If the center of the Russian household is its kitchen, then cookbooks must be among the most valuable treasures of the family library. Few Moscow apartments after World War II lacked a copy of "The Book of Tasty and Wholesome Food" (Kniga o Vkusnoi i Zdorovoi Pishche), which proudly touted the unprecedented standards of Soviet life. Though the book has repeatedly been reissued since, its modern incarnations pale in comparison to the early editions' raised covers, colorful pictures of caviar and quotes from Josef Stalin.

These days, classics on the kitchen shelf include the epic works of Vilyam Pokhlebkin, a historian with a passion for cuisine. Famous for their meticulous detail, few of Pokhlebkin's recipes take less than five hours of preparation. Yelena Molokhovets' legendary opus, "A Present to Young Housewives" (Podarok Molodym Khozyaikam), written over a hundred years ago and reissued many times after the Soviet Union's collapse, is a curiosity rather than a practical manual for the modern household, what with its nonchalant recommendation that "if you have unexpected visitors, go to your cellar to fetch a pork hindquarter" and measurments in buckets.

The explosive growth of Russia's book market has not left cookbooks out of the running. Publishers quickly caught on to the West's popular trend of mixing fiction and gastronomy, with one of the first successes being Tsentrpoligraf's "At the Table with Nero Wolfe" (Za Stolom s Niro Vulfom), surprisingly not a translation of the epicurean detective hero's English-language cookbook, but an excellent combination of prose and cuisine.

Other titles offer insight into the recipes of yore, from the feasts of ancient Greece to the sumptuous banquets of the Romanov family. A recent presentation of "The Decadence Cookbook" (Povarennaya Kniga Dekadansa) created quite a stir in academic circles thanks to an improvised striptease by Irina Prokhorova, the director of the publishing house and one of the most respectable pillars of Moscow's literary scene.

This past holiday season served up a new variation on the theme, "Shkola Zlosloviya's Kitchen" (Kukhnya Shkoly Zlosloviya), based on Tatyana Tolstaya and Dunya Smirnova's popular celebrity talk show on NTV. Playing on the word "kitchen" in more ways than one, the book peers behind the scenes of the show, offering unaired fragments of interviews, photographs, choice dialogues and, of course, numerous recipes with comments and illustrations. It's a natural common denominator for the show's varied guests: Politician or rock star, the passion for food is alien to no one.