When I travel, I love to experience a local cooking class to get the full immersive experience into the culture and food of the places I visit. Last month, I had a blast with my family at a cooking class featuring green chile in Santa Fe, New Mexico and this month, I had the amazing experience of a Greek cooking class in Santorini.
This was my first (and certainly not last!) trip to Greece, and food was certainly a highlight. Like my colleague Kate, I hit the most popular destinations in the country: Athens, Santorini and Mykonos. Each place was different in its scenery and history, but all shared delicious food and drink. I was especially excited about visiting Santorini (aka Thera to the Greeks) because my friend Cheryl and I had booked a cooking class at a highly-recommended winery, Artemis Karamolegos in Exo Gonia, Santorini. But before we dig into the food, we must discuss the wines of Santorini.
Santorini is famous for its wines, especially its sweet, rich wine, Vinsanto which we tasted and cooked with in our class, but since I'm not a big fan of sweet wines, I'm partial to their rosé wines, which are nice and dry.
Because water is so precious, grape vines are kept close to the ground so that they can absorb morning dew. This also provides the vines protection from the island's high winds. You can see grape vines in circular wreaths all over the island, and supposedly, each complete circle represents ten years of growth. The basket-like way of pruning and "winding" the vines which is called "kouloura" and is unique to Santorini. Here are some vines just steps away from our rental in Finikia near Oia in Santorini.
We arrived to the winery a little early for our class, but we were greeted hospitably (which was the case all over Greece) and seated in a lovely courtyard full of trees with olives, grapes and pomegranates. A glass of rosé was the perfect way to start our afternoon!
I quickly learned on this trip that while in Greece, you are on Greek time, and there is literally no rush to do anything, so our class was a little delayed to start. I was imagining what The Chopping Block's students in Chicago would say if we started a class late. Imagine the Yelp reviews I'd have to respond to! But I'll admit the laid back pace was a nice change for me.
We were in a group of ten people (no surprise that we were all Americans) and all couples except for Cheryl and I. Two couples were honeymooning (a popular activity in Greece), and all of the students were very nice. We each had a station with an apron, cutting board and knife, though I was a little surprised at the knife choice.
Unlike at The Chopping Block, we didn't get our recipes until the end of class so we just followed the chef's instructions. Chef "Chris" (short for Chrysostomos) was engaging, informative and truly hilarious. He did a great job of speaking to everyone in the group, and he and his assistant made sure we always stayed on track. Check out the view behind him in the gorgeous kitchen that overlooks the winery's vegetable gardens!
The first course was the Santorini take on a traditional Greek salad. It's composed of perfectly-ripe Santorini cherry tomatoes, "Katsouni" Santorini's local cucumber, spring onions, capers, caper leaves (which I had never had before but now have a jar in my pantry - more on that later), olives, extra virgin olive oil, oregano, salt and fresh goat cheese called "chloro."
In Greece, cheese is so adored that the average person eats 50 pounds of it a year. The chloro we had is a fresh cheese made by Santorinian ladies that is hard to find in taverns or restaurants, and is even more difficult to buy on the open market. I could have easily eaten every bite of chloro in that salad and then some, so 50 pounds a year doesn't seem like a stretch to me!
They whisked away our salads to be enjoyed later while we watched the chef prepare the fava dish. This was a new dish for me, and I was interested to learn that Santorini Fava is what’s known as a ‘Protected Designation of Origin’ or PDO. That’s because the particular beans grow on the island in the rich volcanic soil and have been grown there exclusively for 3,500 years! And they must come from the island to be known as Santorini Fava because of the designation. Taste wise, they are known for having a velvety texture and being sweeter than other Fava beans. Of course, I had to buy a bag at the winery so I could recreate this fantastic dish at home. If you don't have access to Greek Fava, you can substitute yellow split peas.
The standout dish in the menu we made during class was definitely the Tomato Fritters for me. We watched the chef make the fritter batter consisting of more Santorini cherry tomatoes, onions, parsley, dill, mint, oregano, all-purpose flour and self-rising flour. There was also a pinch of sweet paprika and cinnamon in the dish, and Chef Chris wanted all of us Americans to taste the difference between Greek cinnamon and what we are used to in the States. I was blown away at how spicy and pungent it was! So, of course, I had to find some at the Athens grocery store and bring some back. Can you tell I went to Greece with a very large suitcase not completely full? I had to fill it with food, art, clothes and gifts to bring back!
We tasted some of the fritters both with and without the feta. Honestly, I loved them both, but I'd probably serve them with the cheese once I make the fritters at home. I've already sought out Greek feta available in my supermarket because unfortunately that was one food I couldn't bring home in my suitcase!
By this point our ride was waiting, so we had to leave, but the staff was kind enough to bring us a tasting of a dessert of fried cinnamon crisps (with that lovely Greek cinnamon) and gelato paired with the Vinsanto dessert wine.