H Paros It is known to us Athenians - but also to all Greeks and foreign visitors - as a tourist destination with amazing seas, beautiful villages and of course with great fun. However, its visitors have little knowledge about its productive primary sector and its gastronomy. Extensive vineyards create impressive PDO wines, significant livestock feeds his dairy Paros Cooperative which produces great cheeses, bakers-pastry makers make excellent breads, pastries and sweets, beekeepers produce individual honeys and other producers create local oils, jams and herbs using local crops, while other growers produce fresh and organic vegetables. Arseni Louki.

We enjoyed all this in the most detailed presentation for the Greek Breakfast of Paros at HORECA 2018 from Marina Vassiliadis Giannakou, who with particular pomp presented the goodies of the island. The preparation and setting up of the Parian Greek Breakfast at the exhibition was done with so much self-denial - as in the summer in Paros - Anna Polykandrioti with her team and all this with the noble offer of products from all the producers of the island.

Ο Paros Cooperative, with its new generation of cheesemakers, presented to us the range of its cheeses (gruyeres, krasotyria, oil cheese, kefalotyria etc).

Ovens and individuals presented us the pies, cheese bread and rye bread of the island.

They did not miss them cheesecakes -the typical dish of Paros- which are common throughout the Cyclades with other names, such as stings, honeycombs etc, with the beautiful shape of the flower from dough and the mizithra with honey as content.

Their shape is beautiful and is perhaps the most special dish of the island!

We enjoyed the pastels, the cookies, the sugar baklavas, the melenies, the saraglia.

PS Because I have a relationship with Paros for over 40 years, I want to bring out my misery, and to bring out my truth. Because "patriotic is the truth"!

Rare island with such productive wealth has shown so much indifference to the development of its gastronomy. And while of course there are professionals who on an individual level (producers, restaurants, taverns) do what they can to raise their level and offer quality products and services, Paros is the tail in the game played in the gastronomy of the Cyclades, where collectives play a leading role. like the Tinos Food paths in Tinos, the delicious Milos a trip to taste from Milos, the  Syros Greating in Syros and so many more initiatives, the year Gastronomy in Santorini, Rousounelos' team with the club Gastronomy in Mykonos, even from islands such as Amorgos, Sifnos, Andros that take commendable initiatives in order to make their gastronomy popular. Let's study these examples and move on.

And on the other hand, when one sees the delegations of the islands that came to support their Greek Breakfast to include representatives of the local government (even mayors), representatives of cultural committees or associations, representatives of the Hotel Associations and the Trade Associations and the considering who honored the Greek Breakfast of Paros at the Fair, it makes sense to draw its own conclusions (only the president of the Cyclades Chamber Giannis Roussos and its director Aegean Cuisine Alexis Tsiantis). 

Paros (institutions - professional - civil society) must understand the importance of Gastronomy (in the broad sense of a chain: Place-Landscape-Primary sector-Processing-Gastronomy-Tourism) and see it as a shaping factor of cultural and their tourist identity, but also as an important factor of economic development. There is still time, as long as there is an awareness of necessity.