Garum, the ancient fermented fish sauce that seasoned the food of classical Greece and Rome long before anyone had a word for umami, is back on Athenian tables, at the heart of one of the city's most talked-about new restaurants.
Chef Christos Glossidis, 30, known to Greek audiences from the TV cooking show MasterChef, named his restaurant Garum after the sauce. It sits in a renovated old house in the Mets neighborhood, decorated with warm wood and the clean lines of Japanese minimalism.
It has built a following on TikTok and Instagram and fills up even on rainy weeknights.
The kitchen blends Greek ingredients with Japanese and Korean techniques.
Mr. Glossidis and his wife, food technologist Themis Konstantina Stylianoudaki, run their own fermentation workshop, where they make soy sauce from chickpeas or barley, miso from fava beans, and koji.
"What bothered me about Asian cooking as it is usually done in the West is that it relies on cans and ready-made sauces," Mr. Glossidis said.
"At Garum, I wanted to stop that."
His shrimp dumplings and pad thai use a two-year-old shrimp garum, the restaurant's first batch. Standout dishes include squid in green curry with chickpea miso, and mushroom dumplings finished at the table with a tea brewed from apaki, a smoked Cretan pork.
Prices remain moderate, making Garum a fine-dining-style experience without the formality.
It opens as Greek cuisine is gaining global attention: the MICHELIN Guide nearly doubled its Greek selection last month.