CHAPTER 3
Greece inaugurates culinary reflection and gastronomic literature. Cookbooks become a new genre of which, unfortunately, only fragments survive until now. In their culinary art, a passion for fish and seafood is apparent. The Greeks initiated the custom of holding banquets among friends and acquaintances, in which the sobremesa (after dinner table-talk) was a key feature. Greek wine, with all its material paraphernalia (of kraters and Calyx vessels), was a type of international haute cuisine, as elites throughout the Mediterranean and central Europe sought Greek ceramics and wine to imitate Hellenic luxury. We review all the known details of the Greek banquet (symposium) and then explore the manifestations of public cuisine.
