Recipes steeped in memories

G Force

September 14, 2011|By Glenn Yoder, Globe Staff

Rebecca Nab Young

The Scottsdale, Ariz., resident, who oversees food and beverage service for a five-diamond resort in her hometown, ‘‘accidentally’’ wrote a cookbook of traditional Volga German food while compiling recipes for a Christmas present for her mother. ‘‘It’s a common story where the grandmother’s getting older and she has all these recipes in her head that none of us have written down,’’ Young says. So, while her mother was briefly hospitalized, Young began collecting the family recipes and memories — bringing in flour and precisely measuring what her mother considered a ‘‘handful’’ for accuracy’s sake. A family member in the publishing industry took interest in her project and the result is the book, ‘‘There Is Always Room For One More: Volga German Stories and Recipes.’

Q. The book is part memoir, part cookbook. Many recipes have specific recollections and stories attached to them. Why did you make it so personal?

A. [After I finished collecting the recipes], I told my daughter that I had the recipes now and she was like, “Oh, wouldn’t it be interesting if you would put a little paragraph and tell something interesting from your childhood about each recipe?’’ So I walk the dog each morning and as I was walking I’d try to think of some story that might go with cabbage buns or grebbles. And then the stories became so important to me - they almost became more important than the recipes. And some are just a paragraph, but some went on for pages.

Q. The Volga German community, which is made up of Russian immigrants of German descent, is fairly small in the United States. What will readers from outside that community connect with in this book?

A. [People who have read the book] don’t talk about the recipes. They start talking about the stories. They say, “You know, it made me start thinking about my childhood and all the things I went through and grew up with.’’ I think people connect my stories with their own childhood. It’s making people think about things they haven’t thought of in decades. I had a Jamaican man at work come to me the other day and say, “You know, in Jamaica, family is everything and you just made me want to call my mother.’’ And I just feel so privileged that it’s making people want to connect again with their families.

Q. How would you describe Volga German food?