The Delicious Legacy

A Greek Gourmand, travels through time...Imagine yourself dining with Socrates, Plato, or Pythagoras! What tasty morsels of food accompanied the conversations of these most significant minds in Western philosophy?Now picture yourself as you sat for a symposium with Cicero, or Pliny the Elder or Julius Caesar. The opulent feasts of the decadent Romans!Maybe, you're following Alexander the Great during his military campaigns in Asia for ten years. Conquering the vast Persian empire, while discovering new foods. Or try and picture the richness of fruits and vegetables in the lush Hanging Gardens of Babylon.What foods did our ancestors ate?How did all begin? Who was the first to write a recipe down and why? Sauces, ingredients, ways of cooking. Timeless and continuous yet unique and so alien to us now days. Staple ingredients of the Mediterranean world -as we think now- like tomatoes, potatoes, rice, peppers, didn't exist. What did they eat? We will travel far and wide, reconstructing the diet, the feasts, the dishes of a Greek Philosopher in a symposium in Athens, or a Roman Emperor or as a rich merchant in the last night in Pompeii.....Lavish dinners, exotic spices, so-called "barbaric" traditions of beer and milk, all intertwined...Stay tuned and find out more here, in 'The Delicious Legacy' Podcast!Support this show http://supporter.acast.com/the-delicious-legacy.

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Thessaloniki - A Food Lovers Paradise!

Oct 22 49m

Hello!

New episode is out for your delectable delight!

Thessaloniki is located in Northern Greece in the region of Macedonia, and has a long, long history, being established in 315 BCE by king Cassander to honour his wife, the half-sister of Alexander the Great, Thessalonike. Today is the second largest and most important city in Greece.

As a major port, with access to the Mediterranean, and half way to Constantinople it thrived for centuries, being an important hub for trade and culture from all over the Balkan peninsula, and beyond.

It was also home to a thriving Jewish community for roughly 500 years; the Sephardic Jews.In the beginning of the 20th century they accounted for more than half of the total population of the city.

As a result, Thessalonica’s food culture is a heady mix of influences from all across Greece, Balkans, and Turkey with amazing food, and rightly is considered by many the food capital of Greece.

On today's episode, I have the honour to have as my guest Meni Valle, Greek-Australian cook and author, all about the best gastronomic destination in Greece, the city of Thessaloniki!!!

In Valle’s new book, Thessaloniki: And the Many Kitchens of Northern Greece, published by Hardie Grant, she turns her focus to the diverse and historically rich cuisine of Greece’s second-largest city.

Well, enjoy our discussion!

https://www.menivalle.com.au/

Her new book Thessaloniki is released soon in UK.

https://www.amazon.co.uk/Thessaloniki-Many-Kitchens-Northern-Greece/dp/1761450980

My food cultural / historical recommendations for the week include:

Dr Roderick Bailey: The British Experience of the Great Fire of Thessaloniki of 1917

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HUMh1RoqKiw

Culina vetus

Freezing and Salting Pork:

https://www.culina-vetus.de/2025/09/30/freezing-and-salting-pork/

PopChop - Future Food Culture

https://popchop.at/