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Meriko
Appears in
Published 2017
Meriko Gubeladze is one of Georgia’s culinary stars. She has a flair for creating the kind of relaxed but chic restaurants that people adopt as an extension of their homes, and maintains that Georgian food is as much about lifestyle as it is about specific recipes. In her restaurants – from Shavi Lomi, to the vegetarian Kafe Leila and the Lisi Lake Restaurant – she sets her style: cosmopolitan and comfortable, with enjoyable food and wine to share with friends.
The charismatic Meriko is well known to the Georgian public for her weekly TV show, Skhva Shade, on food and cooking. “I didn’t train as a chef but picked it up from home and when I lived in New York and Mexico,” she says. “My idea was to make delicious food from organic ingredients that were Georgian in spirit but not necessarily in form. I wanted to make lighter, modern versions of some of the classics but many Georgians are strongly tied to tradition and whenever I make changes to an iconic dish – like adding fresh herbs to a lobiani bean pie, for instance – I get letters of complaint from our viewers,” she smiles. “Luckily there’s lots of positive feedback too.”