Bakradze, K. Georgian and Oriental Cuisine (Kartuli da aghmosavluri k'erdzebis samzareulo). Illustrated by A. Kandelaki, 1957. In Georgian.

ბაქრაძე, კ. ქართული და აღმოსავლური კერძების სამზარეულო / რედაქტორი მ. ტყემალაძე ; მხატვარი ა. კანდელაკი.
თბილისი : სახელგამი, 1957. 174 გვერდი : ილუსტრაციები ; 25 სმ.
მაგარი ყდა. ტირაჟი 20 000 ც.
ყდა - კარგი: ზურგის თავ-ბოლო და კუთხეები ცვეთილი. ბლოკი - კარგი: ფორზაცზე მცირე ლაქა.
***
Bakradze, K. Georgian and Oriental Cuisine / editor M. Tkemaladze ; artist A. Kandelaki.
Tbilisi : Sakhelgami, 1957. 174 pp. : illustrated ; 25 cm.
Hardcover. Print run of 20,000 copies.
Binding good: spine ends and corners worn. Text block good: small stain on the endpaper.

This is a Georgian-language cookbook published in Tbilisi in 1957, in the first years after the Stalin era, when state publishers returned to practical household books for a large readership. The title page carries a parallel Russian title, which suggests the book was meant to be used in Russian-speaking households of the Caucasus as well. The text is arranged by course and technique. It includes cold dishes made from vegetables, hot dishes made from meat and poultry, pickles and sauces, among them the Georgian plum sauce tkemali, and a closing section on how to lay the table for a breakfast, lunch or supper. Recipes give a portion norm in grams for each ingredient, in the manner of Soviet catering manuals. The volume is illustrated throughout with vignettes at chapter heads and with full-page colour plates of laid tables and prepared dishes, including a Georgian wine bottle and a dish of chakhokhbili. The artist, A. Kandelaki, also designed the sepia still-life endpapers and the embossed front board. The print run of 20,000 copies was large for a Georgian-language title, yet cookbooks were used in the kitchen and survive in far smaller numbers than their print runs suggest. A later volume by the same author, on Georgian and European dishes, appeared in 1960. The book will interest collectors of Georgian and Caucasian food culture, historians of Soviet domestic life, and collectors of mid-century Soviet book illustration.