ABSTRACT
In this chapter, I go deeper into the creation of high cuisine by entering fine-dining restaurant kitchens as a line cook and a chef. Navigating the lives of cooks within restaurant kitchens, in this chapter I describe the realities of financial hardship that restaurants face and how these struggles lead to the creation of a fine-dining cuisine of need. I delve into the liminality in the lives of the cooks within restaurant kitchens, also seen as metaphors of the experiences and emotions of Athenians living in a liminal city. I analyse the process of becoming a cook, the transformation of individuals at a deeper personal level of identity with a ritual-like process and reveal the formation of bonds which emerge from their sharing of subtle and complex substances and sensorial experiences. I conclude this chapter by revealing how Greek restaurant kitchens become synecdoches for the city of Athens during the times of crisis.
