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Greek Cuisine Quotes

“The Greeks' fierce pride in their heritage has kept the basic culture intact. Whether a slave under Roman rule, a captive under Turkish domination, or a newly arrived immigrant, the Greek is always aware that he is the direct descendant of men like Plato, Homer, Aristotle, Demosthenes, Aristophanes. The Greek who begins life in a new land on the bottom step of society as a dishwasher needs only to remember how Aesop left a legacy of poetry while cooking as a slave.”
Theresa Yianilos, 'The Complete Greek Cookbook'

Athenaeus, quoting a cook: "I have earned in my profession as much as any comedian has ever earned in his own: my art is a smoke-blackened empire ...It was I who prepared the abyrtake for Seleucus. I introduced the use of the royal lentil to Agathocles of Sicily; but I still haven't said the main thing. True that Lachares feeding his friends during a famine feasted Minerva without her companions, but it is I who feed Jupiter and all his train."
Athenaeus, Greek scholar (c.200 A.D.) ‘Deipnosophistai’

Diogenes, the ancient Greek philosopher, once advised a young courtier, "If you lived on cabbage, you would not be obliged to flatter the powerful." To which the courtier replied, "If you flattered the powerful, you would not be obliged to live upon cabbage."
Diogenes