
Gastronomy
Syros Gastronomy
Syros ’s gastronomy has been greatly influenced by the various conquerors and refugees who left their own culinary mark over the years. With spicy flavors from Asia Minor and the Levant, with velvety notes from the Venetians and traditional aromas from Chios and other North Aegean Islands, Syros has created its own unique cuisine. An authentic cuisine with a special culture consisting of excellent quality and traditional products worth trying.
West, east, Cyclades, aristocrats, rebetes…, make a mixture well kneaded with unique ingredients, the rich history and the indescribable charm of the island. This is how the special gastronomic identity of Syros reaches our plate.
Gastronomy is one of the most important parts of the rich history of Syros and is directly related to the lifestyle of the people who inhabited the island for centuries. The people who arrived on the island during the past centuries brought with them elements of their gastronomic culture that they had developed in their homelands. Different ingredients, cultures, origins and experiences are mixed in the pot of local people, giving really impressive taste results.
In the kitchens of the bourgeois of Syros, which were mainly merchants and shipowners originating from Chios or Smyrna, the oriental elements will be combined with the western modernities. For the high society, gastronomy will be the sign of social prosperity at that time. The importance of cooking for the Syrians, is highlighted by the fact that the first cooking book published in our country, was printed in Syros in 1828.
In the countryside, the farmers’s cook was more frugal, as it was usually on the islands of the Cyclades. The raw material they usually used was the seasonal products, produced or grown on the island, such as greens or herbs, olive oil, various vegetables, legumes and in exceptional cases meat. Refugees from the lower social layers usually enriched the recipes of the poor with an oriental flavor, adding spices and contributing with their own local recipes to the Syrian menu.

