Vanessa Markey
Leek and bacon croissantsby Andrea Menichetti
In cantina Vigne Cappato: lunga vita al Vermentino
Tekuna Gachechiladze, chef at Cafe Littera in Tbilisi, Georgia. A graduate in Psychology, she attended the Culinary Institute in New York. She’ll be at Al Meni, in Rimini, on June 23rd and 24th
«Nine years ago we invited Alain Ducasse. He tasted khinkali, meat dumplings of Mongolian origins, badrijani nigvzit, aubergine and walnut rolls, a heritage of the Persian invasion, chakapulilamb stew… He was so impressed he asked to speak with the chef. ‘Chef?’, we asked startled, ‘we don’t have a chef in the restaurant, there are many people cooking’. That’s when I realised something had to change».
Tekuna Gachechiladze is the godmother of Georgia’s culinary revolution and the cook who over the past decade has tried to upturn her country’s traditional cuisine. A tradition with surprising flavours. Indeed, even before arriving at Cafe Littera in Tbilisi, at the end of a nice trip to Kakheti, the world’s cradle of wine, we shared the same thoughts as the French master. We found tomatoes that were more explosive than the Italian ones, marvellous vegetable salads, plenty of khachapuri to dive into, mchadi cornbread you can’t get enough of.
Who would have expected such a light, aromatic cuisine, in many ways so similar to our own? Too bad that, while moving from one tavern to the other, we mostly found the same dishes. «Our culinary culture», explained Tekuna, blonde bob, fluent English and chatty personality, «is still affected by the 70-year-long Soviet immobilism. We’ve been so obsessed with preserving our language, our names and flavours that we’ve built a wall impervious to everything new».
The meal begins at Cafe Littera, a very convivial format
Mushroom salad
Cod wrapped in walnuts on celery purée and tarragon sauce
«My work is based on a twofold mission: recuperating recipes from the endless traditions we’ve lost, like those of Mingrelian origin», she says, «and importing ingredients that are no longer in use, including simple artichokes, wild garlic or mushrooms. I work with farmers intensively. I explain to them that even aubergines and corn, two emblems of our edible identity, in fact come from India or Persia...». It’s the same awakening that is livening up the universe of Georgian wine: «In our country we once had 525 local grape varieties. During Soviet times they only planted 4…».
The restaurant’s art nouveau building
The beautiful garden
The opulence of the rooms inside
Her example is quickly inspiring other cooks in town. Two above all: Levan Kobiashvili from the lovely Barbarestan and Meriko Gubeladzefrom Shavi Lomi.
Translated into English by Slawka G. Scarso Cafe Littera 13, Machabeli Tbilisi, Georgia +995.599.988308 litterareservation@gmail.com See also Why Georgia is the cradle of wine The boom of Georgian winesde
born in Milan, 1973, freelance journalist, coordinator of Identità Golose World restaurant guidebook since 2007, he is a contributor for several magazines and teaches History of gastronomy and Culinary global trends into universities and institutes. twitter @gabrielezanatt instagram @gabrielezanatt
Gabriele Zanatta’s opinion: on establishments, chefs and trends in Italy and the world