An enticingly-titled cookbook for caterers, Apportionments for dinners, separate dishes and other products of public catering, was published in Russia in 1928. Seeking to remove the bourgeois French influence from pre-revolution dishes for the new Soviet era, changes were made to the names of certain classics. It was demanded that one in particular, “chicken cutlets Kiev-style”, be changed to the more proletarian “chicken cutlets stuffed with butter”.
Russian menus have a long tradition of offering either stuffed chicken breasts or minced chicken patties hiding a herby filling. The origins of “Chicken Kiev” are disputed, but the dish regained its original name thanks to migrant chefs who served it in America’s first Russian-run restaurants.