Food Festival

GOURMET FESTIVALS

The cuisine of the monks, the crossroads of civilizations, the hidden secrets

F

rom the slopes of Olympus to the Aegean blue and the Prespes lakes, Greece has a huge variety of landscapes, architecture, cultures and, of course, tastes: from the rare herbs growing where the waves break, the tasty fish soups, the juicy roasts, to the special honey, the herbs, the yogurt, the pies and the cheese, materials that made up the first gourmet cuisine of civilization.

Food and wine, the ambrosia and the nectar of the Olympus Gods, are an important part of the Greeks’ lives; they are celebrated in dozens of gastronomical festivals throughout the country, as every area promotes its uniqueness. The “Nikolaos Tselementes” Cyclades

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GOURMET FESTIVALS

Gastronomy Festival is held in early September on the island of Sifnos, the birthplace of the cook who changed the art of gastronomy in Greece. The threeday festival does not only set off local cuisine with the chick-pea balls, the string beans with garlic sauce or the lamb cooked for hours in the “mastelo”, the traditional clay utensil, but it also gives way to the other islands in the Cyclades complex to present their own foods. In the central square of Artemonas, amateurs and professionals prepare recipes from their homelands, such as Tinos pasta which is kneaded with local vegetables, goat with caper leaves and vinegar octopus with sundried tomato from Syros, or the famous “small tomatoes” and Santorini capers. Also: cooking games for kids, presentation of customs, ceramics and carpet-making, representation of a traditional wedding, a bazaar with products from the participating islands.

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GOURMET FESTIVALS

With 95 chefs from 40 countries boasting 40 Michelin stars in total, the Sani Gourmet in May has been promoting Greek modern gastronomy for the last 10 years at the Sani Resort in Kassandra of Halkidiki.

The festival focuses on the creative use of local products and the searching of taste relations with other international cuisines. Thus, apart from Greek dishes, such as fish soup with bash fish carpaccio or lamb with barley in tomato juice, the important cultural role that food played in the connection of East with West is set off. From 8 to 17 May and under the theme of Silk Road Vol2, the festival will examine the interactions between the cuisines of Greece, China, Turkey, Italy, Azerbaijan etc.

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GOURMET FESTIVALS

At the end of September, under the shadow of the magical rocks of the Meteora where the mythical monasteries hang, pork sausages flavored with leek, onions and mushrooms, corn flour pies, pork stews straight from antiquity and of course frumenty, the ancient Greek pasta made from flour and milk. The new Meteorisimo Gastronomy Festival at Trikala in September invites chefs, monks and local producers to reveal to visitors the gastronomical tradition of the area, which combines creativity with austerity. Old women roll out the pastry, traditional bakers make bread in a pot, the women of the area treat people with Spatoula, the traditional sweet with syrupy sponge decorated with plenty of cream, while fourth generation confectioners prepare Trikala halvah on a copper pan on coal. At the same time, in Kalabaka, Kastraki, Pertouli, Neraidohori and Elati, villages built on the lakes, forests and mountain tops in the region, associated restaurants include these local recipes on their menu for the festival.

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