Nektaria “entered” our homes from the small screen, cooking on the shows of Faia Skordas and Eleonora Meletis “Mega good morning”, while in the winter we saw her imparting her knowledge and “treating” us with delicious recipes from her homeland and not only, through the frequency of ERT 1 and in particular the very successful show “Studio 4”.
She is proud of the welcoming space, “Nektaria’s Kitchen”, which she has created in her village, the small Kavousi Lasithiou, but which tends to become more and more well-known abroad, as she welcomes guests from various countries, as well as French chefs, to whom she passes on the knowledge, secrets and unique recipes of grandmothers who entrusted her with their culinary art from their kitchens. The name of Nektaria Kokkinaki tends to become more and more known abroad, through the tasting seminars she organizes.
Her hospitality is proverbial. As soon as you cross the threshold of her space, you feel familiar, like at home. She will take you to her vegetable garden from where she procures the raw materials, fresh greens and vegetables, to start creating her unique dishes, which keep their relationship with the traditional Cretan cuisine unshakable. “I cook everything, but I really love combining meat with vegetables,” she tells us. He doesn’t just combine them, but takes them off the ground, so to speak. For this reason, she became an ambassador of the Mediterranean diet by the European MD network. Net.
Did the relationship with the kitchen and cooking start from your childhood?
I have had a love for the kitchen since I was little. Where did you lose me, where did you find me, I was confused at my mother’s feet in the kitchen, while she was cooking, so I could watch what she did, learn by her side. I was only eight years old and I could make delicious dolmades.
Apart from your mother, were there other women who influenced you?
I had two grandmothers who were very strong women, from whom I was greatly influenced. They inoculated me with their knowledge and passion. One was from Asia Minor, where they also have a great tradition of cooking and traditional recipes, and the other Cretan. I feel that these two places create a magical crossroads of culture and taste. In high school, something pushed me and so I started collecting recipes, not only from my two grandmothers, but also from the other neighbors, aunts and grandparents in various villages of Crete.
You started from the small Kavoussi, you entered the television and you are turning the world. Did you expect that?
It is a unique miracle that came into my life. A childhood dream came true, through a difficult and at the same time improbable path, with a beginning and a continuation, I hope. I turned my hobby into a job and I feel lucky. I get a lot of love from people on my site “Cretan flavors” and invitations from abroad. Indeed, it is magical. And imagine that I was an accountant for many years and only a year and a half ago I closed my office! I am also the mother of two wonderful little boys, Aristomenis and Anestis. However, even today I am not and do not feel like a chef, I am a self-taught simple cook who wishes to save and spread the recipes of my place.
In fact, didn’t you want to change your Cretan way of speaking? Have you ever thought about it?
In my first television steps at local stations in Crete, they told me that I would not make a career with the Cretan dialect, which I did not want to part with! I started some spelling lessons, but I felt more pressured about how to say them than how to cook. And so I gave up!
How did the beginning and the first collaboration with Fai Scordas come about?
I have to say that Faye paved the way for me and I will remember it forever. I sent her show an email, following the urging of a friend of mine, and ten days later, the production invited me to Athens.
Today you have spread your wings abroad. How did it occur;
In the summers, I welcome to my place, Nektarias Kitchen (in the village of Platanos), TV crews, journalists from Europe and America, tourists and professional foreign chefs who wish to be introduced to Cretan cuisine. I even recently hosted members of the Spanish royal family, including Queen Sofia’s daughter, Princess Christina. I was very honored that they ate from my hands traditional recipes, with pure, fresh ingredients. I taught them to dance Cretan dances, to cook dolmadaki and kakavia fish, while we also put lamb in the wood-fired oven. They had a great time and this is like a prize for me.
Do you have any awards though?
The awards first give me great joy, but also an impetus to continue and are a reward for my efforts. For the second year this year, my place, Nektarias Kitchen, was awarded by SEDIK (Association of Municipalities of Olive Growers of Crete). I conduct olive oil tastings, with genuine Cretan olive oils of first quality, which I promote both through cooking and through classes. At the same time, I take those who visit my place to the ancient Elia, one of the oldest Minoan olive trees, 3,500 years old. It takes 25 people to open their arms to embrace her torso. It is an experience to stand under the shade of this historic olive tree. I did an olive oil tasting at the ancient olive tree and the members of the Spanish royal family who visited me recently.
Next plans?
I continue as I started, collecting traditional recipes from grandmothers and grandfathers, in villages all over the country, while I have released, in collaboration with scientists from the University of Crete, my “Forty Herbs”, a health “bomb” tea for the body that is a serious work and proposal, which I strongly recommend to everyone. It is a secret from the mountains of Crete that has been preserved from generation to generation, a traditional recipe with pure ingredients that contains the healing wisdom of nature and the primordial power of the earth to soothe body and spirit. Next March I will start cooking classes in America. I will travel to different cities and transfer my knowledge of Cretan traditional cuisine and beyond.
What is your motto for life?
What Nikos Kazantzakis says, “if you don’t reach the cliff, you don’t get wings on your back”!
Info: Nektaria Kokkinaki,
Fai Scordas: She is returning to MEGA – The station’s official announcement
#chef #selftaught #simple #cook
