Ancient Greek Recipes and the World’s First Chef: The Story of Archestratos
Apart from the high arts of Rhetoric, Poetry, Philosophy, and Architecture, the Ancient Greeks also started the art of Gastronomy. The most convincing proof of this is the word “gastronomy” which comes from the Greek “gastronomy” and “law”, i.e., “the laws of the stomach”.
Who Invented Gastronomy? The Story of Archestratos
Archestratos, a famous Syracusan poet and philosopher of the 4th century BC, is considered the father of gastronomy, as he was the one who invented the term gastronomy (see also who was the first actor). He studied the rules of appetite and taste and submitted the first cookbook in the world. He was the first to treat cooking as an art and even wrote the poem “Idypathy”(Life of Luxury), in which he reveals the secrets of ancient Greek recipes and cuisine.
The poem urges the reader to set aside restraint and indulge in the enjoyment and pleasure of good food without any frugality, which explains Archestratus’ reputation as a man of liberated morals according to the philosophers Clearchus (4th century) and Chrysippus (3rd century).
Essentially, Lust or Deptnology or Gastronomy is a poetic work from which only 300 verses survive. In this work, Archestratos dedicates extensive chapters to legumes, fish, and wine, and at the same time records the rules of cooking, giving the cuisine of his time some specific features that are timeless features of Greek cuisine. The five golden rules of the gastronomic art of Archestratos (relevant today more than ever) were the use of simple, pure products produced by nature.
The Five Golden Rules of Ancient Greek Cooking
- Use of simple, pure products produced by nature
- Harmony of materials with each other, so that one does not overlap the aromas and flavors of the other.
- No heavy sauces and hot ingredients.
- Use light sauces for more enjoyment on the palate.
- Seasoning with the well-known Greek measure and discipline, so as not to disturb the harmony of flavors and aromas
What Did Ancient Greeks Actually Eat?
In these 300 verses, Archestratos shows that ancient Greek cuisine was rich in cereals, fish, vegetables, and fruits. At the same time, brilliantly and lightly, he describes the trips he made to many places to get to know the different cuisines and gastronomic customs.
In addition, as a true lover of good food, he advises his readers on where to find the best products and how to taste them properly. So we learn that Athens had the best and freshest picarel fish(spicara maris), Mytilene island was famous for its scallops, Lake Amvrakia and Kalydonia for its perch, and Carthage for its seashells.
The Syracusan poet also mentions that Attic honey highlights the taste of any pie, the brood is an excellent appetizer if it is fried with nettles and herbs, and that the shark is exquisite food, characterizing it as the flower of nectar. At the same time, he advises not to consume water before eating, because we destroy the food we eat.
On the contrary, he considers that we should drink water before the wine since in this way the strength and spark of the wine weaken, and he notes that the best wine, which is light for the stomach, is the sweet wine from Lesvos.
Ancient Greek Recipes You Can Make Today
We give you the recipe of Archestratos for stuffed sardines, adapted, of course, to our time.
Materials
36 fresh, large sardines
3 cloves of garlic
2 tbsp. chopped parsley
3 eggs
175 gr. bread crumbs
1/2 tbsp. salt
18 bay leaves
40 gr. fresh butter at room temperature
Stuffed Sardines — Recipe of Archestratos
Implementation
Wash the sardines, clean them, and cut the tail and head. Melt the garlic and mix it with the parsley, eggs, and five tbsp. bread crumbs and salt. Once a uniform mixture is made, fill the sardines with it. Butter a pan and place the sardines next to each other. Cover each of the two sardines with a bay leaf. Sprinkle with the remaining crumbs and pour over with the fresh butter. Bake at 200 °C for about 20 minutes and serve hot or cold.
One of his recipes includes sea bass seasoned with silifi and covered with a donut, tuna croquettes sprinkled with cumin, mackerel dipped in brine, and swordfish wrapped in figs. After the initial appetizers, the duck is covered with a substratum (creamy sauce).
