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Host: Mzia

Tbilisi, Georgia

USD
$40-$54 per person

Cook traditional family recipes from different regions of Georgia

Host offerings
  • House
  • Home cook
  • Pets
  • Vegetarian
  • Alcohol
  • Transportation
  • Cooking class
  • Market visit
  • Food tour

Meet Mzia

Mzia hosts this experience with her two children, Nanuka and Giorgi. While Mzia will do all the cooking, Nanuka or Giorgi, will be translating. Mzia learned to cook from her mother and grandmother as a child. Her father was a winemaker, and as a result, Mzia’s parents regularly hosted customers who were buying wine. So, she is exposed to entertaining from a young age - sometimes they’d entertain guests five times per day! Mzia is excited to share her culinary secrets, culture and Georgian hospitality with travelers from all over the world. As she enjoys meeting new people and learning about new countries and cultures, while sharing her own.

What to expect

Please note menu might vary. If there are particular dishes you are interested in trying, please include your request in the booking form.

Cooking experience: (1-8 guests) Mzia lives in a spacious, family home in a residential district, in central Tbilisi. She lived in Moscow for a while and now the family is back home in Tbilisi. Mzia's daughter, Nanuka, is an immigration attorney who loves international travel and her husband, Thomas, is a winemaker, ensuring the tradition is carried on in the family. They will join the experience, whenever they're available.

Join Mzia in the kitchen to learn family recipes and cook dishes from different regions of Georgia. Learn to make 3 dishes from scratch in your 2-hour hands-on cooking class. Learn to make nigvziani badrijani (fried eggplant filled with a walnut paste), lobio (slow-cooked beans) and mchadi (cornbread) or khachapuri (cheese-filled bread). Later sit down with the family at the dining table to share the dishes you helped prepare. Which will be served along with condiments, such as ajika (a spicy red pepper sauce), satsivi (a walnut sauce), tkemali (a plum sauce) and pickled peppers. End your meal with pelamushi, a dessert made with grape juice and corn flour, topped with walnuts.

Languages spoken: English, Russian

Sample menu

This is just a sample menu to give you an idea of the types of dishes the host cooks. Your menu will vary according to seasonal availability.
  • Lemonade
  • Nigvziani Badrijani (fried eggplant filled with a walnut paste) or Pkhali (spinach blended with a walnut paste)
  • Lobio (slow-cooked beans) or Khinkali (a Georgian dumpling)
  • Mchadi (cornbread) or Chvishtari (cornbread with cheese) or Khachapuri (cheese-filled bread)
  • Pelamushi (a dessert made with grape juice and corn flour, topped with walnuts)
PERSONALLY VETTED REVIEW
A Traveling Spoon ambassador visited this host. Here is their personal review.

We enjoyed a fabulous feast with Mzia (the cook extraordinaire) as well as her adult children, Giorgi, and Nanuka (who both helped translate). Nanuka’s husband and son joined us for the meal too, making for a fun afternoon. When we arrived at the family’s home, Giorgi offered us glasses of amber wine made by his uncle. The wine was produced in a Georgian earthenware vessel called a qvevri. Giorgi later showed us the family’s pantry, which was filled with homemade pickled / jarred items. They were stored in glass jars, wrapped with twine and snippets of fabric. Seeing this, we could tell that Mzia took cooking seriously! As we prepared the food, Giorgi explained that hospitality has long been an important part of his family’s life. Giorgi also explained that in Georgia guests are “gifts from god,” and that the most important thing to hosts is to hear guests laughing and having a good time during a meal. Mzia showed us how to cook a number of traditional Georgian dishes. We only eat poultry and fish, and one of us is gluten-free, but this didn’t seem to challenge Mzia’s ability to plan a tasty meal. We’d spent a few months in Tbilisi before this experience and had already tried a lot of Georgian dishes. Mzia’s cooking was much spicier and flavorful than the restaurant cooking, and we loved that about her food. Toasting is an important part of Georgian hospitality, and Giorgi did a great job as toastmaster, personalizing toasts throughout the afternoon. Mzia presented the food in a beautiful way, using garnishes like pomegranate seeds and sprigs of cilantro. It also seemed like all the family’s serving dishes had some kind of story. The pretty vintage cutlery, for example, dated back to Soviet times. We ended up having a super time! This was the most flavorful Georgian cuisine we’ve ever eaten! Mzia has a great way of incorporating fresh herbs and spices into her dishes.

