This is a beautiful cookbook rich in colour, flavours, history, culture and heart. Who better to document Greek recipes than Greek-Australian Kon Karapanagiotidis, someone who feeds people daily, and his kitchen mentor since childhood, his Greek mum Sia Karapanagiotidis. Philoxenia is a Greek cultural value that is about warm, caring and true hospitality towards others, including strangers. Cooking is a perfect medium for expressing philoxenia, it engenders connecting, sharing, culture and food as well as expressing friendliness.
Kon’s desire is to express and celebrate his culture – he says ‘my wish is to challenge people’s ideas of Greek food and show how healthy, sustainable and inclusive it can be. Greek food is far more than kebabs, calamari and lamb on the spit.’ There are mini prologues to recipes that add cultural depth to the dish such as, the time of day the dish is traditionally eaten, where it originated, history of ingredients and what is important in the cooking method to bring out the best tastes.
The recipes sing with flavour and just reading them sparks the inner cooking fire. There are colourful mezzes including soutzoukakia – a vegetarian version of a dish that is usually made with beef, as well as domatokeftedes – tomato fritters, the recipe is from Santorini and Kon describes a heavenly scene overlooking the Aegean sipping drinks and eating domatokeftedes there. There is a selection of salads which have perfect combinations of flavours – the benefit of traditional recipes is that they have been tried and tested for generations.
The real deal
The spanakorizo – spinach and dill rice – a Greek pilaf which is a favourite made in every Greek home, was delicious and easy to make. There are also soups, pastries and breads, including zucchini pie; pomegranate, tzatziki and artichoke flatbread; and the well-known spanakopita. No matter what recipe you’re cooking from this book, you know that you are getting the real deal not an anglicised, uploaded, shadow of itself.
The sweets chapter is exciting; the galaktoboureko – custard pie – was road-tested by Nigella Lawson and she raved about it. There are also Greek pancakes that include feta and honey in the ingredients as well as melomakarona – honey cookies, and pasteli – sesame bars. There are many recipes in this book that are marked to try because they look so good!
A Seat at My Table: Philoxenia is also about benefiting others, 100 per cent of proceeds from the book go to the Asylum Seeker Resource Centre with publishers Hardie Grant also donating $1 from each book sold. Karapanagiotidis founded the Asylum Seeker Resource Centre over 20 years ago, prompted by his discovery that asylum seekers in his community were going hungry due to being unable to access income, health care and the right to work. With help from students, family and friends Kon set up a food bank and community kitchen which provides meals daily.
This has now grown to include a broad range of support services and political lobbying for refugees – the true expression of philoxenia.
Another altruistic aspect of the book is that all of the recipes are vegetarian or vegan, but before omnivores dismiss this as something not for them, there are no lentils floating in watery broth here! The recipes are rich, abounding in every element that you want in a dish so that the muscle really isn’t missed. Vegetarianism was a well-known practice in Ancient Greece, Kon explains: ’Vegetables rather than meat are at the heart of any Greek table and the Greeks were some of the earliest vegetarians and vegans in recorded human history… the Ancient Greeks called strict vegetarianism “abstinence from beings with a soul”’. Kon also throws light on the fact that as well as humanitarian reasons for plant-based cooking the practice also augments environmental recovery.
Food: personal and political
Kon wants to invite people into deeper conversation around food because food is personal and political. On a personal level it can sustain and share culture and identity as well as connect, salve and satisfy individuals and communities. How is food political? It is when basic human rights aren’t met due to bureaucratic cowardice because politicians don’t fully commit to a stance, leaving people like refugees literally going hungry. Kon writes: ’We do not need tougher borders or higher walls, we need longer tables where everyone can have a seat.’ Combining both the personal and political conversations is plant-based eating, a step some do 100% and others are leaning towards a bit more – both are helpful and made easier with a cookbook like this.
A Seat at My Table: Philoxenia is filled with passionate enthusiasm about the joys of food, the connection to others, the sharing it can bring, the deep historical and cultural roots of Greek cuisine and the stirring plight of asylum seekers. This is a superb cookbook for many reasons. It has over 100 recipes that are immediately appealing, doable and delectable. Every recipe has instructions on how to make it gluten-free or vegan with ingredient substitutes as well. The best part of this publication is that it is a gift; Kon shares his personal journey and culture, Sia lets us into her kitchen, the heart of the home and is mitera (mother) to us, imparting wisdom and allowing the photographs for the book to be shot in her home rather than a studio. The images are beautiful, some are pure culinary art and others are gentle and personal. This book is a warm welcome into a rich and generous culture, one which in turn encourages a culture of depth and generosity in all of us.
See Kon at Byron Writers Festival
Kon Karapanagiotidis will appearing twice on Friday, 9 August in the A&I Hall: firstly from 10.15am-11.15am discussing kin and community with chair Rosemary Milsom; and secondly in conversation with Nell Schofield from 12.45pm-1.45pm. See byronwritersfestival.com for more info.
For four decades The Echo has printed the stories some people loved, some people hated, and some pretended not to read. If you want us to keep telling the truth, the real truth, not the sugar-coated version. We’ll need your support to keep the presses rolling. 
