All activities / Culinary / Cooking / Tbilisi
Culinary / Cooking in Tbilisi
Georgia's capital, a layered city of Orthodox churches, wine bars, and Soviet modernist blocks on the Mtkvari River. The base for Caucasus motorcycle and overland circuits running north to Kazbegi and west to the Black Sea.
Why here
Georgian food culture is built around the supra, the feast governed by a tamada toastmaster whose toasts are the actual agenda, and Tbilisi teaches it hands-on: khinkali-twisting and khachapuri classes end at a supra table with the eight-thousand-year wine tradition poured alongside. The food-walk end of the scale runs from market-to-table old-town tours led by food journalists and chefs to full-day Silk Road feasts through the Dezerter Bazaar's herb and cheese rows. Georgian cuisine is having its global moment, and eating it at the source, walnut sauces, fresh coriander, amber wine, is the version the export copies can't match.
Best months
Year-round; September and October add market harvest depth. Classes and tours book a couple of days ahead in summer. Come very hungry, the supra does not negotiate.
Getting there & around
Everything meets centrally in the old town or at the markets. Pair with a Kakheti day trip for the vineyard end of the same story.
Skill levels: beginner
Schools & guides (2)
Culinary Backstreets
GuideThe international food-journalism outfit's Tbilisi operation, running the full-day old-town Silk Road feast with chef and journalist guides.
Taste Georgia
GuideTbilisi culinary specialist running market walks, khachapuri and lobiani classes, and Kakheti wine immersions on a Slow Food philosophy.