And how the poem "What is our homeland?" by Ioannis Polemis that we learned at school in the 60s, 70s - I don't know if this wonderful poem is still taught in today's schools -, turns into "what is the gastronomy of our homeland?" The reason for this literary game was my participation in 15th Melitzazz Festival on Leonid Kynourias!

And while in the morning my participation in a workshop was based on a technical presentation of the Culinary Communities program to the public and to the representatives of the development companies participating in the “Tastes of Greeks” program, in the evening at the opening ceremony, impressed once again by the so wild but at the same time so calm Tsakonian landscape inspired me another way of presenting my views on gastronomy. A good friend from Zakynthos Development urged me to publish it and I obediently obeyed!

Specially dedicated to the evergreen Melitzazz festival and of course to Tsakonian eggplant.

"My dear friends, ladies and gentlemen, the crescent moon, the imposing landscape of the mountains that surround the place where we are and the poetic climate that prevails between us led me to change the presentation, on the more poetic:

What is our country? Isn't it the plains?
Are they not the barren high mountains?
Is not her sun shining?
Are not her stars the bright ones?

Do not be each of her shallow beach
and each of its countries with villages?
every island that fades,
every sea, every land?

All our homeland! And these and those
and something we have in our hearts
and shines unseen like a ray of sunshine
and shouts within us: Go guys!

And on this pattern leaning, I put my concerns!

What is Greek gastronomy?

Don't be the master chef TV shows, where gastronomy from an act of love, tenderness and generosity turns into a game of fierce competitiveness, food preparations under unbearable pressure with ingredients, algae for silk ribbons, ironic and proud judges, and at the same time small-minded players?

Don't be the wine tasters who behind every glass of wine look for the hint of clove, two notes of cinnamon, some shades of rose, mountain herbs, grass, coffee or blackberry?

Don't be going out to fashionable restaurants, where we have 150 euros per person, to enjoy foams and the trends of molecular, ethnic or especially Peruvian cuisine with ceviche and sashimi, but also to flatter the narcissism of our high culinary gifts , but also for our social position that allows us to play with them?

Don't be the TV cooking shows that guide you to cook with a scale next to you, for liquids and solids, anxiously lest you run out of ingredients, while in the past you kept an eye on what ingredients you had available each time and improvised?

Don't be the pizzerias, steakhouses and hamburger joints where all of Greece sighs?

But don't be and the anxiety of humanity to be fed, and for this to invent thousands of patents, to discover the fire, the plough, the water mill, the windmill, the wine presses, the drying, the salting, dozens of techniques for food preservation and management of?

Don't be the connection of the child with its primary food from the mother's breast, and the accompanying cooing and lulling, and since then the need to associate food with moments of joy, contact, song and dance?

Don't be the bond of family, family memories around a table?

Don't be the necessity to take care of our health and save the planet by making good food choices?

Don't be the moments that in the heat of the day, we take a nut, rub it with a little pestle, drizzle some oil, a slice of tomato and a pinch of sea salt, and we go to Paradise.

Don't be when we pour into the orchards and taste the juicy apricots, the ripe figs -which we eat with the skins-, or when we enjoy the cut watermelon slice with a little feta to the sound of cicadas?

Don't be the festivals with the cauldrons boiling, are they not the tsipouradikas of Volos, are they not the mezes of the cafes, are the various culinary rituals like the pig carcasses of the Cyclades?

But isn't it? in the days and the effort through gastronomy to reach the heart and soul of every place.

Don't be a development tool if connected to local products and its cultural tradition,

Don't be a tool for shaping the cultural and touristic identity of a place.

 

Eventually maybe is not all this gastronomy, this and that,

but something we have in our hearts
and shines unseen like a ray of sunshine
and cries out within us:

Come on guys, to make gastronomy a tool for mental, cultural and economic development and upliftment.

Leonidio 8-7-2022