Aegean: Recipes from the Mountains to the Sea

by Marianna Leivaditaki

Overview

'A delicious evocation of place and memory from one of my favourite cooks.' Allan Jenkins, Editor of Observer Food Monthly

'This book is so much more than a cookbook, it's a love song to a very special place and we are lucky to have the brilliant Marianna as our guide.' Itamar Srulovich, co-founder of Honey & Co.

'I want to make everything in this beautiful book. An absolute treasure.' Rosie Birkett, author of The Joyful Home Cook

With photography from Elena Heatherwick, the Fortnum & Mason Food and Drink Photographer of the Year 2020

Marianna Leivaditaki is a natural storyteller. She grew up in Chania, on the Greek island of Crete, and spent her childhood helping out in the family-run taverna. After school, she carried around her blue notebook, writing down
all the recipes she would like to cook, helped by the Greek grannies' kitchen wisdom. Marianna's love for the food of her heritage flows off every page, but she also has a contemporary take on it. As head chef of Morito in Hackney, she has championed high-quality ingredients, presenting them in simple, stunning sharing plates, and has been critically acclaimed for doing so.

These inspirational recipes derive from the SEA, the LAND and the MOUNTAINS. We all know the health benefits of a Mediterranean diet, rich in olive oil, fresh vegetables and fruit, nuts, fish and whole grains, as well as the importance
of how you eat and appreciate your food. Marianna offers achievable, yet delicious dishes celebrating seasonal, fresh food that you can take time to enjoy with friends and family.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780857838933
Publisher:	Octopus
Publication date:	07/02/2020
Sold by:	Hachette Digital, Inc.
Format:	eBook
Sales rank:	443,734
File size:	64 MB
Note:	This product may take a few minutes to download.

About the Author

Marianna Leivaditaki is the head chef at Morito, Hackney Road. She grew up in Chania, Crete, where her father is a fisherman. They had a local seafood restaurant where Marianna helped in the kitchen from an early age. After studying forensic psychology in the UK, cycling round southern Europe and volunteering in Ecuador, she went back to work in the family restaurant for two years. She returned to the UK and asked Sam and Sam Clark of Moro for a job at Moro and has worked for them ever since. She has written recipes for Guardian Cook, was on the front cover of Observer Food Monthly magazine and helped to write the Morito cookbook. She is a judge of the Observer Food Monthly Awards.

Editorial Reviews

★ 07/06/2020

In a standout debut, London chef Leivaditaki, who grew up working in her family’s restaurant on Crete, writes with grace and passion about the region’s cuisine. A recipe for octopus describes how its color will change to red and the sounds it will make as it cooks; and a mixture of parsley, tomatoes, and peppers to accompany lamb meatballs is chopped by hand “as finely as possible”— it’s “a bit messy but it’s totally worth it.” The author often looks beyond Cretan classics, but always has a sound reasoning for doing so: cured cod pastourma hails from Turkey, not Greece, but would fit in “at any traditional village café with old men sipping on raki and bantering about the past,” and she invented cuttlefish with anchovy and goat’s milk curd upon returning from England in an effort to modernize the menu at her parents’ restaurant. Humble ingredients are expertly transformed in dishes like thinly sliced potatoes layered with a paste of tomatoes, peppers, capers, and anchovies, and pork shoulder simmered with the herb malotira, typically used in the mountains of Crete to make tea. Desserts are similarly intriguing and free of gimmickry: crisp shards of phyllo, for instance, are incorporated into the batter for an orange cake. This fresh take on Aegean cuisine introduces a captivating new voice. (Sept.)

Publishers Weekly

[The recipes] are clearly written with helpful and careful instructions. The photography is gorgeous, warm, and rustic, and the author’s notes are homey and welcoming; her stories aggregate almost into memoirs, an inviting glimpse into her lovely childhood memories of growing up on Crete ... [T]his is a delightful cookbook that whets your appetite for foods from the Aegean....

San Francisco Book Review

Marianna Leivaditaki’s Aegean is the work of a London chef longing for home, Crete. Showcasing recipes for grilled squid with lemon, arugula, and sheep’s milk cheese and slow-cooked leg of lamb with orzo, it exudes love; the splendid light in the photos also provides vicarious Vitamin D.”

“Leivaditaki is able to truly dive into the unique specificities of her native Cretan cuisine ... [You] will love this book’s photos of the island, also shot by Elena Heatherwick. The book is divided into recipes from sea, land, and mountains, with a final sweets chapter (called, charmingly, ‘for after’). The rustic seafood preparations really shine. A whole charcoal-grilled fish dressed simply with lemon, oil, and herbs; a pot of Kakavia, fisherman’s soup; and a spicy clam salad are all plenty beautiful on their own. In their entirety, they offer cooking inspiration for twenty or so varieties of fish and shellfish. To anyone committed to eating sustainable seafood that’s been thwarted by a cookbook’s narrow selection before: this one’s for you.”

"In a standout debut, London chef Leivaditaki, who grew up working in her family’s restaurant on Crete, writes with grace and passion about the region’s cuisine... This fresh take on Aegean cuisine introduces a captivating new voice."

A fisherman's daughter, Leivaditaki grew up on the island of Crete, but couldn't wait to leave its confines. After gaining success as a London chef, she finally began to appreciate the culinary bounty that she had abandoned. Here she shares recipes from her Cretan life that sum up the riches of the island's seas and its equally fecund plains and mountains. Many of Leivaditaki's recipes are so grounded in Crete's resources that they may be not easily reproduced in kitchens elsewhere. Limpets and turbot rarely reach North American markets, but a home cook may readily achieve mussels steamed in ouzo. Even more doable, her baked potatoes stuffed with shrimp and smoked salmon mayonnaise will star on any table. Lamb raised in Crete provides many an inspiration for red meat dishes, and beef stews appear as well. Leivaditaki concludes with sweets featuring honeyed goat cheese in filo pastry. Color photographs throughout display not only glorious Cretan food but also the dramatic beauty of the Mediterranean island's landscape."

"I want to make everything in this beautiful book. An absolute treasure."

"A delicious evocation of place and memory from one of my favorite cooks."

From the Publisher

A fisherman's daughter, Leivaditaki grew up on the island of Crete, but couldn't wait to leave its confines. After gaining success as a London chef, she finally began to appreciate the culinary bounty that she had abandoned. Here she shares recipes from her Cretan life that sum up the riches of the island's seas and its equally fecund plains and mountains. Many of Leivaditaki's recipes are so grounded in Crete's resources that they may be not easily reproduced in kitchens elsewhere. Limpets and turbot rarely reach North American markets, but a home cook may readily achieve mussels steamed in ouzo. Even more doable, her baked potatoes stuffed with shrimp and smoked salmon mayonnaise will star on any table. Lamb raised in Crete provides many an inspiration for red meat dishes, and beef stews appear as well. Leivaditaki concludes with sweets featuring honeyed goat cheese in filo pastry. Color photographs throughout display not only glorious Cretan food but also the dramatic beauty of the Mediterranean island's landscape."

Booklist

"A delicious evocation of place and memory from one of my favorite cooks."

Allan Jenkins

"I want to make everything in this beautiful book. An absolute treasure."

author of The Joyful Home Cook Rosie Birkett