Greasy Pages and Delicious Dinners: Latvian Cookbooks Outside Latvia

This exhibition features 20 Latvian cookbooks published abroad. These books not only explain how to prepare a wide variety of dishes, but also bear witness to the experiences of Latvians living in other countries.

Almost every family owns a cookbook. Often, these books are inherited from mothers, grandmothers, aunts, or other relatives. Before the age of the internet, such books and notebooks were the bible of every kitchen – a source of inspiration, practical advice, and recipes for both everyday meals and festive occasions.

After the Second World War, when Latvians found themselves in exile, homemakers and cooks faced new challenges: how to prepare familiar dishes outside Latvia? Several cookbooks, originally published in Latvia, were reprinted in refugee camps in Europe.

The first diaspora cookbooks were published in the 1950s and 1960s. Their authors – most often professionals in home economics – offered hundreds of recipes and wrote in a style characteristic of earlier Latvian publications, which assumed that readers already had a general understanding of various cooking methods.

In new host countries, Latvian cuisine was  influenced by the (un)availability of familiar ingredients, different kitchen equipment, and changes in family members’ employment and workloads. Foods which could be easily bought in Latvia – such as rye bread – now had to be cooked from scratch. Cookbooks published under these new circumstances took on additional functions: they adapted recipes and ingredients, converted units of measurement, and introduced new flavors.

In the 1970s, several publications appeared that compiled the cooking experiences of Latvian community members. These served as broad collections of multicultural recipes, placing less emphasis on traditional Latvian foods. 

As a new generation emerged, cookbooks with a strong emphasis on specifically Latvian recipes began to appear in the 1980s. Books were published – and continue to be published – with the aim of passing on recipes and knowledge of traditional Latvian food. These books are published in Latvian and/or the language of the host country – primarily English – and are often supplemented with commentary on Latvian culture and customs. Recipes are frequently personalized, such as “Skaidrīte’s Pīrāgi” or “Jānis’ Sauerkraut.” The circle of contributors has also expanded: recipes are now also shared by men, and children’s drawings are occasionally used to illustrate the books.

This exhibition is part of the museum’s research project “The Taste of Home,” which invites Latvians around the world to share their stories. These can be viewed on the website:
https://maju-garsa.lv/en