CHAPTER 1

The Most Important Ingredient is Agapi

Love is the cause of unity of all things. — Aristotle

Love that shines from within cannot be darkened by obstacles of the world of consequences! – Pythagoras

Only food cooked with good energy and agapi can truly nourish and heal our bodies and souls. The presenceof the heart over the presence of the mind is necessary when cooking from a place of joy. If you put love inyour cooking you will give love to yourselves and others. Love conquers all. — Maria Benardis

The energy we emit when cooking or eating affects the ingredients and others around us. Ourenergy can rejuvenate or contaminate. When we cook and eat lovingly the ingredients will heal usand the people around us will respond accordingly with reciprocity. - Maria Benardis

The Greek word for love is agapi, which is a deep sense of true love, with no expectations. Unfortunately, wehave developed distorted views about what love is today and have placed too many conditions, judgementsand limitations on what love means and how it should be expressed.

Agapi is a joyous, harmonious state of mind, free of chaos. Whenever I ask my friends whose cooking they likethe most, their mum's cooking comes up most of the time. Mum's cooking will always be the best becausea mother loves her children unconditionally and therefore everything they cook and touch is made withbountiful pots of love and good energy.

In the Greek Orthodox faith agapi also denotes an unconditional love for God. Love was important in ancientGreece, so much so that they assigned a goddess to remind everyone of its importance — Aphrodite. Shewas the goddess who radiated love and whose example we should follow and lead by. The Romans imitatedthe Greeks and followed suit by adopting the goddess and calling her Venus, along with all the other ancientGreek gods.

Aphrodite, it was believed, sprang from an oyster and is where food of aphrodisiac qualities eventuated from(the oyster is included as one such food). This is an example of the association Greeks developed betweenthe gods and nature: the energy of Aphrodite with the natural oyster. The ancient Greeks created many godsto represent many things in nature to remind us that we are not alone and that we have godly guidance andexamples to look up to. There were also many in ancient Greece that believed otherwise and were of theopinion that there was only one God. Nowadays, the Greeks have adopted one God as part of the GreekOrthodox faith.

The ancient Greeks believed that the purpose of love was to unify things. When you cook with love, all thingscome together in the kitchen. Your recipes work out and it brings you great joy and happiness. When youcook with stress or anger, you become separated and disconnected. The result is that your dish is unlikely towork out and you will be unhappy. We ultimately choose whether we go into the kitchen with an action oflove or an action of anger. Under the rule of agapi, all is in harmony; everything comes together into a singlestable sphere and all the elements and energy are of equal proportions. In the end love conquers all and it isthe solution to everything. It is this state of mind that leads to health and happiness.

The ancient Greek philosophers recognised that the universe was circular, symmetrical and harmonious andso for human beings to coexist in this universe they had to achieve balance and peace. This was sometimesreferred to as 'cosmic equilibrium': a oneness with all. In his work Timaeus, when Plato refers to time as'a moving image of eternity', he is hinting at something very similar. Athenaeus also shared this view andbelieved that the earth is circular and that energy moves in a circular motion — the energy flow is neverendingand we are all connected. Athenaeus believed that this was deliberate:

... spherical in shape and deriving mental images from the shape of the sun and the moon, thought it wasonly right to make the things pertaining to their own, food like the element which encompasses the earth,according to the shape it seemed to have. Hence they made the table round; also the tripods consecrated tothe gods they made circular and covered with the stars and (round) cakes also which they call 'moons'. Soalso they called a loaf Artos because among geographical shapes, the circle is perfectly even and complete.Hence, too the cup, which contains liquid food, they made circular in imitation of the universe. ButNestor's cup is even more characteristic. For it has stars also, which the poet likens to studs, because starsare round just as nails are and are fastened to the sky as Aratus says of them.

This theory of circular energy was incorporated into the ancient Greek kitchen, in other areas of the homeand in day-to-day living. For example, the Greeks had circular ovens, tables, cups, frying pans, saucepans,plates, utensils, cakes, breads, jewellery, furniture, home and theatre designs. This continues today in modernGreece. There was also attention to the way food was stirred and mixed — clockwise (the same flow as timeflows; forward not backwards). The opposite would encourage negative energy to enter. The past is the pastand good energy looks to the present and the future. This action was deliberate because they were aware ofthe power of good energy and its benefits to their health. A circle is perfectly even and complete. Positiveenergy flows in a circular direction and never ends very...