The symposium continues with a sweet placenta, which consists of various levels of dough filled with honey and soft cheese, and the whole dinner is accompanied by wine. This is one of the few samples of ancient Greek recipes that are left.
Caramelized Fennel Tarts
Another recipe from antiquity that was found was caramelized fennel tarts. Here are the details:
Mix the salt, flour, butter, and diluted honey in a deep dish. The mixture is cut and chopped into coarse pieces. In a second, smaller bowl, mix the lemon juice with the cold water and slowly add to the mixture, mixing with a fork.
The mixture at this stage is now a liquid mass, but not watery, and if it forms lumps, a little water is added to dissolve them. Place on a tray with a floured surface, where it cools at room temperature for two hours.
Heat the oven to a temperature of 350 degrees C and divide the mixture into four pieces, each of which takes the shape of a ring slightly less than 1 cm thick and 10-12 cm wide, while the perimeter slopes slightly upwards, like a shallow form.
They are pierced with a fork and placed on a lightly floured surface in the oven in a container with a cover (lid or something similar). It is baked for 20-30 minutes until its color approaches golden brown.
Cut the fennel into thick pieces and boil for three minutes. Stir the honey and raisin pulp continuously together with the coarse raisins in a shallow pan over low heat until it boils, at which point the color turns golden brown.
Remove the pan from the heat and add the dry fennel to mix. Once cooled, it is cut into four parts in a circular shape, the size of the rings, in which they are placed, covering the upper surface.
MATERIALS
All-purpose flour (1 cup)
1/4 teaspoon salt (fine)
5 tablespoons of goat butter
1/2 egg (raw)
1 tablespoon of honey diluted with water
1/2 tablespoon of lemon
1 tablespoon cold water
2 heads of fennel without the stems
2/3 cup honey
2/3 cup raisin pulp (sweetened by boiling)
4 tablespoons of coarse raisins
1 cup pomegranate juice (for the accompanying soft drink)
Food in Ancient Greece: Daily Eating Habits
Breakfast — Akratisma
The ancient Greeks started their daily activities at sunrise. Before starting their work, they ate something simple. This first meal was called akratisma — bread dipped in a little stale wine.
Lunch — Ariston
Towards noon or afternoon, they had a simple and quick meal. Every solid food that accompanied the bread was called opson: greens, onions, olives, fish, meat, fruits, and sweets. A favorite food was etnos — fava beans and lentils.
Dinner — Deipnon
The regular meal, which was rich, was taken at the end of the day. They normally ate only in the evenings because they had guests almost every day. Dinner ended with a dessert called tragima — fresh or dried fruit, sweets, honey, and nuts. Their main drink was wine, diluted with water..
The Wisdom of Archestratos — Direct Quotes in Translation
They usually ate cereals
They were characterized by austerity in food. They usually ate cereals, wheat, and barley, which is why Homer calls them “bread eaters”. They had two kinds of bread, the mass, which was barley fermented into a cake, and cheaper, and they baked it either alone in the houses or in the ovens.
The other type was regular bread. Every solid food that accompanied the bread was called opson: greens, onions, olives, fish, meat, fruits, and sweets. A very favorite food was etnos, fava beans, and lentils. They ate a lot of garlic and cheese. The meat was expensive, so it was rarely eaten, and it was mainly poultry, piglets, and game. Fish was a staple food, eaten fresh or salted (tarich).
Dinner ended with dessert, tragima: fresh or dried fruit, sweets, honey, and nuts. Their main drink was wine, which they usually drank in water, to have clarity in the conversation. Another drink that was often drunk and that determined the ritual in the Eleusinian mysteries was the kykeon, a mixture of barley flour, water, and aromatic plants.
The ancient Greeks did not use forks, so they cut the meat into small pieces and caught it by hand. However, they used skewers and meatballs with two or three stems. They used spoons, but sometimes also the crust of bread for a spoon
A sample of Archestratus gastronomy advice
“But I say to hell with saperde, a Pontic dish, and those who praise it. Few people know which food is wretched and which is excellent. But get a mackerel on the third day, before it goes into saltwater, within a transport jar as a piece of recently cured, half-salted fish.
