Newsroom
What Cyprus calls a “village salad” for its upcoming Presidency of the Council of the European Union arrives carefully dismantled.
Tested during the final readiness rehearsals at the Conference Centre, the dish forms part of one of the six ministerial menus prepared for the six-month presidency. While officially described as a deconstructed Cypriot village salad, the plate bears only a conceptual relationship to the everyday classic it references.
At its centre sits what appears to be a tomato, though it is neither sliced nor raw. According to those involved, it is constructed from a mousse of Cypriot cheeses, encased in a tomato-shaped gel. The stem, equally symbolic, is a tuile, crisp, decorative, and entirely agricultural in appearance only. Around it are carefully arranged elements of cucumber, cherry tomatoes, herbs, capers, and olive oil, laid out with architectural precision rather than rustic abandon.
The salad was served as part of a rehearsal menu that included pumpkin soup, lemon sorbet, beef tenderloin and a Valrhona chocolate dessert, but it is this opening dish that quietly signals the broader ambition of the Presidency’s hospitality programme. It is one of 49 menus planned for official events during the term, each designed to present Cyprus through a controlled, contemporary culinary lens.
Nothing on the plate travels to Brussels. Instead, Brussels comes to Cyprus, where tradition is not rejected but reformatted; strained, moulded, and plated for diplomatic consumption. The village salad remains recognisable in name, local in ingredients, and unmistakably formal in intent: a familiar dish asked to behave like a state guest.
