‘We still celebrate like they do in Greece’
Hellenic migrants brought a strong and proud food culture when they chose Aotearoa as their new home. Alexia Santamaria investigates how they’ve preserved their culinary heritage.
Greek migration is hard to sum up, as it doesn’t fall neatly into a group of people leaving the same country for New Zealand all around the same time. The Hellenic community (Greek-speaking people, usually belonging to the Greek Orthodox Church) came from all over the world – including Cyprus, Turkey, Romania, Bulgaria, Egypt and Russia. Some followed the gold rush of the late 1800s; some were escaping devastating economic conditions after World War II; others fled the invasion of Cyprus by Turkey in 1974.
But no matter when and why they arrived, preserving their food traditions has been hugely important.
Stella Bares is a key figure in that preservation. Bares, a former president of the Greek Orthodox Community of Wellington and recipient of the Companion of the Queen’s Service Order for services to the Greek community, arrived in New Zealand from Greece when she was just eight months-old.
‘‘My parents left communist Romania in 1948 and I was born in Greece,’’ Bares says. ‘‘We came to New Zealand in 1951 on a transport ship. We were part of a group of GreekRomanian displaced persons.’’
Bares has always maintained the importance of keeping Greek food traditions alive.
‘‘We still celebrate Greek Easter like they do in Greece. Some people fast [no fish, meat, eggs and dairy] for 50 days for Lent, and that fast is broken after midnight mass on Easter Sunday with a traditional soup called mayeritsa.
‘‘The preparation for the big Easter meal can go for a week beforehand. It will always involve lamb – often a whole one on a spit – with plenty of other traditional dishes. At Christmas we still make Greek kourabiedes and melomakarona [traditional biscuits] like we would have back home.’’
Members of the Greek community also love sharing their food culture with anyone who wants to learn. Bares does cooking demonstrations for the Hellenic New Zealand Congress, and every year the Greek Orthodox Community of Wellington holds Paniyiri, a Greek Food festival that is growing year-on-year. From a small gathering back in the 1970s, guest numbers regularly hit more than 12,000 now, crowds flocking for the souvlaki, pita bread, calamari, baklava, loukoumades and good-time Greek vibes.
Wellington is the heart of Greek culture in Aotearoa (it was a big centre of settlement) but there are also small pockets in other parts of the country. Most years in Auckland the Greek Community and Orthodox Parish of Auckland and Districts holds a very popular Greek market day – and this year an Easter lunch too – to share Greek culture with eager locals.
One challenge faced by immigrants was the availability of traditional Greek ingredients.
‘‘When we arrived in New Zealand, aubergine, capsicums and garlic were almost unheard of,’’ laughs Bares.
‘‘The only way we could get olive oil was from the chemist – in 100ml bottles. We had to start growing all the veggies we cook with in our backyards. My grandmother always said a house is not a home till it has a grapevine, a lemon tree and a fig tree.’’
Some companies started to produce Greek products. The current owner of Lincoln Bakery in Auckland, John Fraser, bought the filo pastry component of his business from one such Greek.
‘‘There was an old guy called Timos who ran restaurants back in the ‘60s but got himself into a bit of financial trouble and started looking for alternative streams of income,’’ says Fraser.
‘‘When he went back to Greece on a holiday, his brother came up with the idea of bringing real Greek filo to Kiwis. They purchased secondhand machinery there and brought it back and did just that for 25 years – until I bought the business five years ago.
‘‘We still use their same methods, and supply many Greek restaurants.’’
But there are still many products that can’t be, or simply aren’t, produced here. Frustrated with the lack of food from her homeland, Mary Etheridge started importing antipasto products from Greece 25 years ago. Her brand is now known as The Olive Lady, and is sold in supermarkets across the country.
Donald Montes of Taste Greece started out in 2010 selling Greek olives and olive oils at markets. Since then, he’s expanded to more than 400 lines including dolmas, feta, Greek coffee, wine, vine leaves and preserved peaches.
‘‘It’s been great to see the growing interest and our clientele is really mixed – Kiwis, South Africans – and Greeks too of course,’’ says Montes.
‘‘We were online for many years but in 2019 we opened a retail shop in Browns Bay with our products downstairs and a kitchen space at the top.
‘‘My wife Emily is an amazing cook and has started teaching cooking classes, which are becoming really popular – especially with corporate groups.
‘‘We also serve souvlaki on the weekends as there aren’t too many places you can get those real Greek flavours.’’