2024-03-24 06:00:13
FIGARO DEMAIN – In the small country of the South Caucasus, Jean-Jacques Jacob cultivates and makes bread with these forgotten seeds, yet more resistant to the climate and more digestible.
Special envoy to Tbilisi
When he remembers the first grains he saw sprouting on his land, Jean-Jacques cannot hold back his tears. “I didn’t think I could feel such emotion when faced with wheat,” recognizes the farmer-baker, while waiting for the tow truck at the side of a road in Kakheti, in eastern Georgia. Having lived there for seventeen years, this Frenchman fell in love with the country as well as its wheat. On a trip there, he tastes a loaf of bread at a Georgian supra-feast. “He’s special, you’ll see”, we then say to this gluten intolerant person. In addition to its unforgettable flavor, the dish does not cause any symptoms. And for good reason, it is made from tsiteli doli, a local variety of red wheat: if Georgia is renowned for being the birthplace of wine, it is also one of the birthplaces of wheat.
Of the twenty species that exist in the world, five are endemic to its territory (dikka, macha, chelta zanduri, klkhian asli and hexaploid zanduri), and…
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