Two of My Favourite Tbilisi Bakeries

“At school some kids had books but I studied the history and culture of baking bread,” he says, as he mixes the dough far below street level in central Tbilisi. He’s wearing a once-colourful T-shirt and is covered with a light dusting of flour. “In the Black ’90s, before I was given this space by the patriarch, I worked in a factory. But I preferred baking. In Soviet times each loaf had to weigh more than one kilo. Now it’s 600 grams so we use less flour but the price has remained the same,” he says with a shake of the head. “In those days the bread was circular, a shoti with two handles, whereas now it’s a half-shoti with just one. Each area of Georgia has its own shape.”