WHAT IT WAS:
The cuisine of ancient classical Greece was like many ancient and modern cuisines. It was fundamentally representative of basic cultural principles, ideals and thoughts. Ancient Greece, like modern Greece today, was a collection of discontiguous localities, many separated by large expanses of water and harsh terrain. What bound them together—and still does today—is their approach to life and culture, an attitude visibly and sensually reflected in their food.
Proper nutrition was most certainly recognized and appreciated. Dietetics was a mainstay of both preventative and therapeutic treatment strategies. Religion played a role, as food and drink were essential ingredients to the successful celebration of many festivals and holidays. For the poorer among the populace, religious celebrations and the subsequent distribution of expensive animal proteins may have been their only opportunity to obtain such rarefied delicacies.
Yet for all the healthful and spiritual aspects that permeated the ancient Greek approach to dining, those features remained a backdrop. For the ancient Greeks of the classical period, it was first and foremost a love affair with the experience of food, foods not just for religion or nutrition, but to enjoy at an artistic level. It was an experience that made the consumption of food not just an animal requirement for existence but a uniquely defining human practice.
As such, it mirrored those tenets that bound Greeks from colonies as far away as North Africa and Spain to the citizens of Athens and Sparta. Three key elements were dynamic tension, balance and harmony.
Interestingly, the ancient Greeks also viewed the complete human being as a trinity: the head was the seat of intellect, the heart the seat of emotion and the navel seat of appetite. It was here at the navel that the appetite referred to a more primal and varied urge than just satiating hunger. We still, perhaps subconsciously, tap into this concept when we use those descriptors today, when we speak of hungering for affection or satisfying other, lustier cravings.
The ancient classical Greek view held that within the navel these desires were caged like a wild beast. There was the notion of a de-evolutionary reincarnation should the navel rule one’s life. According to Plato, women were reincarnated from lesser men, land animals from those uninterested in philosophy, birds from flighty men and all the sea creatures from stupid persons. Plato surmised that “they live in depths as a punishment for the depth of their stupidity.”262
Stupid people were those who could not or would not appreciate a fine repast. What was regarded as a sign of refinement and intelligence was an appreciation of well prepared meals. The quality of food was highly valued. It was much more important than the quantity offered. High-quality ingredients needed to be respected. It was about showcasing the character, nature and flavor of key elements. To muddle flavors by adding too much was wasteful, boastful and revealed a chef out of balance. Monotone preparations were likewise spurned, for they lacked any spark of creativity or sense of boldness. Without the existence of dynamic tension, there could be no contrast and thus no flavor.
Around the fourth century BC, an anonymous writer of medical texts observed that the chef is like a culinary musician.
“From the same notes come different tunes: from sharp, from flat; all are notes, but each has a different sound. The most different combine best, the least different combine worst: if one composes all on the same note, there is no pleasure at all. The boldest, the most varied sequences give the most pleasure. So it is that cooks make food and drink for us, creating dishes from dissimilars and similars. Now they vary ingredients, now they use the same ones but with different effect. If one makes all alike, there is no pleasure. If one puts all together in the same dish, it will not be right. The notes of music sound some high, some low. The tongue tastes food as if it were music, distinguishing sweet from sharp, discord and concord, in all that it encounters. When the tongue is attuned, there is pleasure in the music; when it is out of tune, there is agony!”263
Highlighting the main ingredient with the addition of a supporting cast of several components to create a harmony of taste and texture underscored the recipe for success in the preparation of the ancient Greek classical cuisine.
WHAT WAS LOST:
The modern interpretation of the Mediterranean diet arose in the 1960s in the United States, based on previous research performed primarily by Ancel Keys. While that research was based on the diets from the areas known to the Greeks of the ancient classical period—the Aegean, southern Italy, the Middle East and North Africa—it had several flaws.
The original observations arose during the post-World War II period, in which the diet had been significantly altered by the devastation wrought upon the entire region and continent. While the area known as the Mediterranean today encompasses over twenty distinct countries, and many varying and contrasting regions within single countries, Keys focused primarily in Greece and specifically upon Crete. Many of his observations and recordings that later defined the modern Mediterranean diet were taken during Lent. With a large Greek Orthodox Christian population, the timing of these measurements did not accurately reflect average daily consumption.
