EUROPEAN RECIPES AS AN INDICATOR OF EUROPEAN CHOICES IN 19TH CENTURY GEORGIA

Abstract

The publication of European cuisine recipes in Georgian has a 200-year history. The first European recipes in Georgian were published in 1818 in St. Petersburg by Bagrat Batonishvili, the son of the last king of Georgia, Giorgi XII. Since 1852, the first Georgian literary magazine “Tsiskari” started publishing successful foreign agricultural and economic examples and recipes. The first Georgian agricultural magazine “Gutnis Deda” also published many articles about the European succesful experience. From the end of the 1860s, the writer Giorgi Tsereteli, the editor of the “Sasoplo Gazeti,” created an excellent collection of foreign recipes. In the first Georgian cookbook published in 1874, along with Geor gian dishes, Barbare Eristavi-Jorjadze added European recipes. They were also printed in the cookbooks published after Jorjadze’s book (at the end of the 19th century). For example, in 1891, Grigol Charkviani’s printing house in Tbilisi published a book with the title: “Georgian and European Cuisine”. In the 19th century, along with old Georgian dishes, many foreign recipes were known in Georgia. We collected and studied the following recipes translated into Georgian in the 19th century: Swiss cheese, English Chester cheese, English Stilton cheese, Westphalian ham, French and American salted ham, German and Bologna sausages, Frankfurt mustard, Portuguese lemonade, Italian waffles, chocolate candies, Hungarian wine, French champagne and other foreign foods and drinks. It is also interesting that 170 years ago in Georgia it was possible to buy foreign ingredients for the preparation of these non-Geor gian recipes, for example, Jamaican rum is mentioned in the recipe for the English Stilton cheese. Taking into account the historical context, the research question sounds as follows: What did the interest of Georgian publishers in European recipes in the 19th century point to? Was it the news brought by the time or some other message? Our research aims to study historical and literary texts of the 19th century, where the European choice of Georgians is clearly perceived as part of their cultural memory. The study is based on the three different scientific paradigms which help to analyze the European recipes published in the Georgian language in the 19th century not as culinary or gourmet, but as part of the Georgians’ Pro-European discourse. The research made it possible to decipher the interest in foreign recipes as deliberate messages of the cultural elite of that time, who had a specific mission – to awaken Georgians’ consciousness and support the European choice. Research has shown that a Georgian living 200 years ago was similar to a Georgian of the 21st century in terms of the clear European choice. For him, Europe was the center of progress, education, success, human rights and economic achievements, where Georgia wanted to return.