In a difficult period, when our country is being attacked from everywhere, it is more important than ever to remind the whole world what Greece really means.

And what better way than to highlight and take advantage of not only the natural beauties of this blessed place but also the culture hidden in its flavors, aromas, textures and sounds.

Because Greece that can and hopes may be on your plate.

* READ ALSO (tvxs.gr): George Pittas: A modern folklorist of flavors 

The country of the five senses

Greece is not just what one sees… The bright sun, the blue sky, the tricot sea and the white houses.

Greece is to walk on rural paths and stumble on its bunches wild oregano growing on their edges. It is to emanate its heavy aroma from the open windows garlic falling into the hot oil. Hear the fork hit the plate while doing it egg and lemon… one. It's what you say at a table with friends on a summer afternoon, when its velvety texture ouzo painted from a piece of ice, cools your palate.

Greece is the country that it awakens all five of your senses and a trip to it, that's what it should do.

The folklorist of… flavors

Ο George Pittas, is a modern folklorist of Greek products and flavors who travels to every corner of Greece and discovers and maps what it offers generously. Accompanied by his wife, Bilio Tsoukalas.

Taste, place, man, tradition, history, culture. This is Greek gastronomy and this is it Greek Gastronomy Guide, in which he records his experience and transmits it to us.

The website of George Pittas, however, does not only remain in the recording of Greek treasures but also goes one step further, pointing the way for their utilization for the economic development of the country.

A guide to the culture of Greek gastronomy

Places and landscapes, history and tradition, events and rituals, products and people, markets and entrepreneurship, flavors, recipes and local cuisines, cafes and taverns unfold through Greek Gastronomy Guide, in such a way as to create a mosaic that changes the meaning of gastronomy and from a simple gastronomic experience it becomes a unit of life.

Because behind all aspects of our gastronomic culture - despite the fact that they are sometimes expressed in the form of folklore or even kits - are hidden the demons of our country and the soul of every place.

The Greek Gastronomy Guide is divided into two sections. The first section is about current affairs. There the reader can be informed about the news of Greek gastronomy. News of gastronomic interest from all over Greece. New taverns and restaurants, discovery of new delicacies, new producers, new products, travel news, trips to locations, chef and cook interviews, gastronomy exhibitions, gastronomic and wine tourism events.

The second section is the pre-eminent travel guide. There, every traveler in our country who wants to know a place, can enter greekgastronomyguide.gr to approach him through the perspective of gastronomy.

Each region of Greece is projected as a gastronomic destination and the tiles represent 12 categories of topics of gastronomic interest (place - local cuisine - delicacies - products - producers - taverns - restaurants - cafes - markets - fairs and attractions). So each area that is displayed, emerges through all this information.

The website Greek Gastronomy Guide includes, on the other hand material from the books of George Pittas (Signs of the Aegean, Athenian Tavern, Cafes of Greece, Festivals in the Aegean, The Treasures of Greek Gastronomy), on the other hand his experiences from the adventure of creating the Greek Breakfast -which started from scratch and in 8 years became one of the most interesting brands of Greek gastronomy- and finally the new, primary material from its recent searches.

In fact, so that foreign visitors to our country can enjoy it in addition to Greek, it has been translated and in English.

A story behind every dish

His avant-garde Greek Gastronomy Guide is that behind each dish is hidden a story. Every place, every product and every producer, tavern owner or coffee maker has a story to tell.

Like the last craftsman of handmade crust sheet, who works continuously every day for sixty years in his workshop in Rethymno, or the veteran baker - Gioras - who bakes Mykonian nuts in the last wood oven of the island.

The cafe where Papadiamantis drank his coffee 120 years ago in Glafko in Pelion, or another in Makrinitsa where the wall was painted by the highest popular painter Theofilos. Or Napoleon Zaglis, who from a multinational executive for years became a tavern owner in Kalarrytes of 22 inhabitants in Tsoumerka, or the lady - Alexandra and makes kasio pies in Aristi.

Human stories, fermented with the history and passions of each place.

Greece that designs, creates, produces and hopes

And what is the significance of this project at a time when the economic crisis has bent the country? Great! As the great Odysseas Elytis had said: "One day the past will surprise us with the power of its topicality. It will not change that but our mind ".

The past is here and we must look at it with a fresh and refreshing look. Because innovation is not necessarily the discovery of something new, but also the management of the old. In an age of globalization, the creation of local identities is the only way to differentiate.

Because diversity causes interest in a tourist public who has worries and is looking for something very high, but also in an audience that is looking for products with identity.

The utilization of the typical Greek products it is one way. The natural landscape, agricultural production, agro-food processing, gastronomy, culture and tourism can be the links in a chain that has the potential to become a key pillar of the country's economic development.

In Greece, under the weight of the modernization of Greek society and the adoption of foreign standards even in gastronomy, products, flavors, as well as customs, traditions and traditional techniques, but also the local cuisines of the country were in danger of disappearing.

Fortunately, in recent years there is a small revolution. The Greeks, from where they were ashamed of their gastronomic tradition, begin to gain their cultural self-confidence.

Aim of this website It is, therefore, to record all the representatives of Greek gastronomy (goods, techniques, people) and in a human-centered way to promote Greece that designs, creates, produces and hopes and all the Greeks who, in spite of the thousands of difficulties, try to take advantage of the unrecognized wealth of Greek gastronomy.