Γιαγια, Time-perfected Recipes from Greece’s Grandmothers

My note:

Yiayia Poly. It is funny how I had to reach 32 to realize how much I admire my grandmother and how alike we are. She is the epitome of class and elegance. Well-mannered, witty, humorous and independent. Although I cannot reveal her real age, cause if she finds out she would not be happy, we all wish to eventually reach her age and be able to communicate so well and participate in conversations with such passion and opinion. She keeps this notebook since always where she writes down every dinner party, pinnacle or any other cards night. Soshe lists the guests, the menu and nowadays she also writes down the table setting she did and what tableware she used. This helps her to not repeat the same if she has the same guests soon after. Every time she sets a table, always a day or two in advance, she jokily tells me to take a picture of the table so I know, when she is not with us anymore, how to set the table correctly and what plates go with which wine glasses and napkins. It is these past years that I have realized that my aesthetics and passion for cooking and hosting derives from all the influence I have gotten from her through the years.

Although born and raised in central Athens, as her mother too, she has traveled a lot and is a well-informed woman. Even now she cuts out pieces from the newspaper or magazines related to architecture, design or art so she can give them to me to read. We live in the same building and this gives me the opportunity to see her often, few times per week. Sometimes I forget our age difference, I see her as a friend, I kind of see myself in her, all different sides of me even my weaknesses. She got married at a young age, she must have been 18 or 19, and she did not know how to cook a lot of stuff. One recipe she knew how to make was ´fasolada´, a stew or soup with white beans. She thinks she learnt how to make it from this woman from Naxos Island that worked at their house when she was 15. Women that came from islands always knew how to cook well; they had a tradition and deep knowledge of cooking. Whenever her grandfather visited from Germany where he was a professor, he always asked for her ´fasolada´. However, she believes, as we say in Greece, that each person’s hand (their personal touch) makes the difference in a dish.

When she got married with my grandfather they first lived in a house with his aunt. She did not know many recipes so whenever she was asked, she secretly called her mom and asked her how to cook different things so she could give a good impression. She did learn a lot of things from this aunt as well as later on from a cook they had at home whenever they hosted formal dinners. Her name was Harikleia and she knew all these different preparations and dishes. Crepes with prawns and avocados, or crepes with minced meat and tomato sauce which she calls cannelloni, chicken Milanese, and choux with different fillings. Back at the day, they travelled a lot so the Mediterranean Greek cuisine got enhanced by different dishes they tasted abroad. Sometimes home cooks originally from Egypt or France taught the housewives how to make more international dishes to impress their guests. So over the years there has been a mix between the Greek cuisine and all the influences Greece had after the war. As she recalls, before the occupation and evacuation of Smyrna in 1922 Greek cuisine was quite blunt. The people who lived in Smyrna and arrived in Greece brought their culture and influenced the evolution and richness of Greek food as we know today.

For me my yiayia is a person who is cultured, with manners, refined, cultivated and grace.For both of us cooking is a way of giving, showing love and affection, the table is a meeting place, a gathering ground.