For Nicoletta Louca, her Greek Cypriot heritage is condensed in her cookery. You know that when she tells you she doesn’t know how to make one loaf of bread – so used is Niki to family dining and cooking as a communal thing.

Even the recipes she gives us go as far as up to 100 pieces of shamishi (see recipes).
Just as her mother used to pass her skills on young Niki, in the beginning unwillingly accepted, Niki now tries to get her 19-year-old daughter to spend some more time in the kitchen with her, if only just for the sake of passing on the tradition to the next generation, that she finds so important.

It is the tradition and history of her parents and their predecessors, who fled Cyprus after the Turkish invasion in 1975, when Niki was nine years old.

“The way of cooking helps preserve that cultural heritage; it’s very important,” Niki tells Neos Kosmos.

“From a very young age my sisters and I were always encouraged – actually forced – to learn to cook from our mother and grandmother. Growing up in a Greek Cypriot household, it was ‘our duty’ to learn it. We were taken to farms to get fresh milk, then take it back home to make fresh haloumi cheese and anari – ricotta cheese…”

At the time, it is true to say they resented it, Niki agrees.

But once she had her own children, all that insistence on fresh, seasonal and homegrown vegetables and fruit suddenly made sense.

“I am grateful for my mother’s patience and perseverance in showing us how to cook. I hope one day my children will appreciate it as I did.

“Years on, I guess it means just trying to keep those traditions, bringing the family back together, teaching the kids, concentrating on the Mediterranean diet that our parents grew up with,” Niki says.

Though working as a travel agent for some 20 odd years, Niki’s fascination with food stayed deeply embedded within her. And her job in the travelling industry – if anything else – enhanced it even more.

So much so that one day she wrote to a well known food journalist and critic, Matt Preston – one of the most forward emails he ever received, as Preston later wrote.

Niki Louca’s claim was that Preston’s quest to find a decent souvlaki was doomed unless he looked inside a typical Melbourne Greek home – like hers.

And so there he was, Matt Preston knocking on the door of Niki’s family home in Templestowe.

Needless to say, he loved the homemade Greek souvlaki.

Combined with her frustration over food with preservatives, it was this souvlaki-Preston test that gave Niki the confidence to start her own business, the coffee shop Balwyn Larder.

“For many years, I was frustrated that I could never find foods the way they were made at home – no preservatives, no additives – just pure ingredients to serve my family.

“So, in 2002 with two kids, I decided to quit my job and take a huge plunge in fixing this problem.”

After five years, numerous caterings, 16-hour-shifts, and countless shared recipes, Niki founded My Greek Kitchen.

Homemade dips, eliopita and Cypriot style baklava were only some of her products, as she regularly greeted visitors from her stall at the Yering Station
Farmer’s Market.

“I wanted some really good homemade dips, and everything I picked up had preservatives. I started making my own dips, and selling them, at Yering Station Farmers Market.”

And no place for doubts about the ‘no preservatives’ part – Niki’s dips will go off just as soon as anything else homemade. And she didn’t even think about compromising when the boutique supermarkets approached her to stock My Greek Kitchen’s heavenly products.

“They wanted dips to last 3-4 weeks. Well they don’t, and to do what everyone else was doing – give them longevity – it would defeat the purpose of what I started.”

Since then, Niki turned to sharing her recipes and Greek Cypriot cooking heritage through My Greek Kitchen cooking school.

“The reason for the market was to promote the cooking classes, and it’s really hard to get those going and to promote yourself, unless you are a well-known chef.”

Now, My Greek Kitchen offers cooking classes – from basics and mezedes to kyria piata, ospria, glyka, pites and wood-fired oven cooking, corporate and private lessons and some dips available for order via website.

And with Niki’s recipes don’t expect exact measures – more likely it will be something along the lines of “oil to cover the base of the pan”, “dollop of yoghurt”, “sugar until it’s sweet enough”.

Cooking, after all, is about sharing and community, she says. In Niki’s case, it’s also a way of relaxing.

“It takes me back to some memories – as a child or a teenager when mum would make that dish. It’s almost like duplicating an emotion … It’s just an around-the-table family time; it brings back communicating with your kids, being involved in your kids’ lives.”

And, unless you are a famous chef, Niki agrees cooking school doesn’t take off easily for an everyday cooking talent and aficionado.

However, more often than not, she gets her Templestowe kitchen packed with people who want to learn some pure Greek Cypriot cookery tricks.

“You need to put yourself out there consistently. I do the corporate cooking classes – when people want something different rather than just go to a restaurant, sit down and eat; we have a wood-fired oven cooking in our garden – from October to March, when the weather is nice.

“I now hope I can teach you – the way my mum has taught me – traditional Greek and Greek Cypriot food to enjoy with your families.”

My Greek Kitchen cooking classes are held in Niki’s family home, in Templestowe.

To book your cooking classes, visit www.mygreekkitchen.com.au or contact Niki Loucas on mygreekkitchen@bigpond.com