
«Food uniting People – #With Refugees». Eight cooks, refugees from the camps of Volvi and Alexandria, four Yazidis from Iraq and four Syrians showed their traditional dishes in front of the Cinema Museum at the Thessaloniki Port.
“Food uniting people” was the title of the event that brought together refugees and citizens in Thessaloniki, Northern Greece, last Friday. As part of the Thessaloniki Documentary Festival, eight chef – refugees, four Yezidis from Iraq and four Syrians that are now living in Alexandria and Volvi, cooked traditional food from their countries for all attendants: Tawa (vegetables), Quzi with Tikka (meat), falafel and Kubeh (meatballs). The refugee chefs were thrilled to be able to return some of the hospitality they have experienced in the city. The festival’s visitors enjoyed the food and easily recognized the common origins the local cuisine shares with the refugee dishes.
UNHCR, the UN Refugee Agency, with the support of the European Commission, organized the event in collaboration with the 19th Thessaloniki Documentary Festival. “We chose the tittle “Food uniting people” in order to stress how important is the role of food in every culture and at the same time how many things in common we can all discover in these food journeys” said Vasileios Migkos, UNHCR’s spokesman in Northern Greece.