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In the 1995 cult classic Rangeela, Aamir Khan’s Guddu takes Urmila Matondkar’s Mili to a five-star hotel to show her that he’s not too shabby compared to Jackie Shroff’s Raj Kamal.
The scene, which also included a hilarious exchange where Guddu asks the waiter “Thoda AC idhar ghuma”, he is given options between two “exotic dishes”– French Fries or Russian Salad. It epitomised the paucity of choice in the newly liberalised India which was still coming to terms with the riches of capitalism and the myriad options that entails.
Like French Fries, Russian Salad was a dish whose presence at a party signified that it was on a different tier compared to one that served the usual samosa-soft drinks-chips on a paper plate.
Eating it at a friend’s birthday party was one of those quintessential austerity-revering middle-class (ARMC) experiences of the 90s, along with sneaking Phantom cigarettes, slurping on diarrhoea-inducing kala khatta and jibing to Daler Mehndi’s songs.
In fact, when most ARMC families went out to eat, they had three options – Indian, Chinese, or Continental.
Now “conti food” could be anything including cream rolls, custard, bakes, patties, puffs, and rolls. And, if you offered Russian Salad at a party, it was deemed ‘conti’ enough. Of course, by the time it reached our shores it was like the Holy Roman Empire - the name had no resemblance to the product. It barely qualified as salad or Russian.
Is Russian salad, Russian?
The Russian Salad varied from venue to venue depending on the ingredients available. My father remembers it as a popular choice on the menu for wedding receptions in Kolkata, a city that is known for its amore for Russia and Russians. He added: “However, instead of mayo, which wasn’t widely available then, they used flour whipped with egg and cream and mixed it with small bits of fruit, boiled veggies like potatoes and beans, and for some reason pineapples.”
We all have our memories of eating different versions of the Russian Salad and its origin story does not disappoint.
Russian Salad has an interesting origin story
The original recipe of the ubiquitous Russian Salad came from a dish called the Olivier Salad which was served by the chef Lucien Olivier (who might have been Belgian or French) in a restaurant called Hermitage in the 1860s. In fact, one common myth associated with its origin is that it was created by the thespian Laurence Olivier.
Now Lucien’s recipe was believed to have over 100 ingredients including grouse, veal tongue, caviar, lettuce and smoked duck (ostensibly making it an ostentatiously expensive meal). The original dressing was believed to be mayonnaise made with French wine vinegar, mustard, and olive oil. It was so highly rated that even Tsar Alexander II went to the Hermitage to savour it.
Olivier guarded the ingredients as zealously as the capitalists at Coke hid its original recipe, creating it in a separate room to which no one had access.
Now, legend has it that his sous chef Ivan Ivanov tried to steal it and managed to get a glance at his mise en place.
A blog post in Red Kalinka notes: “The secret was before his eyes, but he could not know in what proportions he had to use each ingredient. Yet he could make an assumption of how the salad was prepared. After that episode, Ivanov quit his job at the Hermitage and went with his recipe to a different restaurant: the Moskva. There he became the chef who brought to the world a suspiciously similar salad, which he called Stolichny Salad (Capital Salad). This salad is still consumed today, and it is also known as muscovite salad. This is an imitation of the original Olivier salad, but with simpler ingredients.”
Olivier went to the grave with the recipe.
Of course, that didn’t stop people from trying and that’s how the Russian Salad – or its desi interpretation – became the gustatory leitmotif of the 90s.
It wasn’t quite the change we wanted in our lives, but its very presence seemed to indicate that change was on its way.
