Publisher: Morrow Cookbooks
Authors: Diane Kochilas
List Price: $40.00
Amazon Price: $25.20
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Reviews:
Summary: This is the real thing
I am a professional chef of Greek decent and have lived in Greece for more than half of my life. I have traveled throuout the country and have tried several of the dishes that appear in this book but until now was not able to succesfully duplicate them. I was quite excited when I came across this collection and give the author five stars for her tremendous effort of bringing them together unadulterated.
This book is exactly what it claims to be, if not more than it claims to be and most definately deserves a five star rating. As a few other reviewers have mentioned it is not a collection of Americanized versions of Mousaka and Pastitsio, but a comprehensive collection of recipes borrowed from kitchens across the country which may or may not appeal to all palates. Many of these dishes you will not find outside it's reigion of origin let alone at Kostas opa on Main Street USA. It is worth mentioning that the author has traveled accross Greece collecting these recipes, many of which have not been published before. Having said all of this if you are looking for a recipe for Mousaka, run a search on Google and you will get 100s of results but if you wish to experiment and test your pallate try this book. It is truly authentic!
Summary: Doesn't stand on its own, but an excellent read nevertheless
The down side of this book is that it essentially functions as a follow-on to Kochilas' earlier book, the Food and Wine of Greece. If you want a basic introduction to Greek cuisine, pass this one by -- it will tell you a great deal about Greek cuisine, but the basics are covered better in her earlier book.
Kochilas writes with a more mature and experienced voice than in her first book -- she's been living in Greece for much of the time since the first one was published, so she's had time to develop more experience. Thus, in the writing of this book, she's had a chance to bring out much more of the history of Greece and how its food got to be the way it is. The book is part cookbook, part travelogue, and as long as you already have a more basic book on Greek cuisine it's an excellent read. It's an expensive book, though for the monumental nature of the subject matter that's understandable.
As I said, though, it's incomplete. A lot of the basic things that fans of the Greek-American diner are used to are not here; look to her first book for the basic recipes for moussaka, spanakopitta, and other dishes famous here, because if you look in this one you will find regional varieties that may be quite good but aren't exactly what you're looking for. What you will find is stunning and varied recipes from different areas that are as different in their own ways as the cuisines of Italy or China.
If you keep all of the above in mind, this book is a worthwhile investment in conjunction with its predecessor. Highly recommended, with appropriate caveats.
Summary: Major Contribution to Knowledge of World Food. Outstanding
Diane Kochilas stands in the first rank of food writers specializing in Mediterranean cuisine, along with Mediterranean generalists Paula Wolfert, Nancy Harmon Jenkins, Claudia Roden, Clifford Wright, and Joyce Goldstein; Spanish specialist Penelope Casas; Italian specialists Marcella Hazan, Giuliano Bugialli, and Lydia Bastianich; and fellow Greek specialist Agliaia Kremezi. This is Ms. Kochilas' third book on Greek food and I apologize to the author if I slight the first two in my praise of this volume, as I have not yet read or reviewed them.
Considering food writing as a whole, not just the Mediterranean, this is easily one of the best essays of a country's cuisine I have seen. The only volume which I have read and reviewed which may be better is Diana Kennedy's `From My Mexican Kitchen', although the two books take a different route to excellence.
The very first impression is the design of the cover, typeface, and book layout that sets the stage for the feeling that this is an important book. It has the kind of restrained design I typically attribute to cookbooks published by Knopf, but which other publishers have done well. The next impression is that Ms. Kochilas has done everything that I missed from Ms. Kremezi's recent book `The Foods of the Greek Islands'. While the latter volume did a good job on recipes, it did not dedicate itself to informing it's readers in a clear, lucid manner on what it was which distinguished the cuisines of the Greek Islands from one another, from the mainland, and from the Mediterranean in general. Ms. Kochilas does this with skill and insight. The first sign of this serious analysis of her subject is the superior map of Greece with the various island groups identified and icons representing major food product sources placed on the map. This is an easy attention to detail. The next aspect is the organization of the book into the various geographic regions. These are The Peloponnesos, The Ionian Islands, Roumeli, Epirus, Thessaly, Macedonia and Thrace, The Islands of the Northeastern Aegean, The Cyclades, The Dodecanese, Crete, and Athens. As Ms. Kremezi mentions in her book but does not detail with any analytical understanding, there are significant differences between, for example, the relatively poor Dodecanese and the agriculturally rich islands of the northeastern Aegean such as Lesbos.
Ms. Kochilas has artfully combined the analytical insight and presentation of Nancy Harmon Jenkins with the deft personal warmth of Paula Wolfert in discussing her sources of specific recipes. The only adverse effect of Ms. Kochilas' approach is that the book may not fit some readers' expectations to find a volume with the approach of Julia Child, which is heavy on culinary wisdom and recipe and light on exposition. Ms. Kochilas addresses this concern when she says that this volume may not cover many of the architypical Greek dishes, as she has already presented them in one of her two earlier volumes. When references to classics such as moussaka are appropriate, she even gives references to her earlier works if you are looking for that recipe. Another compliment to this book is Ms. Kochilas most recent book on Mezes that is lighter on the analytical approach and heavy on great recipes for these tasty bites.
The other side of the coin is that by not spending a lot of space on well-known classics, Ms. Kochilas and her editors have made space for more recipes on pastries and breads, one of my favorite topics. I have made several of the breads in the book and have found them uniformly excellent. One should also not get the impression from my comparison to Julia Child's works that this book is all exposition and no cooking. The opposite is true. The final chapter on the basics of Greek cooking gives great insights into some of the most important skills in the Greek kitchen. In keeping with a concentration on pastry and baking, this section opens with two different recipes for Phyllo. The first is a traditional homemade dough and the second is a recipe for the style of phyllo made in Macedonia. For the purists, there are even variations to the basic recipe given for the Ionian islands, Roumeli, Afrato, and Epirus.
One of the most interesting discoveries in this final chapter is the story of trahana. To my novice eye, it is a pasta with some similarities to couscous and some similarities to gnocchi. Ms. Kochilas greatly expands Paula Wolfert's brief discussions of the subject with several recipes in the geographical chapters to round out her fascinating summary discussion. I am especially grateful for the paragraph on grating tomatoes. Other books on Greek cuisine give brief descriptions, but Ms. Kochilas tells us enough to give us confidence that this improbable technique actually works.
I have only touched the surface of the great richness in this book. I can hope to whet your appetite for more by quoting from the chapter on Crete where the author
`had come to witness this yearly winter ritual (brewing raki, similar to grappa, from the residuals of the local wine grapes) as well as other things in Crete, from the island's mythic, heart-saving diet, exemplar of simplicity and variety, to its seemingly limitless flora - over half the twelve thousand indigenous plants in Europe are found on Minos's island. ... The island is at the crossroads of Europe, Africa and Asia, the real and mythic cradle of the Mediterranean'.
Exciting words for someone who thrilled to tales of Hercules, Theseus, and Achilles as a boy.
Highly recommended addition to any culinary library, especially for those interested in regional cuisines.
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