Did you know Fania Lewando operated an extremely popular vegetarian restaurant between the two world wars in Vilnius, a city which had few vegetarians? Diners included Marc Chagall and Itzik Manger, the Yiddish writer, who also left their impressions in the restaurant’s guest book.

The restaurant owner also had a cooking school and kept her healthy and tasty vegetarian recipes in her personal recipe book. It was long thought that book was lost following her death, but it unexpectedly resurfaced at an antiquarian book sale and became an international best seller. Now it has appeared in Lithuanian as well.

The book was published by the Lithuanian publishing house Alma Littera as “Vilniaus vegetariškų patiekalų knyga. Tradicinė tarpukario Vilniaus žydų virtuvė. Legendinio Fanios Lewando restorano receptai” or “Book of Vegetarian Dishes of Vilnius. Tradition Interwar Vilnius Jewish Cuisine. Recipes from the Legendary Restaurant of Fania Lewando” and contains over 400 recipes. Besides traditional Jewish dishes such as kugel, pancakes, stewed fruit and borshch, readers will also discover Jewish holiday dishes such as shnitzel, kholent and kishka as well as snacks, main dishes and desserts. One surprising thing: in 1938 Fania Lewando was instructing cooks to use vegetables and fruits which were far from usual household fare as ingredients, to make such foods as falafel, Jerusalem artichoke soup, leek fritters, apple cake using whole rye and wheat flour and others.

The book also contains articles by the author and others promoting vegetarianism, and colored illustrations of fruits and vegetables drawn by the author from seed packets of the day.

Lewando’s vegetarian restaurant was located at Vokiečių street No. 14 in 1938, next to which she had her cooking school.

Full story in Lithuanian here.