Greece’s Ambassador to Saudi Arabia, Ioannis Christofilis, opened a festival celebrating Greek cuisine at the Riyadh Marriott Hotel on Saturday. The festival, organized by the embassy is called “Food of the Sun” and will last one week.
According to Ioannis Christofilis, “relations between Saudi Arabia and Greece are more than perfect. However, Greece is trying to take it to a new level by holding this event.”
He added that Greek gastronomy is as old the country itself, while ancient hellenes used to discuss philosophy over meals, seeking spiritual connections with their companions and considered it as a vital contribution to physical and mental well-being.
“These gastronomy-related gatherings usually ended with an exchange of recipes,” he said.
Archestratus is regarded as the father of gastronomy. “Poet, philosopher and gastronome, Archestratus was born in Syracuse, in the fourth century BC, and introduced the philosophy of culinary art, which left its mark down to the 21st century,” the Greek Ambassador said.
Finally, according to the diplomat, Greek gastronomy has remained almost the same as it was in ancient times. Even during the Ottoman Empire, the cuisine remained unchanged and only the names of the recipes were influenced by foreigners.
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