Tricia and Shawn, Traveling Spoon Ambassador

Traveler reviews

This is a new host who does not yet have any reviews. You can see reviews of our other Tbilisi Traveling Spoon experiences on TripAdvisor:
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Mzia

$40-$54 USD

per person
100% VETTED
Learn more
  • 100% satisfaction guarantee or your money back
  • Credit card is not charged until the host confirms your booking
  • Private experience
Pricing (per person)*
1 person 2-4 ppl 5+ ppl
Cooking Experience + Meal
 $54 $46 $40
Alcohol
 $4 per person
Transportation
 $30 per car
*Does not include 3% payment processing fee applied at checkout.
1 person 2-4 people 5+ people
Cooking Experience + Meal
 $54 $46 $40
Alcohol
 $4 per person
Transportation
 $30 per car
*Does not include 3% payment processing fee applied at checkout.
Experience Timings
 Lunch Dinner
Cooking Experience+ Meal
 11:00am-2:00pm 5:00pm-8:00pm

Meet Mzia

Mzia hosts this experience with her two children, Nanuka and Giorgi. While Mzia will do all the cooking, Nanuka or Giorgi, will be translating. Mzia learned to cook from her mother and grandmother as a child. Her father was a winemaker, and as a result, Mzia’s parents regularly hosted customers who were buying wine. So, she is exposed to entertaining from a young age - sometimes they’d entertain guests five times per day! Mzia is excited to share her culinary secrets, culture and Georgian hospitality with travelers from all over the world. As she enjoys meeting new people and learning about new countries and cultures, while sharing her own.

What to expect

Please note menu might vary. If there are particular dishes you are interested in trying, please include your request in the booking form.

Cooking experience: (1-8 guests) Mzia lives in a spacious, family home in a residential district, in central Tbilisi. She lived in Moscow for a while and now the family is back home in Tbilisi. Mzia's daughter, Nanuka, is an immigration attorney who loves international travel and her husband, Thomas, is a winemaker, ensuring the tradition is carried on in the family. They will join the experience, whenever they're available.

Join Mzia in the kitchen to learn family recipes and cook dishes from different regions of Georgia. Learn to make 3 dishes from scratch in your 2-hour hands-on cooking class. Learn to make nigvziani badrijani (fried eggplant filled with a walnut paste), lobio (slow-cooked beans) and mchadi (cornbread) or khachapuri (cheese-filled bread). Later sit down with the family at the dining table to share the dishes you helped prepare. Which will be served along with condiments, such as ajika (a spicy red pepper sauce), satsivi (a walnut sauce), tkemali (a plum sauce) and pickled peppers. End your meal with pelamushi, a dessert made with grape juice and corn flour, topped with walnuts.

Languages spoken: English, Russian

Sample menu

This is just a sample menu to give you an idea of the types of dishes the host cooks. Your menu will vary according to seasonal availability.
  • Lemonade
  • Nigvziani Badrijani (fried eggplant filled with a walnut paste) or Pkhali (spinach blended with a walnut paste)
  • Lobio (slow-cooked beans) or Khinkali (a Georgian dumpling)
  • Mchadi (cornbread) or Chvishtari (cornbread with cheese) or Khachapuri (cheese-filled bread)
  • Pelamushi (a dessert made with grape juice and corn flour, topped with walnuts)
PERSONALLY VETTED REVIEW
A Traveling Spoon ambassador visited this host. Here is their personal review.

We enjoyed a fabulous feast with Mzia (the cook extraordinaire) as well as her adult children, Giorgi, and Nanuka (who both helped translate). Nanuka’s husband and son joined us for the meal too, making for a fun afternoon. When we arrived at the family’s home, Giorgi offered us glasses of amber wine made by his uncle. The wine was produced in a Georgian earthenware vessel called a qvevri. Giorgi later showed us the family’s pantry, which was filled with homemade pickled / jarred items. They were stored in glass jars, wrapped with twine and snippets of fabric. Seeing this, we could tell that Mzia took cooking seriously! As we prepared the food, Giorgi explained that hospitality has long been an important part of his family’s life. Giorgi also explained that in Georgia guests are “gifts from god,” and that the most important thing to hosts is to hear guests laughing and having a good time during a meal. Mzia showed us how to cook a number of traditional Georgian dishes. We only eat poultry and fish, and one of us is gluten-free, but this didn’t seem to challenge Mzia’s ability to plan a tasty meal. We’d spent a few months in Tbilisi before this experience and had already tried a lot of Georgian dishes. Mzia’s cooking was much spicier and flavorful than the restaurant cooking, and we loved that about her food. Toasting is an important part of Georgian hospitality, and Giorgi did a great job as toastmaster, personalizing toasts throughout the afternoon. Mzia presented the food in a beautiful way, using garnishes like pomegranate seeds and sprigs of cilantro. It also seemed like all the family’s serving dishes had some kind of story. The pretty vintage cutlery, for example, dated back to Soviet times. We ended up having a super time! This was the most flavorful Georgian cuisine we’ve ever eaten! Mzia has a great way of incorporating fresh herbs and spices into her dishes.

