Salt & Time

Salt & Time set out to overturn a misconception, that the food of the former Soviet Union is grey and joyless, and to show instead a cuisine of real warmth, history and craft. Alissa writes from her own Siberian and Ukrainian-Jewish heritage, so each dish carries memory as much as method.

The challenges were to make pelmeni, cured fish and slow-braised dishes look generous and alive rather than austere, and to let the food speak for a culture that is too easily overlooked.

Louie Waller brought all of these scenes to fruition with vintage and modern props which complemented Russian culture and history, many of which I had to wrap up and pack with me all the way to Siberia and back, in winter and summer months. I was struck by how wildly the landscape changed between these seasons, from feeling the earth's curve at dusk with purplish skies to mosquitoes and 30 degrees in dry grassy fields. Alissa had a special way of combining far eastern Russian food, which has some Asian influence, with more typical Ukrainian traditional dishes, and bringing both into a modern setting.