A Naxos cooking class is a hands-on lesson in which visitors cook Greek dishes on Naxos, the largest island of the Cyclades. It is one of the food-led Greece tours that run on the island.
What is a Naxos cooking class?
A Naxos cooking class is a cooking lesson held on the island of Naxos, in Greece. Its subject is the craft of cooking, with the science behind it, and the preparation of food. A cooking school is devoted to education in that same subject.
Culinary arts is the name for the preparation, cooking and presentation of food. Culinary simply means anything linked to cooking. Presentation means how a dish looks when it is served. These three parts form the craft. A Naxos cooking class belongs to this field, the same field that every cooking lesson draws on.
Before cooking schools existed, professional cooks mentored individual students. A mentor is an experienced person who teaches a beginner. These students were apprentices, which means they learned a trade by working under an expert. Cooking classes today share that aim, because one person still passes food skills on to another person.
Naxos belongs to the Cyclades, an archipelago, meaning an island cluster in the Aegean Sea. The group lies southeast of the Greek mainland. The largest island of the Cyclades is Naxos, while Syros has the highest population of the group. That island setting is where a Naxos cooking class takes place.
- Climate: Depending on the place, Naxos has either a Mediterranean climate or a hot, dry semi-arid one.
- Rainfall: Mount Zeus tends to trap the clouds, which permits greater rainfall on Naxos.
- Farming: Farming is an important part of the economy on Naxos, with vegetable crops, fruit crops and cattle breeding.
The nectar behind Naxian honey is mainly thyme, a herb. Nectar is the sweet liquid that flowers make. Vivlos, Agios Arsenios and Glynado are listed among the main villages of the island. Both belong to the setting around any Naxos cooking class.
Which Naxos cheeses does a Naxos cooking class use?
A Naxos cooking class happens on an island that Greeks know for its Arseniko Naxou cheese. Graviera, xynomizithra and kefalotyri are three other Greek cheeses worth knowing before a class. Each one has a different texture, taste and level of saltiness.
Graviera resembles gruyère, the Swiss cheese that gave graviera its name. Cooks bake graviera in a casserole, which is a deep baking dish. They also add it to salads as cubes or shavings. Cooks in a Naxos cooking class learn a cheese faster when they know where its name comes from.
Xynomizithra comes from ewe or goat whey that is strained, heated and stirred. A ewe is a female sheep, and whey is the liquid left from cheesemaking. It has a soft, creamy, moist body, snow-white in colour, with a sour taste. Sourness is an easy flavour to study in a Naxos cooking class.
Cheesemakers pour mizithra curds into a cheesecloth bag and hang the bag up to drain. Curds are the solid lumps that separate from the whey in cheesemaking. After salting and ageing, mizithra becomes drier and denser, with a saltier and sourer taste. Cheesecloth is a thin, loose cloth that lets liquid drip through.
- Kefalotyri: This hard, salty white cheese is made from sheep milk, goat milk or both.
- Chymosin: This natural helper, an enzyme in the cheesemaking ingredient rennet, curdles the milk proteins called casein.
- Acidity: Higher acidity, which means more sourness, makes casein proteins tangle into solid masses called curds.
Cow’s milk is not traditional in Greece, because the terrain favours sheep and goat farming. Knowing these cheese names gives every student of a Naxos cooking class a clear head start. The names then sound familiar when each cheese reaches the table.
Which Naxos farm products appear in a Naxos cooking class?
A Naxos cooking class can build on the island’s own farm products. Naxos is one island in the Cyclades, a Greek island group. Farm crops and cattle breeding make Naxos the Cyclades island best able to supply itself with food.
Two things decide what a farm can grow: soil and water. Naxos is more fertile than every other island of the Cyclades. It also has plenty of good water, in a region where water is short. Any Naxos cooking class sits on an island with both of these strengths.
The Naxos potato is a famous vegetable of the Cyclades. Citrus fruits belong to the lemon and orange family. Naxos is one of three Cyclades islands listed for citrus fruits, along with Andros and Sifnos. Both are farm products of Naxos itself, so they count as local produce for any cook.
Olive oil is one more farm product within reach of a Naxos cooking class. Olive oil is the oil pressed from olives. Naxos is one of four Cyclades islands listed for olive oil, with Syros, Sifnos and Ios. Remains of olive oil sat inside jugs, over 4,000 years old, found in a Naxos tomb.
- Honey: Thyme nectar, the sweet liquid inside thyme flowers, is the main source of Naxian honey.
- Wine: Naxos is one of seven Cyclades islands listed for wine, which is made from grapes.
- Kitron: Yellow Kitron is the strongest variety of the Kitron drink, at 36% ABV, or alcohol by volume.
Kitron is traditionally drunk as a digestif, which means a drink taken after a meal. In that custom, the glass comes last, once the plates are empty and the meal is over. Anyone planning a Naxos cooking class can keep that custom in mind.
Which Greek dishes does a Naxos cooking class cook?
