Betty is a former teacher who transferred her creative energies from the classroom to the kitchen. A gifted gourmet, she currently resides in Guelph, Ontario and is coincidentally a mother of three sisters.
Eleni is an accomplished painter and photographer, with exhibitions and distinctions worldwide. Passionate about food and a proud mom of two boys, she currently resides in Kingston, Ontario.
Samantha is a teacher, an impressive cook and a talented photographer. A newlywed, she is currently living the good life in Toronto, Ontario.
This is their first cookbook.
Picture an old three-storey red brick home in Toronto’s Greek town. Our immediate family lived on the second floor, our uncle, his wife and four children were on the main floor, and tenants took up residence on the remaining two levels. It was a busy, loud, and colourful place to grow up. Greek was our first language and while living on Toronto’s Danforth, it seemed that everyone was just like we were – Greek that is; from the butcher to the baker, to the grocery store owner, and even our family doctor.
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Our parents immigrated from the Peloponnesus region of Greece, from small villages high in the mountains around Kalamata – famous for its olives. They farmed on small terraced gardens along steep hillsides and grew walnuts, peanuts, sesame seeds, olives, figs, beans, cucumbers, peppers, onions, potatoes, eggplants, and zucchini. They raised sheep and goats and from their milk made yogurt, and feta and Mizithra cheeses. They grew grapes, made wine, and even made their own pasta. Their produce was sold at markets, and what they could afford to keep became the basis for their meals and the basis of many of the recipes in this book.
Our father immigrated to Canada in the late sixties with much of his extended family. In order to join him our mother had to leave her entire family behind. Having no immediate family in Canada, she always longed for them and for Greece. Luckily for us, this meant several trips to Greece to connect with the other half of our family; trips that shaped and influenced us immeasurably.
We spent extended periods of time with aunts, uncles, and grandparents in the summer months of our youth. When many of our peers were at summer camp, we were in our mother’s Greek village, fetching water from an underground spring and loading it up on horseback or making egg noodles and spreading them out on white sheets to dry in the sun. We even roasted lamb on a spit by the Neda River, in a scene reminiscent of a Bacchanal. We also frolicked in the temple of Apollo, a short walk from our maternal grandfather’s home, in the days before it was roped off and protected by archaeologists. These moments were otherworldly and priceless. Nowadays, the mere sound of Greek music playing and the scent of Greek food cooking have the ability to transport us back, putting a weight on our chests, and a lump in our throats.
In our everyday life in Canada, as adults running our own households, cooking traditional Greek meals and handling our food is a connection to our heritage, and a connection to nature. Good organic produce, fresh herbs, wine, cheese, and marinated olives, are staples in our kitchens. Despite hectic schedules as teachers, artists, wives and mothers, we never regret the effort it takes to make a good meal. In fact, cooking teaches our children to value what they put into their bodies, it is a form of artistic expression, and it mothers us all.
