Byzantine cuisine carried the legacy of Rome forward while absorbing influences from Greece, Persia, and the wider eastern Mediterranean, resulting in a table built around bread, olive oil, wine, and fish, especially the beloved salted fish sauce garos. Constantinople's position at the crossroads of trade routes meant spices, citrus, and exotic ingredients flowed constantly through its markets, feeding both humble households and the empire's famously lavish imperial banquets.

Fasting played a major dietary role given Byzantine Orthodox Christianity's frequent religious observances, pushing vegetables, legumes, and seafood to the forefront on fasting days. Honey-sweetened pastries, cheese, and richly spiced meat dishes rounded out a cuisine that helped preserve and pass forward much of ancient Mediterranean cooking through the medieval world.