Where to Start with Carla Capalbo
Carla Capalbo is an American-born, Italy-based food and wine writer and photographer who has spent decades documenting the artisan food cultures of Europe. She writes books that are equal parts cookbook, travel guide, and cultural portrait, always grounded in years of on-the-ground reporting. Her work on Georgian food and wine is widely regarded as the best ever produced in English, winning the Guild of Food Writers’ Food and Travel Award and being named one of the best cookbooks of 2017 by both The Atlantic and the Gourmand International Cookbook Awards.
Start here
Tasting Georgia
Carla Capalbo · 464 pages · 2017 · Moderate
Themes: Georgian cuisine, wine culture, travel, traditional recipes, Caucasus
The most comprehensive book on Georgian food and wine ever written in English. Capalbo spent years traveling across Georgia, collecting recipes from family kitchens and documenting winemakers, markets, and restaurants. The result is a 464-page work that functions as cookbook, travel guide, and cultural portrait.
Why Start Here
Capalbo organizes the book by region, covering ten distinct parts of Georgia, each with its own culinary identity. The 70-plus recipes include khachapuri, khinkali, pkhali, satsivi, lobio, and churchkhela, all the essentials of Georgian cooking. But the book goes far beyond recipes. You learn the history, geography, and traditions behind the food, plus the wine culture that makes Georgia one of the world’s most fascinating gastronomic destinations.
The photography is stunning, and Capalbo provides practical substitutions for hard-to-find Georgian ingredients. This is the book that won multiple awards and was listed by Newsweek as one of the six best travel books of the decade.
What to Expect
A large, lavishly photographed 464-page reference. More reading experience than quick recipe collection. Regional organization lets you explore one area at a time. Recipes range from simple vegetable spreads to involved bread and dumpling projects. The wine sections are as valuable as the food sections.