The ancient Greek meal is arranged not as starter-main-dessert, but around the sitos — the staple food derived from cereals (barley cake or wheat bread) — accompanied by the opson, the "that-which-goes-with-it": fish, olives, cheese, pulses. In Miletus, a port city of Ionia, the opson is often seafood. The evening meal (deipnon) can extend into a symposion, where men drink wine mixed with water while discussing the nature of things. The gods receive their share through libations and offering cakes.

Anaximenes saw in air (pneuma) the principle of all things: it rarefies into fire, condenses into water and earth. Milesian cuisine offers him a daily demonstration — dough that swells under the action of wild leaven is trapped air lifting matter. Beyond this technique, Ionian olive oil and thyme honey mark every table.