Book of the Month – February

Valgyklų Gidas / Canteen Guide – Indre Klimaite
Chosen by Nick Plant

Quoted from Veronika Juodienė. Cookery, Vilnius: Mintis, 1969

People’s health and efficiency depends a great deal on the cooks that work in public catering establishments. Well organised public catering reduces people’s day-to-day chores, liberates women from unproductive housework and has economic advantages.

The Soviet Union’s Communist Party Program, agreed upon at the XXII Party Summit, emphasises the importance of a public catering network of Valgyklų (Canteens) in Lithuania. To make sure the inhabitants’ needs are fully satisfied, the expansion of canteen networks near companies, offices and larger dwellings is necessary.

“I discovered on a trip to Vilnius last November that, amazingly, many of these Valgyklų are still going strong, still cooking recipes officially approved by the USSR and still serving food well suited to the below freezing temperatures of a Baltic winter.

My Book of the Month, Valgyklų Gidas, is a documentation and celebration of Lituania’s canteens. It was published as an accompaniment to an exhibition during the Baltic Biennial in Vilnius, 2009. To find out more about the project visit www.kompotas.lt Alternatively, I can highly recommend your own visit to Vilnius.”