Just Start with Georgian Cooking
Georgian cooking is one of the world’s great undiscovered cuisines, a crossroads of European and Asian flavors shaped by the Caucasus Mountains, the Black Sea coast, and thousands of years of winemaking tradition. The food is generous and communal, built around walnut-herb pastes, tangy sauces made from unripe plums, cheese-filled breads pulled molten from the oven, and hand-pinched dumplings bursting with spiced broth. A Georgian supra (feast) is not just a meal but a ritual of toasts, shared plates, and abundance. The good news for home cooks is that most Georgian dishes rely on everyday ingredients: walnuts, garlic, fresh herbs like cilantro and dill, pomegranate, and good cheese. Once you learn the core techniques, dishes like khachapuri, khinkali, pkhali, and satsivi become genuinely achievable at home.
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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. Carla Capalbo spent years traveling across Georgia, from Tbilisi to the Black Sea coast, collecting recipes and stories from family kitchens, traditional winemakers, and the country’s best cooks. The result is a 464-page book that works as cookbook, travel guide, and cultural portrait all at once.
Why Start Here
Most Georgian cookbooks give you recipes without context. Capalbo gives you the whole picture. She organizes the book by region, taking you through ten distinct parts of the country, each with its own culinary identity. You learn that Adjaran khachapuri (the famous boat-shaped cheese bread with an egg on top) comes from the Black Sea coast, that Kakhetian cooking leans heavily on walnut sauces, and that Imeretian cheese is the key to the best lobiani.
The 70-plus recipes cover all the essentials: khachapuri in multiple regional variations, khinkali (the spiced meat dumplings you eat with your hands), pkhali (vegetable-walnut spreads), satsivi (cold walnut-garlic sauce traditionally served over turkey or chicken), lobio (spiced bean stew), and churchkhela (the candle-shaped walnut-and-grape confection). Capalbo provides substitutions for hard-to-find Georgian ingredients without compromising authenticity, which matters enormously for home cooks outside the Caucasus.
What sets this book apart is the depth. You do not just learn how to make a dish. You learn why it exists, where it comes from, and how it fits into the broader patterns of Georgian eating and hospitality. The photography is stunning, and the wine sections alone are worth the price of admission. Georgia is one of the world’s oldest winemaking regions, with wines traditionally fermented in clay qvevri buried underground.
What to Expect
A large, lavishly photographed book at 464 pages. This is not a quick weeknight recipe collection. It is a reference book and a reading experience. The regional organization means you can explore one area at a time or jump straight to the recipes you want. You will need some specialty ingredients (adjika spice paste, blue fenugreek, Georgian cheese), but Capalbo is practical about substitutions. The recipes range from simple salads and spreads to more involved bread and dumpling projects. Start with the pkhali and lobio before tackling khachapuri and khinkali.
Alternatives
Tiko Tuskadze · 208 pages · 2017 · Easy
A warm, recipe-focused introduction to Georgian cooking from Tiko Tuskadze, the chef-owner of London’s Little Georgia restaurant. Where Carla Capalbo’s Tasting Georgia is a sweeping cultural portrait, Supra is the book you reach for when you want to cook tonight. Over 100 recipes, clearly written and drawn from Tuskadze’s family traditions and restaurant experience.
Why Start Here
Tuskadze grew up in Georgia and brought her family’s recipes to London, where Little Georgia became one of the city’s most beloved Georgian restaurants. This book is her family cookbook made public. The recipes are organized practically: appetizers and salads, breads, soups and stews, fish, meat and poultry, desserts, and drinks.
You get all the classics: khachapuri, khinkali, lobio, pkhali, satsivi, ajapsandali (a smoky eggplant and pepper stew), and churchkhela. But Tuskadze also includes less well-known dishes that rarely appear in English-language cookbooks, like chicken tabaka (pressed and pan-fried chicken), badrijani nigvzit (eggplant rolls with walnut paste), and chakapuli (lamb stew with tarragon and sour plums).
The instructions are straightforward and assume you are a competent home cook rather than a professional. Tuskadze writes the way she cooks: with confidence and without fuss. The book also includes a lovely introduction to the Georgian supra tradition, the ritualized feast with a tamada (toastmaster) that sits at the heart of Georgian hospitality.
What to Expect
A compact 208-page hardcover, beautifully photographed. This is a kitchen-friendly book you can actually prop open while cooking. The recipes are less detailed than Capalbo’s but more numerous, giving you a broader repertoire to work from. Ingredient notes are included but less extensive, so you may need to do some of your own research on sourcing Georgian staples. A great second book if you already own Tasting Georgia, or a solid first choice if you want to start cooking immediately rather than reading about the culture first.
Darra Goldstein · 296 pages · 2013 · Moderate
The book that introduced Georgian cuisine to English-speaking readers. First published in 1993, Darra Goldstein’s The Georgian Feast won the IACP Julia Child Award for Cookbook of the Year and remains the most culturally rich exploration of Georgian food available. The revised edition adds new photography, additional recipes, and an essay by wine writer Alice Feiring.
Why Start Here
Goldstein is a food scholar and professor of Russian, and she brings an academic depth to Georgian cooking that no other English-language cookbook matches. The first fifty pages are pure cultural immersion: the geography, history, and traditions that shaped Georgian cuisine. You learn why Georgians eat the way they do, how the supra works, what role food plays in family life and national identity.
The hundred-plus recipes that follow cover the full range of Georgian cooking: appetizers, soups, meat and poultry, fish, vegetables, sauces, breads, and sweets. Goldstein includes recipes for tkemali (the sour plum sauce that accompanies grilled meats), walnut sauces in several variations, Georgian bean dishes, and the cheese breads that define the cuisine. Each recipe comes with historical notes and context that deepen your understanding of the food.
What makes this book irreplaceable is the scholarship. Goldstein does not just tell you how to make satsivi. She explains how the dish reflects the walnut forests of western Georgia, the medieval trade routes that brought spices to the Caucasus, and the agricultural rhythms of a country where food and identity are inseparable.
What to Expect
A 296-page paperback that reads more like a food history than a standard cookbook. The cultural essays are substantial and rewarding. The recipes are well-tested but written in a more narrative style than modern cookbooks, so you may need to read through them once before cooking. Fewer photographs than Tasting Georgia or Supra, but the writing more than compensates. Best suited for readers who want to understand Georgian cuisine deeply, not just reproduce dishes from it.