This is Spectator Radio, the Spectator's curated podcast collection.

Hello and welcome to another episode of Table Talk, the Spectator's Food and Drink,

podcast where we interview guests about their life through the food and drink that has defined it.

I'm Lara Prendergast.

And I'm Olivia Potts.

Alyssa Dimoshkinina is a chef,

supper club hostess extraordinaire, and film and food writer. Her first cookbook,

Salt and Time, a personal exploration of Siberian food, was published earlier this month.

Alyssa, welcome to Table Talk. Hi, thanks so much for having me.

Alicia, you grew up in Siberia and your mother was of Jewish-Ukrainian heritage, and your father came from Russia's far east.

What was food like when you were growing up?

It's quite a fascinating place, really, because it's such an interesting melting pot of different cultures.

So the part of Siberia, I'm from is borders Kazakhstan.

So we had a lot of Central Asian influences as well.

And obviously living in the Soviet Union, because I was born in the early 80s,

so living in the Soviet days, there was so much migration within the country.

I always remember the markets, which were so

full of people from all over the former Soviet Union, and you could get access to Georgian food,

as well as Korean, Soviet Korean food. So to me, Siber really kind of represents that

idea of a melting pot in terms of the culinary influences.

And was that something that was reflected in the food you ate at home with your family?

Yes, definitely. It's interesting. I mean, growing up, you know, I personally wasn't really very aware of

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