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For us, it’s folks like Stavriani, impulsive and rich with emotion and love for what they do, who are the best cooks, whether professional or not.Īfter finishing her studies in Balkan history in Florina, a town in northwestern Greece, in 2003, Stavriani took a trip to Istanbul and fell for the city. Food is somehow connected to all of her memories. Her memories are vivid and sentimental: her grandfather’s kafenio in the village, gathering horta (greens) in the mountains with her aunts. During the harvest season, she would spend weekends gathering olives in her family’s groves.

She officially grew up in Athens, but both of her parents come from Mani, where she would spend months of each year.

Formerly a chef at Karaköy Gümrük in Istanbul, we have twice featured her in our First Stop series (both in Istanbul and Athens). Stavriani is not new to those of us at Culinary Backstreets.

Ioli and Panos dreamed and schemed how to create a place that would be an extension of their kitchens: a warm, friendly environment high quality ingredients sourced from Greece and sustainable and respectful of the environment. With the daily switch-ups, the menu remains quite small, but there’s plenty of variety. Stavriani tells us that she likes change and improvisation, and the setup allows her to showcase her creative culinary skills. Truth is, it is quite difficult to manage, as we constantly need to source new ingredients and price the dishes every single day. We did not initially plan to change it daily! This was Stavriani’s idea. The warm and friendly Ioli serves and Panos is in charge of the wine and drinks list.

For the time being, they are seating guests at the 11 tables outside on the pavement to avoid Covid restrictions on indoor dining. That’s when their friend happened upon Stavriani’s cooking.Īfter waiting through Greece’s even-longer second round of lockdowns, the three launched Annie in earnest in May. They waited through the first lockdown and gave themselves more time to organize – and to look for the right chef to take charge of their kitchen. However, about a month and half later, their plans were unexpectedly put on hold due to the pandemic. Something with character – and significantly lower rent.” In January 2020, what they found was a small and casual space with an open kitchen in Neos Kosmos, a mostly residential neighborhood not far from central Athens.

“We were looking for something in the outskirts, more residential or underdeveloped. “We didn’t want to open something in an already developed or popular area,” Ioli says. They dreamed and schemed how to create a place that would be an extension of their kitchens: a warm, friendly environment high quality ingredients sourced from Greece and sustainable and respectful of the environment. “Panos is my family,” Ioli says simply.Ī familial sense of warmth and comfort (the restaurant is named after Ioli’s mother, a beloved cook and hostess) is what the two wanted to bring to their next endeavor, and they spent years looking for the right spot for Annie – Fine Cooking. Flash forward almost 20 years, and though Ioli and Panos have moved on from the restaurant and their relationship, they are still partners in every other way. The pair met back in 2003 and, before this latest venture, opened two businesses together as a couple – Bartesera bar in downtown Athens and By the Glass, a popular wine bar and restaurant. Now she is composing menus that change daily and running the kitchen for Ioli and Panos at Annie – Fine Cooking, the restaurant they had been trying to get off the ground since before the pandemic struck. She quit her job at the resort and made the move to Athens. The friend was so enamored that he convinced the pair to make the drive down south to Mani to introduce them to the person who made the food, Stavriani Zervakakou, a 40-year-old chef with roots in Mani. He sat down at the hotel restaurant and, after quickly falling in love with the meal he’d been served, knew he had found the chef Ioli and Panos were looking for. In the summer of 2020, a close friend of Ioli Vrychea and Panos Stogiannis – Athens restaurateurs with plans for a new spot – arrived at the Tainaron Blue Retreat on Greece’s southern Mani peninsula.

#Love at first bite menu professional

#Love at first bite menu series

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