Khachapuri is a traditional Georgian dish of cheese-filled bread. The bread is leavened and allowed to rise and is shaped in various ways, usually with cheese in the middle and a crust which is ripped off and used to dip in the cheese. The filling contains cheese (fresh or aged, most commonly sulguni), eggs and other ingredients.
In 22 January, 2019 With the order of The CEO of National agency for cultural heritage of Georgia, Nikoloz Antidze, The tradition of khachapuri was given the status of Intangible cultural heritage of Georgia. The initiators of this were LTD “Gunda” and Nana Dolidze and Levan Qoqiashvili
Currently the same people are working on to make UNESCO proclaim Tradition of khachapuri as an Intangible cultural herritage of Humanity
It is very popular in Georgia, both in restaurants and as street food. As a Georgian staple food, the price of making khachapuri is used as a measure of inflation in different Georgian cities by the “khachapuri index,” developed by the International School of Economics at Tbilisi State University.
It is Georgia’s national dish that is inscribed on the list of the Intangible cultural heritage of Georgia.
There are several distinctive types of khachapuri in Georgian food from different regions of Georgia:
- Imeretian (Imeruli), Khachapuri is the most popular form, made by pastry infused with yeast and white Imeretian salted cheese.
- Adjarian (Acharuli/Adjaruli) A boat-shaped Khachapuri, with cheese, butter and egg yolk in the middle. It is thought to originate from the lazi people, who were sailors. Khachapuri is a certain representation of the boat, sea and sun.
- Megrelian khachapuri (Megruli), similar to Imeritian but with more cheese added on top.
- Achma, from Abkhazia, which has multiple layers and looks more like a sauceless lasagna.
- Gurian (Guruli) khachapuri has boiled eggs inside the dough and looks like a calzone. Arguably, it is not a type of khachapuri. Gurians make them for Christmas and call them simply ‘Christmas pie’. In the rest of Georgia, it is called ‘Gurian pie’.
- Ossetian (Osuri) khachapuri, which has potato, as well as cheese in its filling. It is commonly called Khabizgini.
- Svanuri Lemzira
- Rachuli khachapuri
- Samtskhe–Javakhetian Penovani khachapuri is made with puff pastry dough, resulting in a flaky variety of the pie.
