Thessaloniki Gastronomy: A Melting Pot of Cultures

Even in times of foreign rule, Thessaloniki was relatively prosperous, and the process of urbanization began there much earlier than other cities in Greece. Due to its strategic location on the Via Egnatia, the road built by the Romans in the 2nd century BC, peoples, armies and goods passed through the city on a regular basis, making it receptive to a wider range of ideas. In the 19th century, it was the seat of dozens of consulates, from the largest to the smallest European powers. During WWI, approximately a million soldiers from many different nations are known to have spent time there: British, Irish, French, Indians, Indo-Chinese, Vietnamese, Moroccan, Canadians, Senegalese, Russians, Australians and New Zealanders, a veritable hub of multiculturalism.

But how is all this related to the city’s gastronomy? From the accounts of soldiers, mainly British troops who fought on the Macedonian front in WWI, we know that they all sought out the food of their home countries during their time in Thessaloniki. The photo book “Thessaloniki: Moments in History,” published by the National Historical Museum (2016), contains images of German prisoners working in the bakery of a French military camp, and of frontline soldiers baking loaves and serving soup. Indeed, there are accounts of how soldiers and officers from all over the world not only cooked for themselves, but also set up eateries and coffee shops in Eleftherias Square and elsewhere in the city. In this, they were like each ethnic group that had passed through Thessaloniki, contributing their own cultural elements and influencing the local cuisine just as others had over the centuries.

The early years of the 20th century were difficult for the city. Prior to WWI, there was the upheaval of 1912, when the city was liberated from Ottoman rule. During the war, there was the great fire of 1917 (a blessing in disguise that resulted in a new urban plan and redevelopment along contemporary European lines). After the global conflict, the ensuing Greco-Turkish War and the Greek defeat of 1922 caused a massive influx of ethnic Greek refugees, earning the city the moniker “Mother of Refugees.” The demographic change was rapid and clearly evident in its cultural footprint. “The city’s darkest periods include the Balkan Wars, when new borders were drawn, and the annihilation of the Jewish community,” Professor Michailidis says. “Thessaloniki endured the scourge of the Holocaust, as well as the terrible trauma of the Civil War, which cut deeper in northern Greece. With the Macedonian Question [a political dispute over which nation would rule the area after the expulsion of the Ottomans] fueling a climate of introversion and insecurity, the city looked inward and closed in on itself. By now, the dominant culture was Greek, characterized to a large extent by elements introduced by [Greek-speaking] refugees from the East.”