The Pierogi Problem

The culinary landscape of Poland is significantly changing, reshaped by a new generation of food producers, chefs, and media personalities. The Pierogi Problem examines people's networks, places, material culture, and media to explain how Polish tastemakers embrace context-specific strategies to localise discourses, practices, and values amid an increasingly globalised food culture.

The decades following the end of Poland's socialist regime were marked by a rising interest in foreign cuisines and Western forms of consumption. Today, however, ingredients, cooking techniques, and dishes that were once considered ordinary or part of the country's uncomfortable past are being refashioned to reflect transformations in cultural hierarchies.

The Pierogi Problem chronicles how and why local, traditional, and artisanal foods are re-emerging for changing cosmopolitan appetites.