In Greek, the word cooking (“mageiriki”) is related to magic. Cooking for others is very much like casting a spell. You help shape a kind of experience for them. Cooking is also love. It is difficult to imagine it otherwise. Food is sometimes a miracle, a happy ending. When it engages all the senses it is a lasting memory. Creating stories, this is what cooking does for me.

I am Greek and for Greeks, food is fun. It doesn’t mean it is not serious. It is. But not in the way it is for the French, let’s say. You can be iconoclastic with Greek food if you like, nobody will blame you. People may not eat your food eventually, but they will try it. There aren’t many hard and fast rules. Ingredients have to be fresh and seasonal. There has to be variety on the table, simultaneous variety, i.e no separate courses: salad, main course and appetizers are all served together. Lots of olive oil and simple cooking. And finally, sharing with generosity. We may have had our share of fiscal woes, but we haven’t become stingy with food yet.