Russia: with “borscht”, the battle is (also) on the plate – L’Express

This chronicle tells the little or the big story behind our food, dishes or chefs. Powerful weapon soft power, A societal and cultural marker, food is the founding element of our civilizations. Conflicts, diplomacy, traditions, cuisine has always had a political dimension. Because as Bossuet already said in the 17th century, “it is at the table that we govern”.

At nightfall, on the Ukrainian front, in their buried shelters to protect themselves from the freezing cold and a possible Russian assault, the soldiers impatiently await their ration of “borscht”. This soup, which simmered for a long time on all the stoves of Soviet homes, offers a little comfort in the midst of the harsh winter battles. On the plate: simple little pieces of beets, cabbage, carrots, potatoes, onions and meat which give it this pretty red-purple appearance and this atypical, sweet and earthy taste. times.

Although many chefs today recognize that the best stews are made in Ukraine, they are present everywhere in Eastern Europe: on the menu of Christmas tables in Warsaw, on the menu of certain starred restaurants Muscovites, even in Lithuanian and Romanian tureens. After “my mother’s milk”, borscht is “the second dish I ate”, proclaims Olena Chtcherban, a Ukrainian ethnologist and historian, pointing out foreign restaurants which clumsily attribute this dish as… “Russian soup”.

This ancestral culinary dispute has once again become a hot topic between the two neighbors since the annexation of Crimea in 2014, which will precede the Russian invasion of 2022. These two events, which have turned the entire geopolitics of the region upside down, have also exacerbated a renewed of patriotism and a quest for Ukrainian national identity. And in this war for influence, kyiv has no intention of leaving the authorship of this legendary dish to Russia!

A pot of borscht at the Ministry of Culture

This struggle was embodied by a young, trendy chef from kyiv, very present on social networks, Ievgen Klopotenko. In 2020, this graduate of the French culinary school The blue cordon showed up at a meeting of the Ministry of Culture with a pan of borscht to convince him to propose the inclusion of this dish on the UNESCO list of world intangible heritage, thus joining Neapolitan pizza, the wine of the Georgia or French gastronomy. kyiv quickly filed the file with the UN body.

Stung to the quick for this crime of “lese-gastronomy”, Russian diplomacy reacts. “Borsch is a national food of many countries, including Russia, Belarus, Ukraine, Poland, Romania, Moldova and Lithuania,” the Russian Embassy in the United States wrote on Twitter. Then it was the Russian government that got involved, always on the same social network: “borscht is one of the most famous and popular Russian dishes”. The “borscht” war is officially declared.

“When I started studying Ukrainian food and cuisine, I realized that Ukrainian cuisine did not exist. Everything is Soviet. The USSR swallowed Ukraine, chewed it up and spat it out […] We don’t know who we are or what we are,” laments chef Yevgen Klopotenko. His call for a culinary surge will not go unnoticed. Cooks from all over Ukraine are mobilizing in March 2021 and organizing a “borscht marathon ” to support the UNESCO application file.

On July 1, 2022, the UN body acceded to kyiv’s request and classified “Ukrainian borscht culture” on the list of intangible cultural heritage in danger. The reason ? “The ability of populations to practice and transmit their intangible cultural heritage is seriously disrupted because of the armed conflict, in particular because of the forced displacement of communities,” detailed the rapporteur of the evaluation committee for the Ukrainian file. Response from Moscow, bluntly: “If I had to explain to the world what contemporary Kievan nationalism is, I would mention this fact: hummus and rice pilaf are recognized as the national dishes of several countries. But, if I Understand, Ukrainization applies to everything. What will happen next? Will pigs be recognized as a Ukrainian national product?” Russian Foreign Ministry spokesperson Maria Zakharova wrote on Telegram.

This recognition from UNESCO is far from symbolic. It offers notable international prestige but also strong economic benefits, particularly through tourism, reduced to nothing today due to the war. “A foodie traveler will naturally turn to the culinary strongest and best recognized destination,” explains a note published by the War School. On the other hand, UNESCO, through its recognition, in no way resolves the essential question. Was “borscht” born in Ukraine or in Russia?

A boom under the Soviet Union

From the Middle Ages, Slavic peasants began to harvest a herbaceous plant in the middle of the humid steppes of Eurasia, called… “common hogweed” (or “bear’s paw”) which will give its name to the famous dish. Originally, the leaf, stem and flowers ferment in hot water with bread. This very acidic broth was a way to protect against high fevers in these areas where the cold is particularly bitter. Later, this “green” borscht turns red when beet “kvass” is added, a traditional fermented drink very popular in Russia and Ukraine.

The first written traces of borscht are found in the Domostroy, a text dealing with domestic management in the 16th century, at the time of Ivan the Terrible. We also find it in the stories in 1584 of a German merchant passing through Kiev, Martin Gruneweg, asserting that if the river “Borshchahivka” bears this name, it is because itinerant sellers of this famous beverage swarm on its banks. for decades.

This soup will flourish in central Russia at the end of the 18th century with the Tsarist army and then a little later with the Soviet Union. Stalin will establish, through his food commissioner Anastasy Mikoyan, a national cuisine adapted to the more than 100 “nationalities” that make up the USSR. In the Deliver tasty and healthy food, published in 1939 by the Politburo of the Communist Party and offered to all young couples, there is a clear reference to… “Ukrainian borscht”. It will be adopted almost everywhere from Russia to Ukraine, via Poland and Moldova, particularly after the collapse of the Berlin Wall and the independence of these countries in the 90s. As is often the case, cuisine is rarely sensitive to the concept of political borders…

If we rely on the expertise of William Pokhlebkin (1923 – 2000), great Soviet food historian, and author of A History of Vodka (untranslated), no doubt, beet borscht really belongs to Ukraine. Although obviously, no one disputes that Russians are still very big fans of these broths today. So much so that they made their own cabbage soup, called “shchi”.

Borscht is undoubtedly the most successful Slavic dish abroad. Russian émigrés took their recipe to Paris, where Auguste Escoffier (1846-1935), the grandfather of French cuisine, served it at the Ritz. In the United States, seaside resorts in the Catskill Mountains, once popular with New York’s Ashkenazi Jews who were victims of anti-Semitism, were known in the 1920s as the “Borsch Belt”. reference to their love for this soup. Jerry Lewis and even Woody Allen liked to relax there by the sea…

The Michelin guide has stopped its activity in Russia

Today, chef Yevgen Klopotenko is mobilizing not to abandon this dish which, according to him, is “the DNA of Ukraine”, reports International mail. He embarked on a titanic project to list, throughout the country, the main variants of Ukrainian borscht: “I understood that borscht was like jazz: it has its base (the broth and the beet), and the rest are like the instruments in jazz.”

But a sign that there is still a long way to go for Ukraine, the Michelin guide, the bible of gourmets around the world, cited borscht among the flagship dishes of the “Russian culinary scene” by launching its edition in Moscow in 2021 where nine establishments had received stars. Before withdrawing from Russia due to the war in Ukraine.

Our “book” advice:

Mamushka: Recipes from Ukraine & beyond (untranslated), Olia Hercules, 2015.

Russian cuisinePavel Spiridonov, Nicolas Delaroche, Les Editions Noir sur Blanc, 2018.

Our “restaurant” advice:

A Russian restaurant: Zakouski127 rue du château 75014 Paris

A Ukrainian restaurant: Oranta, 1, rue de Marivaux, Paris 2nd