Alla Pugacheva at the table

The Russian-Soviet meal is not thought of as starter-main-dessert but as a sequence: zakuski (small cold bites and pickles set out all together on the table), pervoye blyudo (the 'first,' always a hot soup), vtoroye blyudo (the 'second,' meat or starchy pie), then chai from the samovar with preserves and sweets that closes and extends the evening. On feast days, the table overflows with zakuski and a grand salad centerpiece. On tour and during shortages, one falls back on what travels and keeps: pirozhki and jars of pickles.

The duo that marks all Soviet and Russian cuisine: dill (ukrop) thrown by the handful onto almost everything, and smetana (sour cream) that softens soup, binds salads, and accompanies pickled goods. Two touches that Pugacheva, like her entire generation, found from the Moscow canteen to the hotel buffets on tour.