Author: Anonymous
Title: Fabrika Kukhnia Kraisoiuza, Rostov Don, 1931 (Regional Union Factory Kitchen, Rostov-on-Don, 1931)
Description: Rostov-on-Don, By the photographer, 1931. Photo album with 30 original, silver-bromide photographs; album - 10 1/2 x 14; gray leatherette over boards, embossed and tied with a decorative string; manuscript title in gilt to front board; small rubbed spots to corners; photos - 3 x 4 1/2; subtitled in black ink; overall in very good condition. A rare piece of Russia's food history, the album documented the day-to-day operations of a unique, in both architecture and purpose, mechanized venture of food service, which originated in and was popular throughout the 1920s and 1930s. with the first one built in 1925 in Ivanovo. The Factory Kitchen's main purpose was the centralized, all-stages processing and preparation of enormous quantities of food, as in the early, post-revolutionary years - radical reorganization of life and industrialization demanded the ability to feed large masses of people. It also played an important role in women's emancipation and their integration into the workforce. Previously-characteristic family values lost their relevance, a war was declared on "home-cooked meals" and "petty-bourgeois smoky kitchens," and the advantages of huge public dining rooms were touted. And then, the important socio-cultural role of the joint consumption of food for the creation of a "new type of persons" was recognized, whose characteristics aligned with the Party directives. An entire separate architectural program was developed country-wide, in order to build all the Factory Kitchens to very specific standards and requirements. Usually, a basement, sub-basement, and 2 to 4 floors were erected, with the basement dedicated to refrigeration, the sub-basement - to bread making and dormitories for the workers, the first floor - to a laboratory and locker rooms for visitors, the second floor to dining rooms, etc. The roof was always flat - allowing eating outdoors in the summer. More than 400 people worked at each establishment and each of them was said to have been able to prepare upwards of a hundred meals a day. This particular album pictured the exterior of two buildings, including the construction of a new milk-processing plant, as well as the lab, the dining halls, the bread-cutting space, the dish-cleaning section, the vegetable-processing room, and so on. .

Keywords: Russia, Food


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