Review: The Veselka Cookbook -- By Tom Birchard & Natalie Danford

Veselka is one of those New York diners that has earned itself a legendary status within the city. Located in the eclectic East Village, the diner has been open since the 1960s and was originally owned and operated by a Ukrainian gentleman who had fled the Ukraine after World War II. The restaurant is still owned and operated by the descendants of the original owner and perhaps that is part of the family-like feel that both the restaurant and the cookbook offer. Veselka is open seven days a week, 24 hours a day and consistently delivers delicious meals. Having eaten at the restaurant a number of times, I was excited to see my favourite menu items within the pages of the book because trust me, no one does borscht quite like Veselka. In addition to the wide variety of recipes within the pages of the book, The Veselka Cookbook really also serves as a historical guide to “Little Ukraine” which exists within the East Village. Though the book has faults, the recipes provide the keys to delivering delicious, homey meals to one’s family which was clearly the intent of the book.

The first recipe that I attempted in the book was the Pumpkin Chocolate Muffins . They were, in a word, wonderful. Easy, delicious, and the perfect muffin texture (not too soft, not too firm with a perfectly crisp top and a moist centre) they didn’t last long in my house. Looking at the recipe, it may seem that the muffins required a lot of ingredients, but if you are someone who cooks at home, chances are you probably have most of the ingredients already – I only needed to purchase the pumpkin. Also, unlike some of the other recipes in the book that list pages of steps, this recipe was really just a matter of mixing wet ingredients into dry and baking – simply delicious.

Being that I had made a rich challah-like braided bread the day before, the Veselka French Toast seemed like the perfect recipe try out in order to use up the leftover bread. The recipe used very few ingredients and had relatively simple instructions which were a change from some of the other in-depth recipes in the book. As such, like the muffins, it was nice to not have to go out and buy ingredients but rather to have a really tasty dish that utilizes many of the things that you already have in your pantry. Most importantly, the French Toast tasted very good, was very easy and came together super quick – I would say that I had served the first slices no more than ten minutes after I started cooking.

I also attempted a couple of The Veselka Cookbook ‘s savory recipes. One, a purely selfish attempt, was the restaurant’s famed dill salad dressing. When I go to Veselka, this dressing is something that I always look forward to because it is so delicious and tangy; however, the recipe in the book was not the same recipe that the restaurant serves. The dressing is a very basic mixture of sour cream, yogurt, lemon juice, salt and pepper and dill and while good, lacked the vinegar tang that I had longed for. The recipe suggested thinning the dressing with milk which I did and while the results are delicious, I suppose that Veselka didn’t feel as though they could give all their secrets away in the book!

As a restaurant Veselka is not a one-trick pony. They serve everything from peirogies to bison burgers and their cookbook stays true to the strange range of flavours that are found on their menu. One criticism of the book is that there is an enormous schism in the recipes in terms of the skills that they require from the cook. Recipe books are right to include dishes that require a range of skill, but in The Veselka Cookbook, that range is huge and so is the range in effort that the home cook is required to invest that it can honestly be a little off-putting. As an example, there is a recipe for beet salad that requires just four ingredients and the effort of a quick stir. It is a good recipe and so is the recipe for the borscht, but the borscht is an intensive process that requires hours of time spent in the kitchen. The results are good and there is virtue in having made your own. However, at the end of the day I’m not sure that I wouldn’t rather just go to Veselka and pay the $3.50 for the cup of soup instead of spending an entire day making it from scratch.

Another element of the book where I found fault was with the lack of organization found within its pages. As you flip through the pages, one might think that the latter half of the book is dedicated entirely to dessert because the dessert section of the book, a section which takes up a rather hefty stake of the book’s total real-estate, is right in the middle. Perhaps this criticism is a touch nit-picky but the bottom line is that one would expect there be a little more thought put into the layout so that there is a better overall flow for the reader.

Issues of organization, variety of recipes and the skill schism aside, I find The Veselka cookbook to be a very enjoyable book. Many of the recipes are real gems, the commentary is familiar and lovely – you feel like you know the people who make Veselka so special (seriously, ladies who are your grandmother’s age make 3000 pierogies everyday, how great is that?). Plus, the cookbook gives you the tools to create that same wonderful sense of community and warmth that the restaurant does right in your own home and who wouldn’t want that?


Pumpkin Chocolate-Chip Muffins

The cookbook retails for $27.99 in the United States and $35.99 in Canada