Ioannis Kapodistrias: The first governor of Greece introduced the potato to the Greek diet. Credit: G.A. Gippius Wikimedia Commons Public Domain The introduction of potatoes to Greece by first Governor Ioannis Kapodistrias after the liberation from the Ottomans is a story rich in lore. It is a famously anecdotal story that involves a shipment of potatoes in a warehouse guarded by soldiers and curious Greeks stealing the “strange” vegetable at night. The governor who knew the nutritional value of potatoes brought the first shipment of potatoes to Nafplio, the capital of the newly independent Gr ..read more

Greek Olive Oil Companies at Food Expo. Credit: Greek Liquid Gold At the 2024 Food Expo in Athens, hundreds of Greek olive oil company representatives joined other food and drink professionals to exhibit products and connect with buyers. They also talked with Greek Liquid Gold about the Expo’s usefulness, their companies’ innovations, and the challenging crop year, with high prices and growing evidence of global warming. By Lisa Radinovsky At the Metropolitan Expo exhibition center on March 9-11, many professionals working with Greek olive oil expressed concern that the current high olive oil ..read more

Bakaliaros (hake) with Skordalia. Credit: Flickr / Klearchos Kapoutsis CC BY 2.0 DEED Greeks eat bakaliaros (hake) and skordalia on March 25th, the most important national holiday for Greece. The day coincides with the feast of the Annunciation (Evangelismos) of the Virgin Mary, a day on which, traditionally, Greeks eat fried hake accompanied with a garlic puree called skordalia. The reason behind this tradition is that apart from the national holiday, March 25th is dedicated to the Virgin Mary, making for a joyful celebration in the midst of the 40-day Lenten fast, when the Greek Orthodox fai ..read more

An AI depiction of a table with Greek delicacies. Credit: Midjourney for the Greek Reporter As the vibrant parades of the Greek Carnival, or “Apokries,” flood the streets of the nation, this festive season brings with it a storm of culinary traditions that are as colorful and rich as the celebrations themselves. Apokries marks the period leading up to Lent in the Orthodox Christian calendar. It is a time of joy, dance, and, most importantly, feasting. This article takes a look at the delicious delights that define this important period for Greek society. Let’s dive into the traditional foods t ..read more

Woman kneading bread, c. 500–475 BC, National Archaeological Museum of Athens. Credit: Marsyas, CC BY-SA 2.5 Modern chefs have been recreating bread from ancient Greece that has been intricately woven into human history for thousands of years. Bread, one of the oldest foods, started being prepared as a dish in ancient Egypt, coinciding with the rise of civilization. Egypt, with its abundant wheat fields, played a pivotal role in this. Herodotus noted that, in ancient Egypt, bread was kneaded with the feet, a practice that persisted into the early 20th century in many regions of Greece and Euro ..read more

Li-Lac Chocolates, Manhattan’s oldest chocolate house, was founded by Greece’s George Demetrious in 1923. Credit: Brecht Bug/CC BY-NC-ND 2.0 Li-Lac Chocolates, Manhattan’s oldest chocolate house, was founded by Greece’s George Demetrious. The history of Li-Lac starts in 1923, when Demetrious, a Greek native who studied the art of chocolate making in France, emigrated to New York and opened his shop in the heart of Greenwich Village. In the 1920s, the Village was a destination for artists, intellectuals and innovators. It was in this context that Demetrious applied his chocolate-making expertis ..read more

Norfolk Plant Sciences introduces a new Purple Tomato. Credit: Sasa Woodruff / Boise State Public Radio A new genetically modified purple tomato is now available to home gardeners in the U.S. It took twenty years to develop, borrowing color genes from snapdragon flowers. Moreover, the tomato is rich in anthocyanin, a beneficial compound. The Purple Tomato is now being sold directly to home gardeners, marking the first time a GMO crop is marketed to this demographic. Previously, such crops were primarily available to commercial producers. Norfolk’s aim is to alter Americans’ views on GMO f ..read more

Original photos: Instagram/Jenni Häyrinen @liemessa ; Illustration: Greek Reporter Feta, Greece’s most famous cheese, has become viral worldwide thanks to a feta pasta TikTok video, featuring an easy and tasty recipe of feta cheese with pasta. The baked feta pasta was created by Finnish food blogger Jenni Häyrinen in 2019. After she shared the recipe on her blog it spiralled. Recently she wrote: “The feta cheese sales went up 300 percent, the shops were running out of baked feta pasta ingredients and by this date the original uunifetapasta [her original recipe] post has over 2.7 million views ..read more

One of the world’s Blue Zones is the Greek island of Icaria. Credit: Zouzouloo/Wikimedia Commons/CC-BY-SA-4.0 Centenarians living in the world’s ‘blue zones’ such as the Greek island of Icaria share a surprising number of similarities when it comes to their usual diet.  By Justin Roberts, Joseph Lillis & Mark Cortnage Ageing is an inevitable part of life, which may explain our strong fascination with the quest for longevity. The allure of eternal youth drives a multi-billion pound industry ranging from anti-ageing products, supplements and diets for those hoping to extend their lifesp ..read more

Researchers recently revealed that Roman wine tasted spicy. Credit: Dimitri Van Limbergen, Paulina Komar / Antiquity Publications Ltd Archaeologists recently uncovered the secrets of how Romans preferred their wine two thousand years ago. It is widely known that the ancient Romans really liked wine. It was part of their stories and pictures, as well as others things left behind. But how it was actually made had remained a mystery until quite recently. Two researchers, Dimitri Van Limbergen from Ghent University and Paulina Komar from the University of Warsaw, did some detective work. They comp ..read more