Therapeutic gastronomy. The healing properties of the herbs and spices:

A cooking seminar of traditional and modern recipes with wild greens and herbs by the cook Christina Kotsilelou at Dr. Kavvadia’s estate in Corfu.

Modern food production, the growing number of diet-related diseases, the damage we do to our bodies as well as the planet, are pushing us to return to natural remedies and therapies known for thousands of years.

Holistic healing practices, folk medicine traditions (‘yatrosophia’ in Greek) and local herbal knowledge are a natural way of healing and caring that allows us to connect with our place, tradition and natural environment.

Whether it is herbal remedies such as St. John’s wort for stress and depression, herbal teas such as valerian for sleeping aid or chamomile to soothe our stomachs, natural remedies may already be part of our daily routine.

In the Mediterranean and specifically in Greece we are lucky to have a flora rich in wild greens and herbs that we have been using in our diet for thousands of years.

From northern Greece to Crete, traditional recipes for raw and boiled salads, pies, soups and other delicacies, enrich our diet not only with variety and taste but also with high nutritional value.

At the Kavvadia estate, with the help of botanist Eleni Christoforakou we take a walk in the countryside, collect wild greens and herbs of the season and learn their beneficial and healing properties.

Under the supervision of Christina Kotsilelou, we then move to the open- air kitchen and learn how we can use them in cooking. We try traditional and modern recipes, delicious food, healthy and beneficial for the body.

The Kavvadia estate, after all, shares the same philosophy of food as therapy, by producing their excellent olive oil, an organic ”medicine” as they call it, for the last…. years.

A few words about the contributors

Christina Kotsilelou received a BA in Product Design in 2000 from Central Saint Martins College of Art and Design in London, where she then pursued an MA in Design Studies.

Upon her return to Greece in 2006, together with her collaborator Thanos Karabatsos, she created the creative studio “Greece is for Lovers”, which specializes in product design. Their studio remains active and they continue their practice to this day.

Cooking has always been her passion and in 2015 she decided to study at a vegetarian and raw vegan cooking academy in California (Matthew Kenney Culinary Academy). Continuing her involvement in this field, she attended a more specialized program in Barcelona (PlantLab) in 2017.

Since then, in addition to product design, she has been dealing with food in various ways, preferring to work by project with a more creative approach to cooking rather than a full-time employment in the restaurant business.

She creates menus for vegetarian and vegan restaurants, organises pop-up events at various venues and orchestrates culinary experiences that involve participants exploring the boundaries between food and play.

A continuing thread in her involvement with food and nutrition has been the respect and concern for seasonal and sustainable ingredients, the well being of the environment and the human body.

Christina has traveled to various countries to cook and discover food practices and traditions. She has been a guest chef at the restaurant of The Breeder gallery in Athens, at Bios complex with two different creative culinary pop up restaurants, she has cooked for art exhibitions, while last year she was a chef in residence at Onassis Air, the artistic research program of the Onassis Foundation. She recently had the opportunity to attend the MAD Academy seminar (an academy by the people behind the Noma restaurant) in Copenhagen on the environment and sustainability.

christinakotsilelou.com

Εleni Christoforatou has been living in Corfu for more than 20 years. The beauty of the island’s nature shaped her path and created a life for her close to the “wild” plant communities of the area. For more than ten years, she has been teaching classes on herbal medicine, leading herbal walks, harvesting plants and making salves, syrups, tinctures and all kind of herbal preparations with natural ingredients.

Eleni has studied with many well-known American herbalists and graduated from Chestnut School of Herbal Medicine after completing the “Herbal Medicine Making” and “Herbal Immersion Course”. She has graduated at the David Winston Center for Herbal Studies and her study focus was on Clinical Herbalism.

corfuherbs.com