The Georgian Feast

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.