For years, it seemed as if Greek cuisine in the UK was trapped in its very own Sisyphean struggle. Moussaka has perpetually rolled up the hill of British culinary acceptance, only for it to tumble back down into the depths of lukewarm tzatziki and limp, uninspired souvlaki. Every now and then, a brave taverna would emerge, promising to bring the flavours of Athens to our cities, setting up al fresco dining in the back of a loading bay in Bayswater, only to be met with the glazed indifference of diners more interested in their next hit of burrata or truffle oil. While Italian, French, and, more recently, Middle Eastern foods sashayed onto the main stage, Greek cuisine lingered in the background, unfairly relegated to the realm of greasy gyros. But as we stand in 2024, the bouzouki has finally hit the right note. We are waking up to the complex, vibrant flavours of Greece, and — dare I say it — taking them seriously.
Greek food has finally found a way to be chic, yet unpretentious
The reason for this consistent rejection of Greek food could perhaps be, at least in part, attributed to communal dining, a concept almost foreign to the British way of eating. Greek meals – even in restaurants – are sprawled across entire afternoons, lubricated with carafes of wine, and punctuated by passionate debates over whether that one cousin actually stole the good olive oil. That’s as far removed from the British obsession with personal space as you can get. Perhaps we have also been conditioned to think of Greek cuisine as something rustic, something you stumble across rather than seek out. In all the blur of olive oil and oregano, we couldn’t even pick out what makes it so Mediterranean, and at most, we would toss some pomegranate seeds on top and call it a day, just because Ottolenghi said so. After all, who are we to question the orthodoxies of the Mediterranean chic? This is such a stark contrast to our experience of French cuisine, for example – what we haven’t accepted, we redacted, but never found it difficult to brace the Gallic tide of cassoulets and croissants, washing them down with Meursaults and Montrachets. Similarly, Italian cuisine has been part of our culture for many years, but their food has seen us commit some unspeakable crimes, which in itself has become appropriated, ridiculed and monetised. We’ve gone full circle, the latest example of which can be found in Peckham’s Café Britaly.
But we just never quite knew where to place Greek food.
So why is it all changing? And why now?
There’s been a growing desire for authentic, unpretentious food. People are tired of the dizzying pyrotechnics of molecular gastronomy and deconstructed this-and-that. Less pipetting, smearing, spherifying and filtering. More fat, acid, salt and heat. Take Agora’s pork skewers, as they were meant to be — cooked just right, imbued with the smoky richness of the oven and the tangy brightness of lemon and oregano. There’s no need for a complicated smear of something or other; that skewer is the star, and it sings. Even if you go to one of the joints of The Life Goddess chain, you will find that the food just happens to be better than it needs to be, and your stomach will be more than lined with their generously seasoned prawn saganaki and moussaka oozing with béchamel sauce.
People are tired of the dizzying pyrotechnics of molecular gastronomy and deconstructed this-and-that. Less pipetting, smearing, spherifying and filtering. More fat, acid, salt and heat
Then there’s the health factor, which we may or may not wish to admit to ourselves. The obsession with the Mediterranean diet as the paragon of healthy living has come and gone, but, as tabloids love to remind us, we owe ourselves food that promises longevity, glowing skin and a healthier gut. You know, all the things we don’t usually associate with a rainy Wednesday in Walthamstow. At Kima, you get things that you’d expect, executed with laser-focus on perfection, with the St John-style waste-free approach to food in mind (though rather than nose-to-tail, here it is fin-to-gill). Fish will be fresh (which in London is a rarity, unless you fancy schlepping to Billingsgate Market at 3 am with the hardcore chefs and their hangovers), you will get your five a day, and you will drink just the right amount of wine (not only because of the prohibitive pricing). Every ingredient, from the hand-harvested sea salt to the obscure varieties of olive oil (‘unripe’ and of ‘low acidity’, are their two chosen varieties of the year, apparently), elevates the simplest John Dory into a lean masterpiece, persuading you that you are one forkful away from a life of eternal wellness.
And lastly, some restaurants have decided to take charge and be a bit bold about it. Greek food has finally found a way to be chic, yet unpretentious. We want to be seen eating it. Go to Oma, even just for their endlessly impressive bowls of dips (salt cod XO with labneh, which is sublime), or their clay pot of oxtail, bone marrow and beef fat finished with pangrattato. I am yet to find a person who would turn their nose up to such fat-on-fat action.
Finally, Greek wines have been doing some gentle whispering. Just like Portuguese wines were emerging from the shadowy periphery of Europe’s wine map 30 years ago, Greek wines have doing so in the last five. These are wines that know better than to bludgeon you with oak or fruit. Instead, they murmur of their stony, sun-drenched homeland, of ancient vines and windswept islands. Take Oma’s Rouvalis Assyrtiko 2022, for instance. The minerality of crushed seashells, with a bracing acidity that could cut through a slab of saganaki, is weaving through the subtle orange and lemon notes on the nose. Or Iliana’s Lefkos 2022 from Kima’s wine list, a bold and powerful red, made from the Liatiko grape, some of which was saved from the wildfires in Crete. These wines don’t swagger like a Pomerol or a Barolo, but they speak to the region, and the restaurants are starting to tell us about it.
Perhaps it is the ultimate irony – in our constant quest for the latest trends, we ended up finding solace in something so timeless. Greek food has seduced us with the kind of soulful, hearty cooking that reminds us what eating is really about, which is as old as civilisation itself.
Cover photo licensed by Adobe Stock.
September 2024
