On Sunday 10-9-2017 o Gastronomist of Kathimerini was dedicated to the history of the Greek Breakfast. Great honor and joy for Hotel Chamber of Greece and for me of course, because it was an idea that was fought with a lot of perseverance and a lot of effort and Greek breakfast became one institution and one brand name who was loved and surpassed the boundaries of the Hotel space.

The editor-in-chief of Kathimerini's gastronomic publications writes, among other things Angelos Rentoulas, in the editorial of the issue:

"One hundred ideas to make a Greek breakfast"

Eggs baked in pulp, what a nice idea! The recipe is from Santorini. Egg slices and other egg slices and frizz (the Syrian egg slices), one version better than the other.

Trachanas with a little convergent, starozoumos, a lot of pies. Nerates cheese pies from Lassithi, Mykonian rafioli, cheese bread, tahini pies. From the dough of the bread that was left over, it is enough for the family to be full. These are touching things, how the little ones that the old housewives had were available. How poverty created gastronomic wealth. ”

It was touching for us at XEE that an old idea in the drawers, became an action plan, became a program and took shape. The old idea of ​​turning to two or three chefs to suggest respective menus that we will present as a Greek Breakfast turned - thanks to my stubborn insistence - into an extroversion program. After a first approach was made from her study Agropole by Yolanda Totsiou for the Greek Breakfast, where the richness of Greek products was recorded, we decided to go to the Greek territory and get to know on the spot the gastronomic peculiarities of each region. We would not fix it in general Greek breakfast, but the breakfast in each area that we were exploring.

Our goal was Greek breakfast to offer all the local products and delicacies of each region in the buffets of the Greek hotels, bringing together the hoteliers and the local producers, and secondly, to be a main element of identity  of the Greek hotel product and consequently tool for the promotion of Greek tourism.

Tools for the development of the program were their creations "Standard Greek Mornings" of the various regions of our country.

To make these, the FDI together with local Hotel Owners Associations gathered relevant stakeholders and actors (hoteliers, hotel managers, chefs, farmers, producers, representatives of relevant chambers and local government, journalists, local gastronomy scholars, local cooking clubs), where for the first time all had the opportunity to work together. exchange views and compose suggested local products and delicacies. Essentially in this phase, the "Greek Breakfast" worked as one relationship building mechanism among all the actors, who until then acted individually and in fragments. In many areas, the Greek Breakfast was an opportunity for the locals to celebrate the renewal of their local gastronomy, such as e.g. in the Greek Breakfast of Syros,  Greek Breakfast of Sifnos. (Information about the regions and their Greek Breakfast in the links Greek Breakfast of Preveza. Greek Poros Breakfast, Greek Apple Breakfast, Greek Ios Breakfast,  etc. etc. or in the aggregate  https://www.greekgastronomyguide.gr/category/elliniko-proino/) 

 

Then, in an open event, in the presence of the institutions, but also of all the hoteliers, the presentation of Standard Greek Breakfast of each area. Then, all the hotels that were interested, filled in the application form electronically at cert.greekbreakfast.gr where all the integration procedures are described in detail.

We traveled for 8 years, from end to end in Greece in order to raise awareness of all relevant stakeholders, resulting in the creation 40 Greek Breakfast Standards, while during this period we implemented over 800 hotel accommodations. We informed hoteliers, met producers, discovered products and recipes.

We participated in exhibitions, conferences and forums, we informed the press and television. The Greek breakfast, became an issue. 8 years ago it did not even exist in our vocabulary, regardless of whether some hoteliers used it with passion. Today it is discussed everywhere, in the media, in schools, in society. The Acropolis Museum offers Greek Breakfast, as well as many Greek restaurants, cafes, patisseries and cafes in the country and abroad.

With the Greek Breakfast we supported the our cultural confidence, and we touched on the gastronomic heritage of each place to use it our gastronomic culture as another "weapon" in the battle of competition.

We met hundreds small gastronomic treasures in every corner of Greece who were patiently waiting for us to discover them and use them creatively for the Greek breakfast.

The drinking cheese, the sweet tomato, the katimeria and loukoumeria from Kos, the melekounia from Rose, the saffron rusks, the sponge cake with zucchini and local tomatoes, the belte, the tomato meatballs, the sponge cake from Santorini, the plate, the guslemedes, the hachles and the oil cheese from Lesvos. Tsitsiravla, halva, trachana and fruit from it Volos-Pelion, lalangia, sphela, kayana, siglino, pastelia jams and honey from Messinia, ham and cheeses such as arsenic, gruyere and kefalotyria from Naxos, olives, oils, cheese, salted, honey from Chalcidice.

Sfakian pies, sariko pies, apaki, anthotyra, mizithres, malotyres, erontes, carob rusks and protolada from Crete, kumquat, figs, pudding and noumboulo from Corfu. Thessaloniki bun, bougatsa, kourabiedes, Nea Karvali, Florin peppers, peach, apricot and mushroom jams, the Kozani yolk, Karamanlidika sausages, Trumbes olives from Μακεδονία and alipasta, akanedes, soutzouk-loukoumia, cakes, kavourmades from Thrace etc., etc.

We changed the minds of many hoteliers who thought so that is not possible, arguing because you have to and it can to become. And all this with the full support of the president George Tsakiris and Board of Directors of XEE.

And it is indicative that some of the chefs who present recipes for breakfast in this issue of Gastronomos, got to know the Greek Breakfast during all these missions in the 40 regions of the country.

The history of the Greek Breakfast is another proof that anything can happen in our country, if there is one vision, faith, will, plan and a lot of teamwork.