The Taste of “Estonianness”: Cookbooks as Part of Nation-Building in Estonia
The Taste of “Estonianness”: Cookbooks as Part of Nation-Building in Estonia

Summary/Abstract: This paper takes a diachronic look at the culinary trends in the present-day Estonia. It sheds light on the process of nation-building enacted through recipes that refer to the social ideals, convictions, and stereotypes widely held at the time of the first Republic of Estonia (1919–1939). The idealised notions of the past create a distinct atmosphere of nostalgia that can be observed in two sources discussed in this study: Maria Laidoner’s Cuisine (2008; compiled on the basis of notes taken down from published cookbooks and hand-written recipes from the 1930s), and Gifts of Taste (Ilves 2011). Behind both of these books stand women who have had an important status in society: Maria Laidoner fulfilled the role of the first lady of the state in the 1930s, and Evelin Ilves was the first lady between 2006 and 2015. The two cookbooks point at a feeling of nostalgia that the nation harbours towards the authentic, Estonian cooking first advocated in the 1930s, which combines the rustic and noble into a modern and trendy whole.

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