Pontic cuisine wanders through the centuries leaning on tradition and people through an in-depth culinary journey of Chef Sofia Ourgantzidou.
My relationship with food is deep and special. The journey of my recollections dates back in my infancy. For us, Pontians the main concern is reserving food (and in fact I would say to the highest level since this is probably remnant of the uprooting). Most of my childhood memories are rooted in a kitchen table with the sweet presence of women, echoes, colors and aromas. It gave you the impression that you were in a modern delicatessen with hanging pastourma, soutzouki, all kinds of cheeses, pasta and fillo.
It surely felt like a home cooking store, as you could set eyes on this team working together and preparing delectable food. The stove sighed from relentless oven baking, the table groaned as the rolling pin opened the fillo, the aromas soon became trainers of my senses and cooking preparations granted me as taste connoisseur. As you may realise, all my senses were trained at a very young age and it is almost certain that forged deeper bonds with food but also predetermined my career path without my prior knowledge…
Food is a voyage transferring us to the taste civilization of every culture
Every culinary culture acquires its own suitcase, in which keeps the techniques and ingredients learned over the centuries and preserved like the apple of an eye. In its palette, one can find the colors of spices composing its unique painting. It conveys the flavors that for the locals can cause mnemonic explosions on the palate but also distributes majestic trips and unexplored flavor routes to all those, who taste it.
This is how I would like us to preserve our culinary heritage, placing all those techniques, aromas and flavors of our homeland, Greece. It is quite pleasant that we gradually witness it to add flesh and bones and our ‘suitcase’ replenished with our culinary heritage.
The most vivid images from the kitchen of my parents’ house….
End of summer….just a few days of play left in the village before the bell of the new school year rings. Opening my eyes from the low-pitched sleep, which you can only enjoy in a rural region, the scent of burnt wood and fresh milk from the neighbor’s cattle moves towards me.
As soon as I wake up, I put on my clothes to taste the fresh milk with bites of bread and sugar. Suddenly, I’m at the table eating greedily, when I look up and see the wood burning from the kitchen window noticing my grandmother and her friends mustering up wondrous cooking meals. Everything seemed new and strange to my eyes. Roughly wiping the last drops of milk with my hands, I run towards the hall.
Heading down the stairs, I reach the kitchen and watch the way they move with wide eyes open trying to grasp what they are up to. I clap eyes on the kneader, bulged with dough and covered with white linen towels. Two round tables, used to open filo stand ready and at place. On one of them, a scale is stationed and on the other a roller.
Ecstatically, I watch my grandmother and her friends believing that I spectate a well-tuned rhythm section band. First, flows kund, taken over by aunt Parthena, and with each weighing of the dough, its sound reminds me of cymbals. Then joins chlagou, which feels like a drumstick in my grandmother’s floury hands. Third follows sax, which gives the rhythm like a grancassa to a band.
Aunt Niki places the filo on it, bakes it until it gets a smoked woody scent. Then, she carries on with filo stacking, which consequently is stored in a cellar, away from moisture. Early in the afternoon, the marvellous ‘concert’ is winded up, I stared in wonderment, contemplating the sounds, the flavors, the images, the taste trying in vain with my little head to perceive the masterful experiences I envisioned. They all seemed harmoniously combined to me. Forcefully, my thoughts were interrupted by hearing one word: PEREK.
Pontic cuisine has remained alive by overcoming the limits of taste and expanding into a cultural experience
Pontic cuisine has remained alive as it travels within us, it is our root that even if it was pulled by force from the soils of Pontus, we carry it inside us wherever we go, we pass it on to our children and spread it throughout the world.
Food is inextricably linked to our culture. It is associated with our hospitality, manners and customs over the centuries and is passed on from generation to generation. At every stage of our lives, food plays a critical role, as it defines our household, social class and character.
Another element that defines the relationship of the Pontians with food is that it was and remains a decisive part in the most important moments of our lives, from birth to death, from everyday’s life to the most ceremonial recipes. So easily, I believe that the Pontic culinary tradition will remain alive throughout the centuries because quite simply is our ROOTS…
The philosophy accompanying Pontic cuisine
The philosophy of the Pontic diet is based on simplicity, in fact professor Mr. Thomas Savvidis refers to the philosophy of Epicurus. Epicurus believes that the highest good is a peaceful and pain-free life. In conclusion, as food is a biological desire, we end up with the saying ‘Beginning and root of greater good is the pleasure of the stomach’ (not that food means pleasure, but even with an empty stomach, one cannot survive). The Pontic diet follows the principles of seasonality and imposes the harmony of the ingredients and live a life in moderation. It has been scientifically proven that Pontic gastronomy is the diet of longevity.
Taste has memory and through memory memories are regenerated
Taste has memory and through memory recollections are regenerated. Many and essential memories and as I am quite observant as a person, I have accumulated valuable insight, which helped me to create new techniques and recipes. Taste through memory speaks loudly to people’s hearts. It accompanies us on a journey to moments of the past and this is one of the basic characteristics of every traditional food. I love tradition because it is my root, my identity, my memories and my moments. As rule of thumb, I respect tradition and use it as a precious legacy, promote it as it deserves and from its basis compile new recipes.
Culture and cooking bring people together
Let us take a seat around the table and eat!
Do you know where the expression comes from? It derives from the word sofra, a low and completely round table, at which family and friends sat and ate together, side by side. Food unites all people and tribes of the world. There is certainly no parthenogenesis in the composition of each recipe, on the contrary! All kitchens in the world look similar in many aspects. It is therefore up to each one of us and our inner desire to develop our culinary culture, train our palate challenging ourselves to new flavors and shaping new memories.
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