The island is generous and has something for everyone. He generously shares his moments and goodies with us. After the bath and while the iodine and salt are still on our lips, a nod is enough…. Groups, hungry for life and good times, are created spontaneously. Friends who become family and families who party as friends. Around a table they share tastes and moments. He opens the fridge and until the food is ready, the best appetizers are made with whatever is available. A loaf of warm bread and the wine in the glasses signal the sharing. A pan with stuffing from the day before, some mortadella, artichokes that went into the oil in the spring, the octopus that became thick and the sardine that became marinated, should be there for such occasions. The rooster had entered the piñata from early on to become a pasticado. Its aroma exudes the passion of the hostess and intoxicates young and old alike. Finally, a cool and light cream between buttery layers of puff pastry, winks at everyone and seals the pleasure as a memory in us until the next time.

Aristotelis Megoulas, Chef.

Holidays are nearby and winter season is here. Preparing food for her beloved ones was always an enormous challenge, for the housewife and cook of the family.

She had to excel herself with the few resources that nature could provide her, usually wild greens, mushrooms, citrus fruits, roots, olives and precious new harvest olive oil. Sheep, goats and cows, thanks to the variety of the aromatic herbs and to their newborns, produced plenty of rich and fatty milk to prepare cheese and butter.

With God’s blessing, when it was not fasting, she had game from the hinterland and fresh fish from the Ionian Sea. She had to use all the products she had prepared and stored during the other more generous seasons. Sundried fruits, nuts, tomato paste, honey, fermented fish, cereals, cured meat, legumes, and herbs.
Wood oven would fire up, two or three times per month, to bake sourdough bread and sweet breads during festivities. The hob was burning all day long. There, in a casserole, she added carefully all the ingredients. This slow and long cooking melted the flesh. Smoke, spices and herbs blended together in the stew. Aromas and the essence in the air was enough to warm and feed even the soul.

But her cooking genius, her touch, care, love and “Meraki” were the magic ingredients that turned, even in bad times, that poor cuisine “Cucina Povera” to a noble cuisine “Cucina Nobile”

Aristotelis Megoulas, Chef.

The taste like a melody of the Greek summer.

The lyrics describe a moment, a story, a fairy tale. The singer brings it to life with the tone of his voice and the theatricality of his performance. The melody of the musicians is what clothes them and permeates our whole body. It changes our mood, it transports us, it makes us partakers, it makes our heart skip a beat and you replay it in our mind at all times almost uncontrollably. The songwriters, these great artists are often company and inspiration for my own creative process.

This is what I strive for every day with the dishes and hospitality at the restaurant. I choose the best local ingredients and with them on the plate I tell a story…a story I want to share, drawn from the experiences, memories and imagination of the child I keep alive inside me.

And the stories I am telling now are about the unique Greek summer…here…in the Ionian Sea…in Corfu…the island of hospitality and music…

The group performs the show. The melody comes from the sounds of the kitchen, the descriptions of the dishes, the clinking of glasses, the moments of silence and the exclamation after the first bite, from the smiles and shouts. The taste is one that will remain engraved and return as desire to the mind almost uncontrollably and we will be here for yet another summer interpretation.