Even though identical recipes were approved everywhere, dishes could not taste the same because of shortages, theft, and different products, food culture researcher Astra Spalvēna told Latvian Radio's "Known in the Unknown" (Zināmais nezināmajā) program.
Home kitchen replaced by canteen
In Soviet times, the most important function of catering establishments was to feed. One of the aims of the authorities was to replace the home kitchen with a catering kitchen. This led to the development of a very large network of canteens, Spalvēna said.
There were three categories of public catering in the Soviet era: canteens, cafés and restaurants. These three types of establishments were clearly defined and had their own rules. Going to a restaurant was a special experience that was not easily accessible. Restaurants had long queues and access was rather limited. Mostly, one needed blat (a common opportunity in the planned economy of the Soviet Union to receive various benefits through acquaintance and/or mutual material interest).
"There were not many restaurants and there were always problems with getting in. There was no advertising or anything, there was no need for it at all.
"To be able to get into a restaurant and, of course, afford it - it wasn't as accessible as we think now, that everything cost peanuts during the Soviet occupation - well, it wasn't like thtat. It was also quite a complicated thing," said Spalvēna.
Interior design - Western ideas in a socialist sauce
At the same time, cafés were also gathering places during the Soviet period, said Agnese Strautiņa, an art historian and researcher of Riga's historic cafés. People went to legendary cafés such as "Putnu dārzs", "Kaza" or "Skapis" not only to eat but also to socialize and be together.
"The people who frequented these cafés were not classical dissidents. Despite the increased interest of the Cheka (Latvian SSR State Security Committee) in these places, they were simply young people who wanted to be together, to be young, to enjoy freedom, who were interested in things that were developing in the Western world, such as French literature," Strautiņa said.
Together with the café "Dieva auss/God's Ear" (a café in Riga, which during the Soviet occupation was set up in a cathedral in the city center that had been confiscated from the Orthodox Church), these cafés formed Riga's legendary café foursome, popularly known as the café square. These four places were very much the exception and differed greatly from other Soviet-era cafés, which more or less all looked the same.
The interiors of all the cafés were dominated by modernist architectural principles - functionalism and later brutalism - which were in fact not at all unique to the Soviet Union but had already begun to develop in the USA in the 1920s.
These were Western ideas that were developed in the interiors of Riga's cafés, but served in a socialist sauce, Strautiņa said.
"In the Soviet Union, of course, different elements begin, because, for example, in 1961, when Yuri Gagarin went into space, the theme of space came into the interior.
"Of course, there were also various Soviet symbols, but if we are talking purely in terms of subject matter, this was not unique to Soviet design," Strautiņa pointed out.
The impossible standards of recipes
Recipes of the time were also standardized across the Soviet Union. The basis was a thorough recipe book, which listed exactly which recipes were allowed.
"It defined what products were in the recipe, how much, what the proportions of the products were. There are also separate columns, one for the quantities required when preparing this dish in a canteen, and one for the same dish in a restaurant. It even changes the proportions of the dish, for example, the proportions of meat for the dish of the same name. These rules were binding on all catering establishments," said Spalvēna.
The stock was based on Russian, Ukrainian, and Belarusian dishes, but there were also some additions in different places. The stock was approved centrally in Moscow.
"That's how the joke came about that the meatball should be the same and at the same price in Riga as in Vladivostok. It was supposed to be like that, but of course, eyewitnesses say it wasn't," Spalvēna said.
Despite identical recipes and norms, the meatball in Riga did not taste the same as the one in Vladivostok. This was due to the availability, or rather non-availability, of products, theft, and also different products in different places.
"There was a shortage. There are product groups that are harder for restaurants and cafés to get. Even at that level, there is a shortage. Even at this level, there is corruption to get the best products for your restaurant. Then, of course, there is theft of products. Of course, at that time it was not called stealing, but a lot of cooks and staff took produce home. What they took home, they just didn't put in the food," said Spalvēna.
The main reason why cooks in canteens, cafés and restaurants could not prepare dishes that had not been pre-approved was simple.
Just like culture, décor, and everything else, food had to be ideologically correct. No Western influences were allowed to enter the Soviet Union through them.
"That's why, for example, a hamburger cannot be served in a Soviet canteen, but a patty with white bread can," said Spalvēna.
