Basic HTML Version
WORDS SARAHWARWICK
30
|
TRAVELLER
LONDON
What do you do when you’re at the top
of your culinary game, winning critical
praise galore and two top accolades in a
single year? In the world of Athinagoras
Kostakos, that means it’s time to leave
the country.
The 27-year-old chef became a
household name in his native Greece last
year after his appearance on the reality
TV show
Top Chef
, taking the eponymous
title with his modern take on traditional
Greek cooking. Alongside his staff at
hot Mykonos’ eaterie Bill & Coo, he then
also picked up
Condé Nast Traveller
magazine’s 2011 award for Best Hotel
Restaurant in the country.
As he gets ready to embark on a series
of international pop-up residencies in the
UK and Switzerland, Kostakos reflects
that, although the TV title has made him
famous, the
Conde Nast
title is the one
that means more. “Inmany ways the
fame is tough as people want to talk to
me; they want me to prove what they’ve
seen on TV inmy kitchen.
Condé Nast
was a big moment for me andmy team
in the restaurant though. They’ve worked
so hard for this. They really deserve it.”
He’s not kidding. Unlike in other hotel
Get thee to the Greek
Award-winning
Greek chef
Athinagoras
Kostakos will
be popping up
in Britain this March
restaurants, where cooking generally
begins at the chopping board, chefs
under Kostakos’ tutelage are expected
not just to chop, sauté and julienne, but
to dig, hoe and weed.
“At Bill & Coo we try to spend less
time in the kitchen andmore outside,”
Kostakos says. “We grow 60%of our
own vegetables and find others wild,
using local plants and seaweed. The
kitchen staff spends a lot of time tending
the vegetables and searching for herbs.
These taste different depending on
where they’re found. The wild style is
really tasty.”
Foodies who wish to sample some
of this wild, stylish food, shouldmake
the pilgrimage to the Capital Hotel in
London where, from5-12 March only,
Kostakos will be whipping up a menu of
Mykonian delicacies, like herb-marinaded
lamb,
spanakorizo
(rice with onion and
spinach) or baked cherry tomatoes with
honey. Or why not follow his recipe for
the latter, reproduced
right
, and soon
you’ll be able to cook as well as he can.
Well, we can dream.
The Capital, 22-24 Basil Street, London
SW3; tel: +44 (0)20 7591 1200,
capitalhotel.co.uk
Try this recipe from
Athinagoras Kostakos’s
own kitchen
BAKED CHERRY
TOMATOES
WITH HONEY
Make your own...
INGREDIENTS
10 cherry tomatoes
2tsp honey
150g fresh goat’s cheese
4-5tsp extra virgin olive oil
1 bunch fresh thyme
40g king capers
Peel cherry tomatoes and caramelise
with honey in a frying pan. Make balls
of goat’s cheese the same size as the
tomatoes and gently warm. Mix olive oil
with fresh thyme to make aromatic oil;
drizzle over tomatoes and cheese.
Deep-fry capers and use to garnish.
TIPS FOR TOP GREEK FOOD
1
Keep your dishes really simple. You just
need three or four ingredients.
2
Season well. Greek chefs have access
to salt from the best seas of the world.
3
Use the best ingredients you can and
deal gently with them.
4
Cooking is not enough; for great food
you have to have passion.
030_ej_News 05 lg.indd 30
08/0