Tricia and Shawn, Traveling Spoon Ambassador

Traveler reviews

This is a new host who does not yet have any reviews. You can see reviews of our other Tbilisi Traveling Spoon experiences on TripAdvisor:
Pricing (per person)*
1 person 2-4 ppl 5+ ppl
Cooking Experience + Meal
 $54 $46 $40
Alcohol
 $4 per person
Transportation
 $30 per car
*Does not include 3% payment processing fee applied at checkout.
1 person 2-4 people 5+ people
Cooking Experience + Meal
 $54 $46 $40
Alcohol
 $4 per person
Transportation
 $30 per car
*Does not include 3% payment processing fee applied at checkout.
Experience Timings
 Lunch Dinner
Cooking Experience+ Meal
 11:00am-2:00pm 5:00pm-8:00pm
ABOUT TRAVELING SPOON

Traveling Spoon connects you with meaningful culinary experiences, from private cooking lessons to homecooked meals in people's homes. Enjoy an immersive cultural experience that gives you a glimpse into the local way of life.

FAQ

    You can cancel your reservation up until 48 hours before your experience for a full refund minus a 3% processing fee. Experiences within 48 hours are not refundable.

    If you have a question for your host, you can include a note in the field "Write a note to your host" during the booking process. Once your booking is confirmed, you will be emailed your host's direct contact information and you will also be able to message the host through your profile. You can always cancel your booking and receive a full refund 48 hours or more before your experience. If you have other questions you can also email us at reservations@travelingspoon.com.

    Most of our hosts are able to accommodate dietary restrictions and allergies, including vegetarian and gluten free options. For vegetarian travelers, we have an icon on each host profile to indicate whether that host can also offer a fully vegetarian menu. There is a section in the booking form to note any allergies or dietary restrictions which will be sent directly to your host.

    Some hosts offer alcohol as an optional add-on for travelers who are of legal drinking age. Pricing for alcohol is visible on the host profile page and includes one to two glasses of wine, beer or local alcohol.

    Have a flight or other tour planned and can’t make the timing provided? If the timing listed on the host’s profile doesn’t work for you, our hosts can often accommodate timing changes. Because all of our experiences are private our hosts are happy to tailor experiences to meet your travel needs. Simply note your request in the booking process.

    Your card will not be charged until your host accepts your booking. Typically hosts respond to bookings within 72 hours. In the event your host is unavailable on your selected date and your host rejects your booking your credit card will not be charged.

    Your host's detailed contact information, including their phone number, address, and direction notes, will all be provided immediately upon successful confirmation of your experience (after your hosts accepts your booking and your credit card is successfully processed). This information will be emailed to you to the email address you used to sign up, and will also be visible on your Traveling Spoon profile.

    All prices are noted per person prices unless otherwise specified. Transportation is typically charged on a per car basis. Children aged 5-11 are 50% off, and infants aged 0-4 are free. Hosts set their own prices and Traveling Spoon marks up the experiences; on average hosts receive over 70% of the price paid by the traveler.

    100% of Traveling Spoon experiences are private! Just you and your host and host’s family.

    Hosts typically respond to booking inquiries within 72 hours. If for some reason you have not heard from your host or if you have any questions you can always contact us at reservations@travelingspoon.com.

    Your safety and security are our top priority. To ensure this, Traveling Spoon personally vets 100% of all hosts, including an in-person host visit, to ensure each host and experience meets our strict quality requirements.

    Some hosts offer transportation as an optional add-on for travelers. Typically this is round trip transportation with pick up and drop off at your hotel. Pricing is quoted per car. Specific instructions for transportation will be provided in your confirmation details when your booking is confirmed.

    Many of our hosts accommodate solo travelers. You can see if a host accepts solo travelers by looking at the traveler range found next to the experience descriptions on the host profile (indicated by the numbers in parentheses next to "In-home meal", "Cooking experience" and "Market visit").

    Most of our Traveling Spoon experiences are incredibly family friendly and can accommodate infants and children. If a host is unable to accommodate children that will be noted in the “Notes” section of their profile. Our child pricing policy is children aged 5-11 are 50% off, and infants aged 0-4 are free.