And if you come to the holy city of famous Byzantion, I urge you again to eat a steak of peak-season tuna, for it is very good and soft.”
“Do not allow anyone to come near you when you bake sea wolf, neither Syracusan nor Italiote, for they do not know how to prepare them decently. But they ruin them and make a mess out of them with cheeses and sprinklings of the liquid vinegar and the silphion brine
“First, I shall recall the gifts to humankind and fair-haired Demeter, friend Moschus: take them to your heart. The best one can get, the finest of all, cleanly hulled from good ripe ears, is the barley from the sea-washed breast of famous Eresus in Lesbos – whiter than airborne snow. If the gods eat barley, this is where Hermes goes shopping for it.
“But if you go to the prosperous land of Ambracia and happen to see the boarfish, buy it! Even if it costs its weight in gold, don’t leave without it, lest the dread vengeance of the deathless ones breathe down on you; for this fish is the flower of nectar…”
Experience Ancient Greek Food Culture in Athens
The foods that Archestratos wrote about 2,400 years ago are still central to Athenian life today. Walking through the Central Market of Athens — the Varvakios Agora — you see the same fish, olives, herbs, and cheeses he described in his verses. The picarel fish he praised from Athens, the honey from Attica he called the finest in the world, the wine from Lesbos he recommended above all others — all still available, all still celebrated.
Our Athens food tours take you through the markets, tavernas, and neighborhoods where this ancient culinary tradition lives today — connecting Archestratos’ 2,400-year-old wisdom to the food on your plate. For a culturally curious traveler, there is no more meaningful way to understand Greece than through what its people eat.
Who was the first chef in the world?
Archestratos of Syracuse (4th century BC) is considered the father of gastronomy — the first person to treat cooking as an art form. He wrote “Hedypatheia” (Life of Luxury), a gastronomic poem of which 300 verses survive, establishing five golden rules of cooking still relevant today. The earlier Mithaecus of Sicily (5th century BC) wrote the first known cookbook fragment, but Archestratos elevated gastronomy to philosophy and poetry.
Who invented the word gastronomy?
The word “gastronomy” originates from ancient Greek — combining “gaster” (stomach) and “nomos” (law) — meaning “the laws of the stomach.” Archestratos of Syracuse coined the term in the 4th century BC through his gastronomic poem, and the word passed into modern European languages through French “gastronomie” in the early 19th century.
What did ancient Greeks eat every day?
Ancient Greeks ate three daily meals. Breakfast was akratisma — bread dipped in wine. Lunch was ariston — a quick meal of bread with olive oil, olives and perhaps dried fruit. Dinner was deipnon — the main meal of the day, often a social occasion with guests. Their diet centered on cereals, fish, vegetables, olives, honey and wine. Meat was expensive and rarely eaten by ordinary citizens.
What are the five golden rules of ancient Greek cooking?
Archestratos established five gastronomic principles that remain relevant today: use simple, pure ingredients produced by nature; ensure harmony between ingredients so no single flavor overwhelms the others; avoid heavy sauces and hot spices; prefer light sauces for greater enjoyment; and season with Greek measure and discipline to preserve the natural harmony of flavors and aroma
Can I try ancient Greek recipes in Athens today?
Yes, many elements of ancient Greek cuisine survive in modern Athenian cooking. The Central Market (Varvakios Agora) sells the same fish, honey, olives and legumes Archestratos praised 2,400 years ago. Athens food tours explore these markets and introduce travelers to the living continuity between ancient Greek cuisine and modern Greek cooking.
What was the first cookbook ever written?
The oldest surviving cookbook fragment was written by Mithaecus of Sicily in the 5th century BC — a single recipe for preparing ribbon fish (tainia) with cheese and olive oil. The first comprehensive gastronomic work was Archestratos’ “Hedypatheia” (Life of Luxury) from the 4th century BC. Both predate the next oldest known cookbooks by centuries.
