Flavours of Greece kicked off in grand style last Wednesday night at Philhellene restaurant with chef Philip Vakos at the helm, creating a spectacular feast for all in attendance. Trying to steer away from regional cuisine for a more thematic approach to the meal, Vakos decided to stick with two key Greek ingredients that have perplexed many in the past – mastiha and saffron.
The reason behind choosing these ingredients was simple. Vakos wanted to use them as a way to educate diners in traditional but unconventional Greek ingredients.
“Everyone thinks that mastiha is a chewing gum and people don’t realise Greeks cook with saffron. The best saffron in my opinion comes from Kozani in Greece,” said Vakos. “I like to educate people when I cook.” The night, which celebrated these two ingredients, was also the official launch of the Pantazis family book Forty Fine Years. The Pantazis family are a Darwin food legacy of their own, having nearly 50 years in the food industry with their early start in fruit and veg to the recent Parap Fine Foods store. Philip took some inspiration into the food of the Pantazis family when recreating some specialties for the night. The Cypriot sheftalies served with minted mastic yoghurt was an idea inspired by a Pantazis favourite.
“When creating these menus, you need to make sure that you do a trial run,” Vakos told Neos Kosmos, on how he tackles foodie festival foods. “You need to make sure the dishes aren’t too similar to one another…with service time the dishes are easy to get from the kitchen to the tables, flavours have to work and need to sing and can’t be overpowering.” “Mastiha can be a bit too overpowering and potent so you need to be careful,” Vakos said.
And the night’s food was a treat. Alongside beautiful Greek Lyrarakis wines, the starters came out. Fava topped with mastic-infused oil, prawns wrapped in kataifi threads with saffron aioli, cypriot halloumi baked in mastic-infused olive oil, dakos (barley rusks) with fresh tomatoes, feta and mastic-infused olive oil and the sheftalies – definitely the highlight of the starters. The mains were two meat dishes – rabbit stifado served on saffron rice and the most succulent kid goat imaginable, finished with mastic spanakorizo.
And if you thought then that Vakos excelled, out came the desserts. The mastic panacotta blew my mind only to be followed by mastic-infused ice cream. You couldn’t help but appreciate that Vakos had single-handedly kicked off Flavours of Greece with more than a bang, nay an explosion of the senses. The way the mastic and saffron blended and sang perfectly alongside the hero of the dishes is a skill in itself, proving the Vakos is becoming a chef in his own right. A chef who praises these foodie wonderland festivals as a chance for him to experiment with his craft and educate the masses on Greek food.
“If more Greek restaurants get on board then Greek cuisine will expand and survive. And by expanding the festival, then people will become more educated about the forgotten dishes of Greece.”