A Naxos cooking class draws on the home cooking of Greece. Moussaka, spanakopita (a spinach pie) and tzatziki (a yogurt sauce) are three dishes from that kitchen. Cabbage rolls, stuffed peppers and baked eggplants with sauce sit beside them on the same table.
Moussaka is a Greek dish built on aubergine, the vegetable also called eggplant. Tselementes’ cookbook lists a fast-day version, a meatless dish, with ground aubergine instead of meat. It adds tomato sauce and bread crumbs. Other versions use sautéed (quickly pan-fried) zucchini slices, part-fried potato slices or sautéed mushrooms beside the aubergine.
The dish called melitzanes papoutsakia is made of baked eggplants stuffed with ground beef. A smooth béchamel, which is a creamy white sauce, covers the top. Lahanodolmades are baked cabbage rolls filled with rice, ground beef or a mix of the two. A Naxos cooking class that covers stuffed vegetables has a wide field to draw on.
The fasting spanakopita is made with olive oil and a small amount of wheat flour, and has no eggs or dairy products. In rural Greece, cooks use less spinach. They replace the missing amount with leeks and the leafy plants chard and sorrel. Swaps like these show how flexible Greek recipes are, which helps in any Naxos cooking class.
- Base: Tzatziki mixes salted strained yogurt with cucumbers, garlic, salt, olive oil and red wine vinegar.
- Sauce: Tzatziki also serves as a sauce for souvlaki and gyros, which are Greek sandwiches.
- Nut version: One Greek tzatziki version adds walnut oil, crushed nuts and red peppers to the yogurt base.
Hollowed bell peppers hold rice, herbs, onions and currants, which are small dried grapes. Filo dough is made with flour, water and a small amount of oil. Together, these recipes show the range of Greek food that a Naxos cooking class can explore.
How do olive oil and herbs shape a Naxos cooking class?
A Naxos cooking class rests on two simple ingredients: olive oil and herbs. Plaki is a Greek way of baking food in a roasting tin, and it shows both. A plaki dish is baked with extra-virgin olive oil, tomatoes, vegetables and herbs.
A Naxos cooking class makes more sense once the story of olive oil is clear. Scholars believe oil was made by placing olives in woven mats and squeezing them. Traditionally, oil was separated from water by gravity, since oil is less dense than water. Gravity pulls the heavier water down, so oil rises.
The herb oregano carries its long history in its name. English borrowed the word from Spanish orégano. Spanish took it from Latin, and Latin took it from Classical Greek, the Greek of ancient times. Kaliteri is a Greek kind of oregano. It has small, dark, compact leaves covered in silvery hairs.
Mint leaves taste warm, fresh, aromatic and sweet, with a cool aftertaste. Greek myth also gives mint a story of its own. The nymph Minthe, a spirit of nature, was beloved by Hades and became a mint plant. Tales like this give a Naxos cooking class something to talk about besides taste.
- Smoke point: Extra virgin olive oil starts to smoke at around 180 to 215 °C.
- Bay laurel: Greeks call the bay laurel dáphnē, after a mythic mountain nymph of the same name.
- Dry years: A drought, a long dry spell, during the flowering phase can leave a lower quality virgin oil.
Herbs can carry more than taste. In their temples, ancient Greeks burnt thyme as incense, a material that gives off scented smoke. They believed it gave courage. Together, olive oil and herbs give a Naxos cooking class its flavours, its history and its stories.
What questions come up about a Naxos cooking class?
A Naxos cooking class sits on an island with its own airport and Mount Zas rising above it. Weather records from the Apeiranthos village station show how April, July and October differ. Paros, another island of the Cyclades, lies across a windy strait.
Which airport serves a Naxos cooking class?
Naxos Island National Airport opened in 1992. It has a three-letter IATA code, JNX, and a four-letter ICAO code, LGNX. Both are short labels for the same airport. Its expansion plan includes a 300 metre runway extension, which lengthens the runway to the south.
Which mountain rises above a Naxos cooking class?
Mount Zas has two main routes up. The easiest begins at the Agia Marina chapel, a small church. The harder route begins at the nearby Aria Spring and passes Zeus’s cave. A rock carving from ancient times, close to the cave, says “Zeus Melosios”. That name makes Zeus the protector of the sheep.
Which season suits a Naxos cooking class?
Apeiranthos village station highs average 15.4 °C in April, 27.9 °C in July and 22.5 °C in October. Apeiranthos village station rain averages 77.4 mm in April, 19.4 mm in July and 60.9 mm in October. In winter, the inland part of Naxos is far wetter and cooler, because the land lies higher.
Which island lies beside a Naxos cooking class?
The Cyclades are an island group, and Paros is one of them, set in the central part of the Aegean Sea. It has an area of 165 square kilometres. Winds blow strong and constantly in the strait between Paros and Naxos. A strait is a narrow channel of water. Windsurfers favour the strait for that reason.