172 people voted it a 5-star experience and said, “This is NOT a typical cooking class – It’s a secret you are let in…”
This is a hands-on cooking experience with local wild herbs and spices.
You will:
- touch, smell, and taste mind-blowing native wild herbs and spices, the same ones Hippocrates (460 – c. 370 BC), the father of Medicine, thought so highly of
- use them along with more than 20+ dried herbs and spices to make your personal wild herbs and spices blend
- use this unique spice blend in cooking
- learn how to make the Greek “pizza” called “lathenia”, a recipe 200 years old, over which Kimolos and Milos islands have a long dispute
- taste olives as you have never done before, just to give you a tip, olives will be cooked in a pan
- taste and use exceptional quality extra virgin olive oil from an indigenous Peloponnese variety that few people grow anymore called “mavrolisio” and grows in the Messinia area, famous for its olive oil quality
to prepare this humble meal with exquisite taste called “prosfai”, villagers ate between their meals.
When the villagers left home at dawn for the fields, they always took with them something to eat around 10 o’clock. It was the time they took a short break from their hard work. They referred to this dish as “prosfai,” a word that has undergone minor modifications since ancient times.
This was a quite basic meal. In the summer, the main ingredients were bread and cheese, if there were any, onion, olives, and tomatoes. As far as I can remember, my grandfather would have a little glass of his house wine while eating whatever my grandmother had prepared for him out in the field.
I can still taste the cheese and olives they made.
Our meal focuses on seasonality and highlights bread, local cheese, olives, organic vegetables and grains as it’s been done since antiquity in the Cyclades.
We will meet at my house and I will guide you through creating a collaborative meal enjoyed with wine where simplicity meets the unparalleled taste of Cycladic cuisine.
Maria Krina is a professional chef who has worked for 20 years in restaurants and boutique hotels. She has educated more than 500 people in Traditional Greek Cooking and nutrition for health and wellness in her workshops and cooking classes. She has been a pioneer of the organic food movement. Her cooking is more than just preparing meals. It is a culinary journey that celebrates the richness of local ingredients, respect for the seasons, and harmony with nature.
Duration Appr. 2,5 hours
Group 2 – 8 persons
Choose between a morning start at 10.30 OR an afternoon start at 17.00.
The lesson is in English and, if necessary, in French or another language on request with an additional fee
What to expect:
A hands-on cooking lesson
Welcome cold herbal tea, 2 hot and 2 cold dishes, various local cheeses, local cured meat called “louza”, house wine, filtered water
Dessert, coffee
A relaxed informal lunch or dinner
All the recipes will be provided for your ongoing reference