Sani Gourmet - The New Greek Cuisine

Sani Gourmet announced this year's culinary program. This year, this unique food festival is dedicated to the New Greek Cuisine. If you happen to be in Greece in May, taking part in this culinary celebration will be an amazing adventure you shouldn't miss.

Greece has a continuous and serious tradition of good cuisine, of subtle flavors, purity and incredible diversity of ingredients – a diversity which reflects the extraordinary variety of the country’s landscape.

Haute cuisine is cooking which delights the sense of taste – not necessarily through the use of expensive ingredients or complicated methods of preparation. And this is the secret of Greek haute cuisine: it is based on simplicity of ingredients and preparation – a long tradition of using the freshest and purest raw materials. A creative tradition enriched by the influences of all the surrounding cultures – thanks to Greece’s privileged position at the center of the Mediterranean world, a meeting point for East and West.

From Macedonia to Crete we see examples of refined versions of similar dishes, each adjusted to reflect the special features of the region and the different flavors of the ingredients: the oregano of Pindos has a slightly different taste to that of Ikaria; the vegetables of the barren islands vary in flavor from those grown in the rich soil of the Peloponnese.

Meat, poultry, fish, vegetables, fruit – Greece has them all in abundance, the raw materials of a creative process that yields fabulous culinary results. We need only reach back in our memories to our childhoods, when our grandmothers and mothers brought to the family dinner table daily miracles of the culinary art, often beautifully presented. These were the dishes and recipes we are in danger of losing, along with the flavor of the real Greece.

For years now Sani Gourmet has been supporting the efforts of top Greek chefs, inspired by the culinary traditions of their country and modifying and adapting them to the contemporary world. We shall be inviting chefs distinguished for their knowledge, experience and passion to showcase the delicious variety of Greek cuisine in its superb combination of tradition and innovation. In a spirit of friendly rivalry, our chefs will be launching a debate on New Greek Cuisine, bringing into focus its special properties and qualities. A week of events that we hope will demonstrate the truth of an old saying: the secret of beauty lies in simplicity.  

The names of the chefs will be announced soon.

Sani Gourmet

May 13-22, 2011