We are told we should beware of Greeks bearing gifts, but if those gifts are of food and wine, my door is always open.
The food snobs may not gush and heap praise on Greek gastronomy in the same way as they do over French and Italian cuisine, but I have always admired the honest, generous and hearty food of Greece.
On my one visit to Athens, when I was a student backpacking around Europe, I remember sleeping on the roof of a hostel (it was August and the weather was balmy) and treating myself to one meal in a nearby small taverna.
We were taken to the kitchen, where there was a buffet-like array of dishes, and we selected, pointed and paid before returning to the table to gobble down our excellent fare.
There was no pretension, the prices were generous, making the place accessible even to a traveller on a student budget, and the quantity was ample. A meal I will always remember, with a stupid grin on my face.
To my shame, I have not returned to Greece since my teens, apart from one working visit to report on an EU summit on Rhodes, when the food was not only lavish and plentiful, but also free for us hungry hacks.
I have always been a big fan of Greek restaurants, with my two Gauteng favourites Parea Taverna in Illovo, Johannesburg, and Pretoria’s Prosopa Restaurant, which not only has elegant dining but also boasts a phenomenal wine list, curated by affable proprietor Dino Fagas.
However, it is also good to be able to cook my own delicious Greek food, which is where Diane Kochilas comes in.
I already own one of her earlier cookbooks, which features my favourite dinner party dish of clay-baked lamb (arni kleftiko). Easy to prepare, but so delicious. This recipe is not in her new book, Athens: Food, Stories, Love: A Cookbook, but can be found on her website, and you can watch her cooking it and many other treats on YouTube.
I put in an order for Athens the day I read that it was to be published and was not disappointed when it arrived. It is a tribute to a special city, filled with foodie delights.
The author explains, “Athens is my love song to this most fascinating city, presented plate by plate, and in words and pictures, too, for all to taste and enjoy!”
While sometimes the recipes are laborious, and you do need to find substitutes for some of the speciality Greek cheeses she lists, they are varied and alluring.
The dishes in this book represent a cross-section from street foods you can create easily at home to vegan Greek fare, modern and traditional Greek, as well as hybrid Greek dishes. I couldn’t leave out the classics that defined past generations of the Athenian table and are still beloved today, so many of those favourites are included in these pages, too
They range from simple snacks to festive favourites, frequently paying homage to the many cosmopolitan influences on the Athens food scene.
Kochilas writes: “The recipes in Athens are geared toward home cooks. While I’ve drawn inspiration from restaurant menus, my aim is always to provide recipes that can be cooked by just about anyone without too much difficulty.
“The dishes in this book represent a cross-section from street foods you can create easily at home to vegan Greek fare, modern and traditional Greek, as well as hybrid Greek dishes. I couldn’t leave out the classics that defined past generations of the Athenian table and are still beloved today, so many of those favourites are included in these pages, too.”
Of course, the proof of any recipe is in the cooking and eating, so I selected a few to prepare at home, starting with a Greek classic, the moussaka.
It took a while to put together, but I was happy with the result, and there were six generous servings (if you want to dish it up alongside a Greek salad, there are salad recipes in this book, too). I would normally have used lamb mince, but this recipe called for beef, which worked well.
I was also very happy with the graviera cheese and ham pie, more street food than fine dining, but very tasty. I was rather smug about my mastery of the (store-bought) filo pastry, which gave the dish an authentic appearance.
In some ways, this dish resembles a quiche, but it has a character of its own thanks to the filo pastry casing, and is tasty both hot and cold.
For both the pie and the moussaka, I had to use Google to select substitutes for some of the more obscure Greek cheeses, which were in the list of ingredients (not that they are thought of as obscure in Athens, of course).
Athenian home cooks and chefs alike are managing an incredible balancing act, upholding and respecting their deeply rooted traditions, but also embracing the excitement of new ingredients and global trends.
The final dish I tried — pork fricasse with celery and leeks — was fine, but a bit bland. It was certainly healthier than the ham and cheese pie, but I wouldn’t bother to cook it again.
Kochilas, who was born in America to Greek immigrant parents, has her own cookery show on US TV, runs gastronomic tours to Greece, and is active as a food writer and as a consultant to restaurants. She has a free newsletter, to which I subscribe.
It is heart-warming to read of her love for Athens, and about the way in which the city’s cuisine is changing and evolving as different international influences show through.
“Athenian home cooks and chefs alike are managing an incredible balancing act, upholding and respecting their deeply rooted traditions, but also embracing the excitement of new ingredients and global trends. Some of the best Greek restaurant food in Athens is hyphenated, as in Greek-Japanese, one delicious example,” she writes.
“Some of the most traditional dishes have been transformed to a more global Greek aesthetic. Classics like melitzanosalata, the roasted eggplant dip, for example, pop up all over the place, laced with new flavours such as miso and rice vinegar. These are but two of countless ways that the vibrancy of Athens, and its newly minted international face, is driving a delicious revolution in the kitchen.
“I hope in these pages that I, too, can deliver a complete portrait of the adopted city I have come to love and call home.”
This book is a great read and is crammed with so many recipes I want to cook and eat. It has enabled me to expand my culinary horizons, fiddling with filo and meddling with moussaka, as I toil away in my big fat Greek kitchen.
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