Quittintime: Origins

Maria Kallas: In honor of the famous soprano, the chef Alex Hubert created the "Shoulder Lamb Kallas". It is shoulder lamb stuffed with truffles and served with saut?ed mushrooms with butter.

Rossini: The composer of "The Barber of Seville" was born in Italy in 1792 and died in Paris in 1868; he loved truffles and goose liver (foie gras). His famous creation is the "Tournento Rossini", a slice of beef fillet covered with a thin layer of lard, when it is cooked it is placed on fried or baked bread, with a slice of goose liver on top and finely chopped truffles. Another famous dish is "Macaroni Rossini", which is nothing else but boiled macaroni, which are stuffed with mashed goose liver and then saut?ed with butter and finely chopped truffles.

Macaroni and the Makarioi (the Blessed): Most of the modern words for pasta are Italian, even though its production is ancient and worldwide. Pasta was always the easiest and safest way of preserving grain for those difficult times. There is one word, which escapes the Italian category of "pasta" and that word is macaroni. The most probable version, of the origin of this word is from the feast of the Makarion (the Blessed) in Ancient Greece, they were festivals dedicated to the forgiveness and the honoring of the dead souls. It was ? and still is in many places today in Greece ? a tradition, where on that particular day they would cook grain and mainly pasta, since the seeds from the grain (Demeter and Persephone) symbolize death (sowing) and resurrection (sprouting).

Peach Melba: A creation of the famous Escoffier in 1892, when he was the head chef at the hotel Savoy of London, in honor of Nell Melba, the Australian opera singer. It was an impressive dish when first created, there was a white swan sculpted from ice and all around vanilla ice cream and sliced stewed peaches on top covered with burnt sugar.

Serrano: Rozita Serrano was a singer in the `50s from South America. George Papandreou was a fan of hers. Rozita Serrano often bought chocolate cake from a pastry shop in Fokionos Negri. This cake was named after the famous singer.

Talleyrand: The French politician and diplomat, was born in 1754 in Paris and died in 1838, he was able to survive the leadership of various country leaders. He began his career as a priest and ended in the Ministry of Foreign Affairs. He used his knowledge of gastronomy as a diplomatic weapon. Many meals are named after him, as the omelet with onions and curry garnished with sweetbread or the garnish based on the wine from Madera, cream milk, finely chopped vegetables, chicken broth, finely chopped truffle and beef tongue.

Anna Pavlova: The enchanting Russian ballerina was born in St. Petersburg in 1882 and died in 1931. It was for her that Fokine wrote "The Dying Swan", music by Saint-Sa?ns. The "Pavlova Cake" is made with whipped cream and fresh strawberries.

Marriage proposals: In ancient Greece, tossing an apple to a girl was a traditional proposal of marriage; catching it was acceptance.

Apicius mentions a clod sauce used to baste roast suckling pig with garo (fish sauce), coriander seeds, mint, rue, honey, wine and a little oil. In his "Deipnosofistes" Athenaeus mentions a certain gourmand who sprinkled his lettuce with a wine and honey mixture the night before, so that it would be sweet when he cut it the following day.

Chicken marengo is a renowned recipe that was created for Napoleon and named after the battle of the same name, but was also created due to a lack of other ingredients. Said Dunan, when Napoleon arrived on horseback, hungry, "I sent out soldiers to bring me back whatever they could find. They returned with 4 tomatoes, 3 eggs, garlic, 6 prawns, one chicken and 1 bottle of wine. I peeled the tomatoes, saut?ed the chicken in oil and garlic, since I had no butter and poured in a little brandy from the general?s flask as I had no wine. I threw in the prawns and the tomato. I served it with 3 fried eggs. After the general had eaten he said to me, "You will serve me this chicken dish after each of my victories".