On Hungarian Cooks

A comment (see below) on a prior posting brought to mind an old "machlokes": Are Hungarian women the best cooks?

"Finally, any thoughts on the notion held by some that Hungarians (broadly defined, let's say, not by the borders of the present day state of that name) are 'the best cooks' ? If there is something to that generalization, how much credit would you give to the relative abundance there for it? Such things can be hard for non-Hungarians to swallow.... :)"

Oh boy, how to put this. Let me cover myself by stating first that anything written here is my own opinion. You can only argue fact, not opinion. You cannot say that an opinion is wrong, only a fact. So yes, I believe that Hungarian women, in the broad definition of Hungarian, are in general, the best cooks. I base my belief on personal experience, based on having eaten a lot of meals over the years by balabustas of various ethnic origins. Cooks from other ethnic origins are not bad cooks. Some have a few dishes that are truly inspired. But for across the board excellence of cuisine and variety of cuisine, the Hungarians win.

This is not a new machlokes. The Europe of the 1800s and early 1900s was rife with ethnic and nationalistic strife, yes even among the Jews. The Western Jews looked down on the Eastern European Jews. The Eastern European Jews looked down on the Western European Jews. The various Eastern European Jews looked down on those from countries, regions or cities not their own. We like to think of the whole Jewish population of Europe as being some sort of unified whole; nothing is further from the truth. The conflicts were about religious observance and the conflicts were also about cultural observances. Some countries were considered more "advanced" then others. Some countries were considered on a higher level culturally. Whether or not this was true across the board, the differences were there.

The old Austro-Hungarian Empire unified a huge slice of middle Europe. While there were ethnic differences, there was much of a shared culture. What is today Hungary and Romania were officially a part of that Austro-Hungarian Empire through WW I, as was part of what is/was modern Czechoslovakia. (And yes, it is why you get many Czechs who claim to be Hungarian, because their grandparents were, indeed, Hungarian.) Hungarian was the official state language of the area known as Romania; it was taught in the schools. Also prevalent throughout the Empire was a type of cuisine we now like to call Hungarian. There were specific dishes native to the geographical areas of Hungary and Romania, but there was also an adoption of the cooking styles and dishes and ingredients of the general Empire.

Compared to the countries of Eastern Europe, the countries of the Austro-Hungarian Empire had access to a wider variety of cooking products, particularly for those families with money. There was a larger variety of produce that could be procured because of the more temperate zones extant in the far western reaches of the Empire. "Cooking well" was a much bigger deal in Western Europe then it was in Eastern Europe.

Now bring this "machlokes" into the present. Women my age are definitely the product of European influence when it comes to cooking. And those of us with that general Hungarian background were exposed to a wider variety of dishes and ingredients then the women coming from the furthest Eastern countries. In general, those from the general Hungarian areas were economically better off than those from the countries further east. That's not to say that there were not poor people in Hungary--there were. In general, however, the Hungarian communities had more to work with. The further east you go, the less the influence of the Western and Middle European countries that you see.

The sheer volume of "traditional" pastries and cakes of the Hungarian cooks is astounding. The number of sauces and condiments shows a clear France into Austria into Hungary progression. The huge variety of meat dishes, and fish dishes and side dishes and vegetable dishes outnumbers those of countries further to the east. There is also evidence of some of the more Eastern recipes that found there way west into Hungarian cooking. In short, Hungary and the Austro-Hungarian Empire was a sort of cross-roads for Jewish cooking in Europe.

When I look around at the women in my extended family, from both my mother's and my father's side, I see balabustas of cooking excellence, Hungarian background all. The only one of the cousins who is not a "great" cook married into the family and came from______(I'm not looking to start an all-out war today).

And in some cases today, those women who do not self-identify as Hungarian nonetheless may have an Austro-Hungarian bubby in the background somewhere who gifted them with the "fine cooking gene."

So yes, in my opinion, Hungarians are the best cooks. Go ahead, take a shot at me. Centuries of practice in dodging bullets should keep me safe.

Please note: I am not including the various Sefardi cooking traditions here. There are some truly inspired cooks in this tradition, many of them. I am limiting myself, however, to an ashkenzic comparison.