The Greek meal is not divided into starter-main-dessert. First comes the deipnon, the real meal: bread (or barley maza) accompanied by opson, what is eaten 'with the bread'—fish, vegetables, cheese. Then comes the symposion, the banquet of wine mixed with water where one discusses philosophy, nibbles on tragemata (figs, nuts, cheese with honey), and drinks in measure. For the Cyrenaics, Arete's school, each bite should give a present and controlled pleasure: neither sad deprivation nor enslaving excess.

Cyrene built its wealth on silphion, a now-extinct seasoning plant so precious it appeared on the city's coins. A resin was extracted with a taste between garlic, fennel, and leek, used in both cooking and medicine. Unable to find it today, we approximate it with asafoetida—already used in antiquity as a substitute—boosted with fennel and lovage.