“The cooking, long meals, wine, weather, settings, adventures around the island were stellar. But what made our time with you stand out was the true hospitality that both of you exude,” wrote Beth—a guest in our late June program– in a warm and enthusiastic note she sent far from Kea, back in her South Carolina home.

  Slide Show: Keartisanal Summer 2011

Renee, another participant, amazed us with the royal treatment on her blog, where she devoted not just one but four wonderfully detailed presentations to our activities. In our May group we were greatly surprised to welcome two ladies who joined us literally from the other side of the world: Danica, from Hawaii, and Chris from Rarotonga, Cook Islands, the tiny spots of land – not unlike Kea – at the exact opposite side of the globe from Greece. Guests from diverse backgrounds — from Canada, India, the U.K. and of course the U.S. — once more joined the conviviality of our outdoor table as we enjoyed the foods we prepared together, listening to the song of the cicadas. (more…)

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The eighth stage of drunkenness according to the ancient comic poet Eubulus “is the policeman’s, the ninth belongs to vomiting, and the tenth to madness and hurling of furniture,” the very stately professor, Oswyn Murray, informed the lecture hall in his brilliant paper at the closing plenary session of this year’s Oxford Symposium on Food and Cookery. During the mostly sunny weekend gathering of 230 scholars and food-lovers from England, the US, and all over the world a fair amount of wine—from Italy, Spain, Germany and Greece— was consumed, but of course participants never approached even the fourth stage of inebriation that “belongs to insults,” but there were hints of the fifth “that [belongs] to uproar.”

Cathy Kaufman during the Shaun Hill dinner.

Shaun Hill’s seared monkfish with mustard and cucumber sauce.

Roast rack of lamb with summer vegetables by Shaun Hill of Walnut Tree restaurant

Lamb shoulder stew with vegetables, by Shaun Hill

Italian Risorgimento lunch

Chicken with rosemary and wine from the Italian Risorgimento lunch

Claudia Roden (far right) presides over Alicia Rios’ (second from right) and volunteers’ performance “Organoleptic Deconstruction in Three Movements”

M.F.K. Fisher exerted a strong influence on Auden’s idea of celebration, argued Seth Rosenbaum.

Chef Tim Kelsey, of St.Catz College was instrumental in the preparation of all the wonderful Celebratory meals.

Ominous Day-of –the-Dead Mexican candies.

Jake Tilson designed the exquisite menus; here the one for the dinner inspired from the Mexican Day of the Dead.

The Lenten Greek Kathari Deftera (Clean Monday) meze-lunch.

Taramosalata, marinated octopus and baked giant beans at the Lenten Greek meze-lunch.

The Lenten Greek Kathari Deftera (Clean Monday) meze-lunch.

Jane Kramer, of New Yorker magazine, and Cypriot diplomat Marilena Raouna at the Greek meze-lunch.

  Slide Show: CELEBRATING in Oxford!

Long forgotten are the ancient symposia, the drinking parties of men reclined on couches sharing “the ancient Greek conception of the highest form of pleasure. They called it ‘euphrosyne’, a sense of well-being or happiness based on purely physical sensations, those of eating, drinking, music, and sex.” Citing Homer, professor Murray went on to explain that in a pre-PC (Politically Incorrect, not Personal Computer!) era, in the classical symposia “euphrosyne seems to express the general feeling, the social consequence of the pleasures of the feast.” Thus euphrosyne could, I think, describe our shared experience during this year’s 30th anniversary of the Oxford Symposium on Food and Cookery, the theme of which, appropriately, was ‘Celebrations.’ (more…)

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Every year in April, well before Easter, Costas starts the long process of searching and ordering the cheeses that will be included in the Kea Artisanal cheese-tastings. He calls up shepherds and artisanal producers from various Aegean islands and Crete, but also people in the north of Mainland Greece. After discussing the year’s production, he orders a variety of cheeses, hard and soft. Then we impatiently wait for the Styrofoam boxes that arrive by messenger from Naxos, Tinos, Macedonia, and Crete. After an initial tasting, we decide which ones will be included in the 12-15 samples we serve each year on our cheese-tasting board.

  Slide Show: Gathering Cheeses

It wouldn’t be an exaggeration to say that roughly every Greek village has its own cheese variety. These shepherd’s cheeses are seasonal, and are made mostly with a combination of goat and sheep milk. They seldom travel farther than the boundaries of the communities that create them. Shepherds traditionally use milk from the whole herd, as goats and sheep have slightly different milking seasons. On the islands the animals are semi-feral, wandering throughout the hilly landscape. Once or twice a day they are gathered and milked. The taste of the cheeses produced is directly related to the quality of the milk, which in turn is closely related to the kind of greens the animals feed on. The ratio of sheep to goat milk in the blend is never the same, and so the flavors of these cheeses vary considerably from one year to the next, and even within each annual batch; the distinctions are as fine as those that can be made among good wines. (more…)

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SLOW Fish Genoa 2011

From fishwitches, sandwiches made with bread from Triora–the Ligurian village famous for its Medieval witches—to jellied cubes of green tea with strawberries and head-on prawns, this year’s Slow Fish international gathering had it all: a multi ethnic sea fare complete with wines to taste and enjoy, but also plenty of food for thought regarding the grim future of fishing as we know it.

  Slide Show: SLOW Fish Genoa 2011

The biennial Genoa Slow Fish is a manageable fair, not overwhelming as the Salone del Gusto, he alternating huge biennial Slow Food Torino gathering. Its message was very clear: ‘If we want to continue eating fish tomorrow, we must take action today.” (more…)

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It is difficult to describe the sheer excitement we felt the moment the first trickle of golden-green olive oil emerged from the humming machine’s spout. We stood nervously for more than half an hour after feeding the funnel with about sixty pounds of freshly harvested olives. The crushing of the fruit seemed to last forever, and we were incredulously looking at each other and through the little square holes at the brownish slush, mashed and mixed for what seemed like an eternity. The pulp had to ‘appear very shiny and brimming with oil’ and only then could Costas turn the knob to transfer the ‘ripe’ paste into the next compartment that would, by centrifugal force, separate the pure, extra virgin olive oil from the dry solids — the crushed olive stones and the leftover skins.

  Slide Show: Our First Olive Pressing

That was the theory, and it had worked perfectly the first time the technician demonstrated the machine’s capabilities. He came to Kea with our brand new olive press to make sure that we learned how to operate it properly, or a season’s harvest would be lost.The next day we proceeded by ourselves, without knowledgeable assistance, and we waited so long for these first drops of liquid gold that we forgot to prepare slices of toasted bread for immediate tasting, as is the custom. We did that later, when the first excitement subsided, and the doubts crept up on us. Had we turned the knob at the right moment? Was the olive oil as clear as it should be? The residue dry enough, and not wet with wasted oil? After performing the appropriate tests, we were finally confident that we had proceeded correctly. So we relaxed, or tried to, and Costas with Stathi, our neighbor and assistant, started to feed the machine and press the olives harvested the day before. (more…)

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