The main aim of this thesis is to present a lucid summary and a critical evaluation of the (often ambiguous) ancient testimonies concerning the Greek culinary art from the classical up to the imperial era. The sources are divided in two groups. The first one is made up from prosaic works, i. e. cookbooks themselves, specialised treatises and some medical tractates concerned with dietetics and proprieties of foodstuffs. The second group consists of poems on gastronomic themes. A serious problem is constituted by considerable fragmentariness of the extant sources, which in some cases prevents us from making any definite judgments on the sources' content. Attention is paid also to food as such and the diet composition at the time, the whole theme being set in wider social framework. The thesis also incorporates a translation of and commentary on several selected extant receipts.