Putting Greek food on the map

Jamie Oliver’s protégé Georgina Hayden on why Greek food is overdue a moment in the spotlight

French and Italian cuisines have long dominated the food landscape. Greek food doesn’t traditionally have quite the same reputation, and while food writer Georgina Hayden is well aware of the stereotypes, that’s something she’s keen on changing.

“For a very long time, Greek food was just seen as kebabs, meat on sticks – which is delicious, we love a kebab, don’t get me wrong. But at the same time, that’s all it was – quite greasy, dirty food,” Georgina says.

For Greek-cypriot Georgina, who lives in London, Greek food hasn’t been afforded the same range as other European cuisines.

“I’ve thought a lot about why Italian food is elevated. Italian food can be very every day, but you have very fancy Italian restaurants – and Italian holidays are very special, aren’t they? But for a long time, you had Greek package holidays – and there’s nothing wrong with that.

“But I think the reason Greek food was misunderstood for a long time, is because I grew up in an era of Teletext holidays.”

Georgina, 41, suggests Greece became associated with budget holidays – and while the locations might have been beautiful, the strips and accommodations didn’t necessarily reflect that, and that reputation carried over to food.

But now, there’s something of a change happening.

“Greek foods are having a real moment,” Georgina, who worked with Jamie Oliver for over a decade, adds.

While she accepts that Greek cuisine loves “our grills and our meat”, she says: “This isn’t the only

thing… We love lentils, a lot of pulses, a lot of vegetables and salads.

“Actually, dare I say, if you’re vegetarian, you would be laughing if you went to Greece, you would have such a range of things you could eat there.”

So if you were to start cooking a bit more Greek food at home, where should you start?

Georgina’s new cookbook, Greekish, has a chapter dedicated to ‘things on sticks’, and for her, this is a great jumping off point. These recipes do very much what they say on the tin – you spear some kind of protein on a

stick, be it meat, fish or something like mushrooms, and make a “cracking marinade” to go with it, served with pita bread from the supermarket.

And for Georgina, ‘Greekish’ is the best way to describe her food.

“It works on a lot of levels, in the fact that the food is Greekinspired, as opposed to incredibly authentic,” she notes, which is different to her previous two cookbooks.

This time round, “They’re Greek recipes, but they’re my recipes,” she says.

“So there’s an ‘ish’ to them. No one could argue that it might not be the way their granny makes, or the way their mum makes it – that’s where the ‘ish’ comes from.

“But there’s also lots of other ways that it becomes relevant – the fact that I’m Greek Cypriot. Cyprus is a divided island, so the food that I’ve grown up with spans both Greek and Cyprus. I’m Greek, Cypriot – the food is kind of ‘ish’.”

And because she’s not drawing on traditional dishes, Georgina’s a bit more nervous about releasing this cookbook into the world.

“Relying on tradition or existing recipes, a lot of the time that can make your life easier, to be honest.

“So this one is me in all my glory out there, just waiting for the attack really – it’s like I’ve got nothing to hide behind, which is scary but also really exhilarating.”

“I’m hopeless at jumping on bandwagons, always late to the party, trend-wise,” admits Georgina. “However, one thing I did share on social media several years ago now, was my method for grilling a block of halloumi with apricots – it took off. I’d never seen halloumi cooked this way before, and now it’s being recreated far and wide and I do feel a bit proud. Simply, score, season and grill!”

Food writer Georgina Hayden