It has been two years since Meni Valle published a book about the food and people of the Greek island that has won her heart, Ikaria.
“We did all the cooking there and I think that made a difference in the feeling of the book,” she had shared in an interview then.
It is a feeling that the Melbourne-based cookbook author has proudly witnessed recently to have spread overseas, with “Ikaria: Food and life in the Blue Zone” translated in French making its way to bookshelves in Paris.
Valle travelled there in recent weeks to sign copies of the book and meet with publisher and bookstore representatives, an experience she says felt like “a bit of a dream”.
“It was a real honour, especially seeing it was the only Greek cookbook they had at one of the boutique bookshops I visited. To be there and seeing other nationalities having interest in Greek food, seeing that acknowledgement of Mediterranean diet as one of the healthiest diets felt like a very special moment,” she tells Neos Kosmos.
Her mother’s kitchen in Melbourne was the hub of Ms Valle’s initiation into Greek cooking.
But following her mum’s passing she found healing through documenting recipes.
Ikarian cuisine is a love affair for Valle that started through her interest in Blue Zones, the places around the planet where people live longer and age better.
The connection, she says, grew stronger over the years through regular visits, hosting cooking retreats based on the island’s rich and largely vegetarian tradition, meeting people and getting to know their culture of longevity.
Thea, one of the local women had told her: ‘Here in Ikaria, we don’t try to add years to our life. Instead, we add life to our years’.
While in France, Ms Valle’s cookbook was featured in the pages of Vogue and Elle magazines. She says the interviews she gave were focused on “the aspects of eating healthy” the “food shopping list to live longer”, as well as the “lifestyle” of people living longer.
“The longevity talk has been around for a while, but I think there’s a renewed interest and people are still talking about it,” she says when asked about the timing of the book’s circulation overseas.
“Yes, longevity has to do with a plant-based diet and a healthy lifestyle, but it’s also about community and I think after COVID…the concept of community has sparked new interest. It’s important to be around people. And if we can promote Greek food in other countries, why not?”