In the restaurant of Skoufos & Oinos, the philosophy has been to use only the finest fresh local seasonal ingredients, inspired by traditional local flavors and the nutritional value of the Cretan/Mediterranean diet in mind, offering simple, yet exclusive Mediterranean dishes with their own personal touch.
Based on the same philosophy Antonis and Stavros will bring the experience of fine dining in the best restaurants to you or your invited guests, in the comfort of your very own villa or yacht. The numerous years of experience in the restaurant and culinary business ensures that Antonis and Stavros can meet all of your private chef & sommelier requirements.
Cretan/Mediterranean diet
The Cretan Diet has become synonymous with the Mediterranean Diet, which has gained so much attention, that it is recognized as being one of the healthiest diets in the world. Crete was one of the original places observed in the infamous and still ongoing “Seven-Countries Study” which was initiated by Dr. Ancel Keys in the late 1950s.
A study of cardiovascular diseases and lifestyles, focused on the rates of occurrences and the diets in seven very different countries: Italy, Holland, Yugoslavia, Finland, U.S, Japan and Greece. What he discovered was that whilst the Cretans consumed an inordinate amount of fat (on a par with the meat-eating Finnish people), they still had no heart disease. Unlike the Finnish counterparts, who digested most of their fat (saturated) from meat and animal products, the Cretans took in most of their fat (unsaturated) from olive oil. The Cretan diet in the 1950s consisted of carbohydrates (mainly bread and barley rusks), wild greens, other vegetables and fruits, and that famous olive oil.
By the late 1950s, Keys had assessed that the diet of Crete was in fact one of the healthiest in the world. He presented his findings, recommending to the U.S. government that Americans reduce their consumption of red meat and dairy products. Only in the last decade or so has the Mediterranean Diet, with the Cretan Diet as its best model, garnered the attention it deserves, and only in the last decade or so has olive oil its true status. One of the most important findings of the Seven Countries Study was that olive oil, rich in unsaturated fat, actually assisted in not only the prevention of heart disease, but it also contributed to a reversal of the affects once the disease had taken place.
So, what is really a Cretan diet? It seems to be a diet based mainly on vegetables and olive oil, although so many other elements of the island’s traditional diet have come under scientific scrutiny and have been found to be beneficial to a healthy diet. Among them: snails, the immense variety of wild greens, honey, specific cheeses made not from cow’s milk but from sheep’s and goat’s milk, wine, and finally that most Cretan of spirits, Raki, or eau de vie, which is thought to spur metabolism.