What do you do and how did you get into the industry?
I’m a fourth generation pastry chef who has followed the family tradition that my great great grandfather started in 1918 on the island of Kalymnos, Greece.
I have a genuine passion also for cooking savoury traditional Greek dishes. I love to teach people how to prepare and cook both sweet and savoury dishes in order to ensure our traditional Greek cultural dishes stay alive!
What’s the wildest/ craziest / scariest/ funniest most outrageous thing you’ve seen behind the scenes?
Well all I can say here is is… “What happens at Kalymnos Pastries stays in Kalymnos pastries!” LOL
What is the best/ worst part of your job?
The best thing about what I do is that I am in a position to do what I genuinely love and have a passion for. It makes me so happy to give people food that they love to eat and for that moment they can forget their troubles.
To me it’s not a job, it’s not ‘work’ it’s a real passion and I’m making a living by doing what I love to do!
What’s your favourite treat at Kalymnos Pastries?
That’s like asking a mother who their favourite child is! I have no favourites: I love them all!
The perfect day off would be…
My perfect day off would be enjoying the company of my family and closest friends around a table of good food and drink in the great outdoors.
A day in the life of a chef is…
… exciting, exhilarating, challenging, satisfying, controlled chaos – all wrapped up in one!
What’s something you would like guests to know about Kalymnos Pastries?
Kalymnos Pastries is where four generations of traditional Greek pastries are made fresh daily. Walking into the shop is like you are visiting one of your close family or friends. We genuinely pride ourselves on our customer service and we treat all our customers like they are one of the family.
What is your favourite food and wine pairing?
All rustic traditional Greek food and a good home made red wine is a great pairing.
As for the sweet pastries, a great white wine goes down well.
What is your view on the Adelaide food scene?
The population in Adelaide is over 1.2 million and our food can live up to all fine food worldwide. There is a restaurant or café to suit all here, and I feel we are truly blessed to have such a range of multicultural great quality food.
What’s in store for you in the upcoming months?
I am heading into a busy first half of 2015! I will be filming more episodes in January and February for the television cooking show Out Of The Blue and It’s All Greek To Me. I’ll be heading back to Malaysia for my collaboration with the Prince Hotel to do another greek food festival there. In June of 2015 I’ll be heading to Darwin, in the Northern Territory of Australia for their Greek Festival to do some more cooking demonstrations. And of course June/ July of 2015 for another Kalymnos Pastries Food and Hospitality Tour in the Greek Islands!