And time itself brought that slowly turning, inexorable constant: change. In the centuries that followed that classical period, much was transformed. Greece became the vassal of a number of conquerors. The Romans, while promoting many Hellenistic attributes, had their own ideas on food and spread them across Greece and the globe. As a culture evolves, so does its cuisine. The ubiquitous fish sauce, garos, was coopted by the Romans, where it was likewise omnipresent and known as garum. Yet the closest descendants to be found in the modern market today are Vietnamese nuoc mam or Thai nam pla fish sauce.264
More important than specific ingredients, the changes of he modern age have corroded the underlying principles of ancient classical Greek cuisine. Many ancient Greek dishes emphasized the quality of taste, texture and flavor over sheer quantity. Freshness was valued, food bore a close kinship to the natural world, from where both it and mankind dwelled. This philosophy is in complete contradistinction to the modern Western approach that emphasizes quantity and recognizes “to supersize” as a verb.265
The influx of the modern Western diet has brought a focus on quantity masquerading as value, convenience over quality and an over-reliance on processed, artificially preserved, pre-packaged and pre-prepared ingredients and meals. The modern Western diet brings with it an emphasis on quickly assembled—often by a dunk in the deep fryer—foodstuffs as opposed to crafted creations by trained chefs.
It seems that such a modern focus lacks the amazing ancient Grecian gifts of dynamic tension, balance and harmony. Our modern cuisine is out of tune, out of balance. The ancient Greeks formed the world’s first professional army, yet also instituted democracy. There was science and myth. They understood nutrition for the body and pleasant experience for the soul.
Chefs were respected by physicians and vice versa. There was a balance between desire and dietetics. Somehow a homeostasis was reached and a harmony achieved in all things. If food is music, then medicine is the science of sound. The science is important to understand and to produce desired effects, but isolated it can give no music or joy. Sound without direction is not music, it is cacophony. Without harmony, dynamic tension and balance there are just extremes left, on one side, gluttony, over-indulgence and physical suffering; on the other side, deprivation, misery and a weary soul. Perhaps the greatest culinary gifts the ancient Greeks have left for us are their example and advice. And while they may have been forgotten, all is not lost.
WHAT REMAINS:
It is a bit of an irony that while Archestratus criticized unnecessary culinary frills and garish entertainment, he eventually became associated with it. Centuries later his very name was a synonym for decadence. Clearchus of Soli belittled:
Those people nowadays who set one another questions [at drinking parties] like which sexual posture is the most enjoyable, or which fish, or how cooked; or which is in season now, or which is best to eat after Arcturus or after the Pleiades or after Sirius… This is typical of a man at home with the works of Philaenis and Archestratus, who has studied the so-called Gastrológiai.266
In actuality, the time of Archestratus was a time that saw the birth and rise of a food subculture, if not a complete culture into and unto itself. It was during this period that the earliest recorded cookbooks and the emergence of professional chefs appeared. Professional chefs arose in the Italian Greek colonies like Syracuse and Sicily and became the celebrities of their day. Professional bakers were highly recruited to Greece from the Levant region and likewise were highly regarded.
Many of these people, practicing a craft formerly relegated to slave status, became widespread luminaries and cult personalities. It is our modern “new” food phenomenon; it is déjà vu all over again!
Master chefs today pride themselves on creating menus featuring fresh product. Quality is slowly regaining its position of importance in the determination of food value. In the days of ancient classical Greece, all food was organic and natural by today’s standards and definitions.
Today, at a time when a meal can consist of a heritage breed, pastured and organically raised pork chop to an industrially produced tube of meat-like goo and both be considered a serving of pork, details matter. They matter a lot. The concept of carefully sourcing and assessing the quality of the ingredients is a reoccurring theme in the cookery of ancient Greece. It is also a critical component of the modern Mediterranean diet.
The modern Mediterranean diet, which has been broadened in scope to encompass the principles and particulars of all the countries and localities that border the Mediterranean Sea, has been demonstrated in multiple clinical trials to lead to improved measures of good health. It is beneficial in preventing and in some cases treating and even reversing many of the disabilities and diseases of modern civilization. Maladies like diabetes, obesity, cardiovascular disease and many others that have at their root a shared inflammatory etiology. The Mediterranean approach restores a harmony with our gut microbiome, a symbiotic organ that has coevolved to co-metabolize the food we eat. Disruption and perturbation of our individual gut microbiota is increasingly being identified and recognized as a major contributor to the inflammatory disabilities and diseases that are the scourge of our modern world.
The modern Mediterranean diet has many of the elements of the ancient classical Grecian diet: olive oil, fresh vegetables, whole grains and whole fruits. It is low in beef and moderate in other animal proteins. It has a strong tradition of naturally fermented foods: particularly fermented dairy foods like cheeses and yogurts. Flavors are built through the use of herbs and spices and textures thoughtfully assembled. But it is more than eating a few specific foods or just adding olive oil to everything.
