Zakuski

What it is

Zakuski is a plural word, and one item from the table is a zakuska. The name takes in a range of cold starters, small courses and snacks in Russian food culture, and there are hot versions too. A spread of them can stand on its own as a light meal before the main course, or work simply as a snack. The sense of the word has moved: it once pointed to pies and sweet things eaten after dinner, and now it covers what comes first. A person in a hurry can eat zakuski standing at a zakusochnaya, a bar meant for that, and they are often taken after a shot of vodka or another strong drink.

Origins and history

The custom is usually traced to Peter I, who ruled Russia from 1682 to 1725 and carried home many habits he met in western Europe. Writers compare it with the brännvinsbord of Sweden and Finland, the table that later became the smörgåsbord, and with meze, the small plates of the Ottoman world and its neighbours. Gentry households kept zakuski ready for callers who had come a long way and could not say when they would arrive. At parties the food went into a room beside the dining room, or onto a table of its own. Other levels of society took the custom up, and it outlasted the tsars.

At the table

In Scandinavia the food sits on a buffet. Zakuski do not. They wait on the dining table itself, and usually they are there before the host calls anyone in. A wide choice of them is the normal opening course at a feast or a reception, and the hosts treat them as a course in their own right rather than a pause before the real food. Cold cuts and cured fish, salads, pickles, meat jelly, pastries, cheese, roe and breads all turn up in the usual cold selection, and a table may carry flavoured eggs and small open sandwiches as well.

Today and change

In Soviet times there was often not enough room for a separate table, so the food moved onto the dinner table and became the first course of a festive dinner. That is largely how it is still served. Zakuski appear at banquets, dinners, parties and receptions in Russia and in lands that once formed part of the Russian Empire, among them some post-Soviet states and Poland. The particular dishes have shifted with what people could find, but the habit of a laid table waiting before the meal has held on.

How Zakuski is kept

A host plans the spread, and the household lays it out. The dishes go onto the table, or into a room next to it, well before anyone sits down. When the guests are called in, the food is already there. People help themselves, often standing at first and with a drink in hand, and a shot followed by a mouthful is a familiar pairing. The zakuski stage ends when the table is cleared and the main dinner comes out.

When and where

There is no fixed date. Zakuski belong to occasions: festive dinners, banquets, parties and receptions, and quite often to ordinary meals as well. They come first, ahead of the soup and the main course, and the timing is set by the host's invitation rather than by any calendar.

The custom belongs to Russia, where it took shape and remains strongest. It travelled with the Russian Empire and is still kept in some post-Soviet states and in Poland. It appears wherever Russians gather to celebrate, whether in a banquet hall, a family dining room or a reception.

What Zakuski means

Zakuski carry the sense that a guest should find the table ready. The food is out before anyone asks for it, so the welcome is visible the moment a visitor walks in. Because a festive dinner opens with this course, it belongs to the celebration itself rather than to the wait before it. The breadth of the spread matters too: a wide choice of dishes is what a feast table is expected to show.

Questions people ask about Zakuski

See also

SamovarA heated urn that brews tea for a slow, sociable pour, from Russia to Iran and KashmirRussian tea cultureThe everyday cup of Russia, brewed strong and diluted to taste, with jam and sweetsKorovaiA round wedding bread of Eastern Europe, baked with songs and shared by all the guestsWigiliaPoland's meatless Christmas Eve supper, begun when the first star appears

Good reading and sources

• Zakuski on WikipediaEncyclopedia
• More photos on Wikimedia CommonsPhotos and video
• Wikidata recordOpen data

It may contain mistakes. Traditions differ from one family, village and community to the next, and the people who keep them know them best. If something is wrong, tell us. Last refreshed 2026-10-05.