of baked beans and pork is porn, while modern cuisine is erotic. Both spice up our lives, especially if the mood leaves it softer the more soul it has put in and is more careful about the amount of salt.
Anyway, the addressability of Romanian cuisine of the 21st century does not claim to be exhaustive, on the contrary, it is a niche product. It's gourmet. That's how it is with this volume. It is neither Sanda Marin, nor Radu Anton Roman, nor Irina Georgescu. In fact, it cannot be compared with any other editorial written by a Romanian. He is unique and different, meritorious and technocratic. It's fixed like modern Romanian cuisine: not only is it not for everyone, it's only for very few. Few but good. Good and lustful.
[1] Mihail Kogălniceanu, Lost illusions. A first love, in Opere I, edition, introductory study, notes and comments by Dan Simionescu, Bucharest, Academy Publishing House, 1974
[2] George I. Ionescu-Gion, History of Bucharest, ed. Technopress, 2008
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"I believe that the New Romanian Kitchen is both a historical continuity and a break with the past. The movement, although relatively Brownian, constructs its field by calling upon material resources such as local seasonal ingredients, micro-local recipes, and symbolic resources such as traditions, histories, and memories through which it patronizes the concept of local. Noua Bucătărie Românească narrates the performative and theatrical locale, offering an experience at an affordable price to a class with surplus economic and cultural capital. She makes a positive contribution to the development of the local gastronomic community and, although she is influential, she does not (yet) break through the boundaries of the foodie community. Part of disparate efforts aimed at improving the country's services and image both domestically and, or especially, externally, it remains to be seen to what extent these restaurants can create change among the targeted middle class. This aspect as well as the ways in which the consumer perceives the new culinary offer remain as future research topics that will contribute to deepening the knowledge of the New Romanian Cuisine." (Adriana Sohodoleanu)
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Adriana Sohodoleanu, PhD in sociology from 2021, is a gastronomist. Her doctoral thesis, which analyzed the phenomenon of the New Romanian Cuisine, validates her as a researcher, and her experience as the owner of an artisan confectionery ensures her practical anchoring in laboratory work and in industry. Adriana has contributed articles to publications such as Oxford Food Symposium's Proceedings, Dilema Veche, Iscoada, Zile si Nopti and others. Her essays explore the connections between food and society, drawing attention to the complex ways in which food culture intertwines with broader socio-political contexts. Adriana is the co-author of a book of historical dessert recipes, together with Cosmin Dragomir, and has weekly interventions at Radio Romania Cultural under the umbrella of her Cultura la farfuru project, which also includes lectures at the Calea Victoriei Foundation, cultural dinners in collaboration with chefs and sommeliers, tastings, etc.
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