From Gavros to Ceviche

I've been wanting to share my views on Greek food for a long time. As I mentioned in my introduction, I feel that our country is turning into a theme park. I understand how important food is when we travel. While fine dining isn't my personal favorite, I recognize that there's a significant market for elaborate meals, exquisite tastes, and plates decorated like paintings. When chefs incorporate Greek cuisine, roots, and ingredients, the result can be a traveler's most memorable experience.

However, through my journeys and travels all over Greece, I've had meals with 'fine dining clientele' in the simplest restaurants, paying extremely low bills and seeing the biggest smiles throughout the trip. So yes, in the country, you can cover the range from very simple to exquisite cuisine at the right place. I can accept fine dining restaurants in caldera hotels in Santorini, in top luxury hotels, and 5-star Michelin star restaurants. But I cannot accept being offered ceviche, gazpacho, and caprese in a taverna where a couple of years ago we were eating Greek salad and calamari in our flip-flops. If I want to eat ceviche, to be quite honest, I will go to Peru.

So, how is Greece going to keep its identity as a tourism destination if it offers such meals? Would you go to Japan and ask for souvlaki? Greek taverna owners should focus on our national treasures, offering them in a more sophisticated way, yes, but helping to keep our tradition alive. As Anthony Bourdain wrote, "Good food is very often, even most often, simple food."