2023-09-27 11:27:00
File image of Evgeny Prigozhin (left) attending to then Russian Prime Minister Vladimir Putin in 2011 (Archyde.com)
State lunches and dinners, meetings that bring together leaders from very different countries around a table, a tablecloth and some dishes, are the greatest exponent of what we might call gastrodiplomacy. Winston Churchill, Nixon and John F. Kennedy were known for their ability to turn lunches and dinners into accurate political weapons, sharing a table and debating at the same time with great leaders of some of the greatest world powers of recent centuries.
Also today, official meals serve as a weapon, although, sometimes, simply as a promotional one. In Spain, the Presidency of the Government organizes two or three State meals a year with international leaders, occasions in which ‘made in Spain’ products are served with the aim of highlighting Spanish gastronomy, and in general, projecting an image attractiveness of the country.
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Cooking is part of politics, sometimes to a much greater extent than we might ever imagine. Although it is difficult to know the tastes, hobbies and culinary routines of the great leaders of our time, the bug of doubt will always accompany us. What do Biden, Macron, Lula or Putin eat when no one sees them?
As far as the latter is concerned, the Russian president’s diet is a mystery. The Kremlin sometimes publishes the menus of its meetings with the leaders of other countries. In December 2019, Putin met with Aleksandr Lukashenko, president of Belarus, in Yalta. According to the writer Witold Szablowski in his book Russia from the Kitchen, that day they served pumpkin salad with tomato and cheese, squid fillet with carrot puree, pea soup, red mullet with artichokes and quinoa. The main course was a white beef fillet with roasted leek and for dessert there was mandarin sorbet and strawberry cake.
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However, Viktor Belyaev, president of the National Culinary Association of Russia, confesses in this same book that leaders often do not eat what is on the table. On the other hand, they enjoy the real food once the official meetings are over.
Russian President Vladimir Putin (Archyde.com).
Reading the book Russia from the Kitchen, by the writer Witold Szablowski, allows us to know some details regarding the cuisine that has accompanied Russian leaders in recent centuries. Although Putin’s diet is surrounded by great secrecy, the author was able to learn regarding some of his favorite dishes and a dessert that is never missing from any of his meals, especially those that he enjoys alone.
As the president of the National Culinary Association of Russia revealed to him, Putin’s favorite dessert is none other than ice cream. “What does Putin eat when no one sees him? Belyaev only told me that he likes ice cream obsessively,” Szablowski writes in his book. The author assures that “in all the desserts that arrive on his table there is at least one scoop of ice cream.”
Of course, what has not emerged is what specific flavor the Russian leader likes the most, although various media outlets have mentioned the theory that his favorite would be pistachio ice cream.
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