The current Mediterranean dietary approach is as remarkable for what it is not, as well as what it is. There is a distinctive dearth of the many adverse dietary factors like fast food, junk food, sugar-sweetened beverages, refined grain products, partially hydrogenated or trans-fat foods that are so ubiquitous in the modern Western diet. This wholesome, authentic approach to quality foods is what binds together the cuisine of the region irrespective of the regional flavorings and indifferent to the caloric considerations. It is the “how” they go about choosing ingredients, not a specific “what.”
While what remains may not be a true elixir of ambrosia conferring immortality, the Mediterranean dietary approach simply yields damn tasty food that is good for you. The modern Mediterranean diet, a wunderkind of flavor and function, exists as a direct descendant of the cuisine of ancient classical Greece.
THE TAKEAWAY:
Ancient Greece elevated the importance and the role of food and drink in our everyday lives. From this culture and from this stew arose the world’s first professional chefs, and modern gastronomy was born. The regions might change, and the tools, but the underlying principles remain firmly entrenched in modern cuisines. Top chefs today echo the philosophy of 2500 years ago: simple, fresh, quality ingredients prepared with attention, purpose and, most importantly, passion and respect.
For a culture where thy food was thy medicine and thy medicine was thy food there is an inescapable wisdom carved into the living rock at Delphi. Delphi was a place that was most holy to the Ancients and appropriately enough regarded as the omphalos, the navel of the world. Here were inscribed two simple phrases we would do well to heed:
“Know thyself”
“Nothing in excess”
When we understand those five words, when we can find balance in our lives and our food, we find our hearts both happy and healthy. These five simple words yield five simple principles that anyone can apply to their daily cuisine. Such application allows us to reap both the bounty of flavor and the bounty of health that echo through the corridors of time from the symposia of the ancient Greeks.
1.Simplicity: The ancient Greeks focused on highlighting the natural taste and textures of the food they prepared. In creating a dish, they rarely used more than four or five ingredients.
2.Quality: The ancient Greeks, like master chefs today, valued quality over quantity. In terms of both flavor and healthful function, today more than ever, quality is the critical variable when assessing the value of comestibles.
3.Seasonings: The modern Mediterranean diet, like the diet of ancient Greek classical cuisine, has a significant amount of salt built into it through the use of salting as a method of preservation, both directly and indirectly through the use of techniques like brining and pickling. For the ancients, the ubiquity and use of garos—much like the use of soy sauce in Asian cuisine—obviated the need for added salt during the cooking process. The ancient Greeks made wide use of spices and herbs to construct their flavor profiles. Such a practice adds not only tastes and textures, but many healthful trace elements and micronutrients. Substituting this ancient palate built on using spices and herbs in place of the modern Western approach, predicated on endless layers of sugar, salt, and fat yields better tasting food and better living.
4.Moderation: Despite an often physical existence, the ancient Greeks often ate lightly. Breakfast, when it was to be had, might consist of simply some bread and wine. Lunch was often lighter fare and the focus was upon essentially one larger meal at the end of the day. Gluttony was frowned upon and drunkenness reflected a serious lack of character. Controlling portion size, the timing of courses, and moderate consumption of Mediterranean diet staples like wine have all been associated with improved healthful outcomes.
5.Variety: By engaging in vigorous trade and communication, the ancient Greeks were able to expand and experience a wide variety of foodstuffs, spices, herbs, drinks, tastes, and textures from around the known world. Variety is the spice of life.
Archestratus traveled the known world and shared food and culture, catalyzing growth and change and parsing those practices that form more fad than foundation. As the modern food explosion continues and new travelers rediscover old ways, it brings us closer to the roots of our humanity at a time when technology threatens to separate us from it.
As that most ancient of travelers, Odysseus, observed upon finally coming home:
“When there is happiness among all the people, when feasters in the house, sitting in rows, can listen to a singer, while beside them tables are full of bread and meat, and a waiter brings wine from brimming bowls and fills their cups; this seems to me in my heart best of all.”267
NOTES
262 (Wilkins & Hill, Food in the Ancient World, 2006, p. 188)
263 (Dalby & Grainger, The Classical Cookbook, 1996, p. 13)
264 (Dalby & Grainger, The Classical Cookbook, 1996, p. 20)
265 (Merriam-Webster, 2013)
266 (Dalby, Siren Feasts: A History of Food and Gastronomy in Greece, 1997, p. 118; Athenaeus 457 c-e)
267 (Dalby & Grainger, The Classical Cookbook, 1996, p. 8; Odyssey 9)
By Michael S. Fenter in "Ancient Eats (volume 1) - The Greeks and the Vikings", Köeller Books, Virginia Beach, Cape Charles, USA, 2016. Adapted and illustrated to be posted by Leopoldo Costa.