Auntie Maggi

My earliest memory of the kitchen was helping Mum make Greek Cypriot coffee at the age of 4.  Unfortunately, I spilled the hot coffee over my arm and was rushed to hospital.  Fortunately, I was neither scarred or put off the kitchen.  I still love cooking all kinds of food - but from the heart; it is always our Greek heritage.

We learnt to cook from an early age, but it wasn’t till later in Mum’s life we decided to write down the much-loved recipes.  But when we asked how much of mixed spice or how much onion, she would say vaguely “About this much”, never an exact measurement, never a teaspoon, or so many ounces; just “About this much”.  We would have to guess or take “this much” and weigh the ingredient. To this day, I still have a book full of ingredient-stained recipes on scraps of paper.

Over the years I have passed on to my daughter, Anya, what is in our blood.  She reminded me recently how she used to help her Stede to make Halloumi when she was young and now my 8-year-old grandson, Luca, loves to help me make Koulourouthkia every Easter.

The love of food and cooking lives on in our family.