At the 3rd Cretan Lifestyle Conference, Greek-American chef and author Diane Kochilas discussed Ikaria, “the island where people forget to die,” as the New York Times put it.
By Lisa Radinovsky, Greek Liquid Gold
Kochilas prefers to think of it as “the island where people remember how to live.” This famous Blue Zone is the home of her ancestors, her cooking school, and a way of living long and well.
Her latest book, The Ikaria Way, features “recipes inspired by my homeland, the Greek island of longevity,” as its cover proclaims. This is the island where she spent the summers of her teens, where she lives, gardens, cooks, and teaches visitors about its healthy secrets. Her recipes are part of “a way of life that shuns stress and anxiety and emphasizes connection and community,” Kochilas said.
As Cretan Lifestyle Conference organizer Dr. Stefanos Kales mentioned while introducing her to the audience at Grecotel’s Amirandes Resort in Heraklion last fall, “Diane Kochilas is really a legend here and in the Greek-American community.” Growing up in an Ikarian family in New York City, she identified as “Amerikarian.”
Now her TV program, My Greek Table, is in its fourth season on American public television, her most recent book was an instant best-seller, and her experiential cooking classes in Ikaria are selling out in advance.
Early years on Ikaria
When Kochilas first visited relatives on the island in the early 1970s, she was struck by how isolated it seemed. For many years, before it became a tourist destination, she experienced the Ikaria that many of the older inhabitants knew. That was an island where isolation in the midst of a rough sea led to its communities’ collaborative self-sufficiency, while seagoing men and communists exiled there imported new perspectives.
Kochilas believes that may help explain why islanders “never adopted a lifestyle that embraces material wealth or goods more than their own time, the time we have together, the time we spend with loved ones — a very important factor in longevity.”
What time is it? “Arga-misi”: half past late. The plumber may show up three days later than expected. “You learn to live with that and to laugh about it.” Kochilas was two hours late for her own wedding. When she arrived, the priest had not shown up yet. “Punctuality, efficiency, and ambition are overrated virtues on Ikaria,” she suggested. “They don’t play an important part in people’s lives.”
On the other hand, as Kochilas pointed out, “having a good time is part of the culture. We make time for life, forging human relationships with each other” across the generations in a close-knit community. They work together on communal feasts for weddings, funerals, and holidays. Every family contributes money anonymously, according to their means, and rich and poor “celebrate the joys and the sorrows of life together.”
This has led to “a culture of collaboration on Ikaria,” commented Kochilas, “a culture where people help each other.” She believes this contributes to longevity, as it reduces stress. There is also a longstanding bartering system on the island: “borrow a tool, come back with a bag of zucchini.”
The island where people forget to die becomes famous
In 2012, a New York Times Magazine article identified Ikaria as a Blue Zone, “and the phones were ringing off the hook among the Ikarian community in the U.S.: ‘Oh my God–they’ve discovered us!’ We’re not even on a radar screen! How did they ever discover this place?” Discover it they did, and Ikaria was “catapulted to fame,” Kochilas reported.
Ikaria became famous as the island where unusually large numbers of people remain active and mentally alert well into their 90s or even longer, dancing, gardening, cooking, and taking care of grandchildren. Elderly citizens still have a social life and a purpose in life. There is no alienation, age discrimination, or depression, according to Kochilas. This is an ideal example of a traditional Mediterranean lifestyle.
“The Mediterranean diet,” Kochilas reminded us, “is so much more than food; it’s created in a whole social structure – small places all over the Mediterranean where old and young socialize together,” produce and prepare food together, and live in tune with the seasons.
Almost all of the island’s 8500 permanent residents produce much or all of their own food, and in some cases their own wine and honey. “Gardening provides a connection with nature, a calming effect, and gentle exercise and observing. Your pace is so much slower,” Kochilas said. “You can be more mindful, more aware of what’s around you in a natural setting. This helps people live a long, healthy life.”
What they eat in Ikaria so they forget to die
The diet of Ikaria is “a diet of dearth, not plenitude.” Traditionally, islanders have eaten what they could grow or gather in a given season, mostly plant-based foods full of nutrients. The older generation (now 80 to 100 years old) used to eat greens six times a week. Now there are overweight kids eating junk, and more meat is eaten—mainly goat, plus some fish, chicken, and pork. Yet Ikarians still consume a great deal of purslane, cabbage, collard greens, and foraged wild greens.
As Kochilas observed, “many still keep the traditions, and foraging is the most popular way to procure food on the island.” Foraging enables connection to the community through socializing and sharing. It also requires “movement that keeps us agile and spry into old age, with our level of alertness and awareness heightened.” And it yields wild greens, onions, mushrooms, taro root, carrots, and herbs, which islanders cook “in a very simple way, always with olive oil.”
“Olive oil is in everything; it’s a no-brainer for me as a Greek cook that we use it in everything,” Kochilas emphasized. This includes baking and the “national” dish of Ikaria, a vegetable stew or casserole (depending on the version) known as soufico.
Many of the island’s permanent residents produce all the olive oil they need. It mainly comes from Chondroelia olives, which are also used for table olives. There are Koroneiki trees, too, as in much of Greece. Young Ikarians have learned how to produce high quality olive oil by harvesting and milling at appropriate times using good equipment.
Slow cooking and slow living on the island of longevity
Islanders cook a variety of olive oil rich vegetable stews (“ladera,” or “oily,” in Greek). They simmer okra stew, lentil stew, chickpeas, or giant beans slowly for an hour or more. “Whatever you’re cooking” this way, Kochilas noted, “the natural sugars in the plant have time to develop; there’s an underlying sweetness. Slow cooking keeps the nutrients intact. It’s inherently good for you, it’s comforting, it’s healthy, it’s tasty, and it has the one thing that makes food craveable: it’s high in fat. There is a great range of plant-based main courses in the Greek and Ikarian diet. Vegetable cooking is not relegated to side-dish status.”
On Ikaria, there is always time to produce, gather, and cook real, fresh, wholesome food. For Kochilas, this is a central part of the Ikarian way of life: “enjoying really healthy food that’s delicious, dancing, forging relationships – those are the lessons that are intangible. It’s about the connections we forge, often over food.”
Her parting advice: “Slow down, take time for LIFE, cook real food, give, share, and LIVE.”
Originally published on Greek Liquid Gold: Authentic Extra Virgin Olive Oil (greekliquidgold.com). See that site for recipes with olive oil, photos from Greece, agrotourism and food tourism suggestions, and olive oil news and information.