Three brothers from Athens – Kostis, Dimitris and Aris Alvanos – decided to use their common passion, food, to unite equally creative individuals under the same umbrella.
The Eaters has become a wider group of beloved friends and imaginative guest contributors, brought together by the powers of will and fortune.
“Everyone who reads us or follows us, enjoys our work and gets into the kitchen to try our recipes and ideas is an Eater,” Kostis Alvanos says.
“Everyone who shares our obsession for taste and cooking is an Eater.
The Eaters is more than a website. It’s an idea. Maybe it will become a movement one day,” he enthuses.
Just like any other project, the Eaters has a core of people mainly responsible for the day-to-day operations, cooking, filming and photographing the most delicious recipes made easy for their followers.
Kostis is the founder of the project and head of all operations, while Dimitris, a promising and restless food photographer, is behind all the mouth-watering photos. Aris Alvanos lays out the words and eats all the food.
Every now and then, the boys invite famous Greeks or popular foodies to join in and share their culinary secrets with the rest of the world.
Neos Kosmos contacted the Eaters gang and they were more than happy to answer our questions.
Can you tell us a little bit about your website? What can people expect?
Our website is the canvas where we can express ourselves: our ideas, our inspiration and our creativity in both cooking and producing high-quality content for our readers and followers. On a more poetic note, I could say it’s the temple where we worship and celebrate food and everything that comes with it. A welcoming and enjoyable space for food lovers of all sorts, and cooks of all levels, through which we share easy-to-prepare food recipes. Whether you’re cooking for yourself, your soulmate or a large group of people, we have you covered, from hearty comfort food options to fancy ideas for drinks and cocktails.
There is also a guide-like section, where we Eaters publish our out-and-about experiences and reviews. We put a lot of effort in building a captivating visual experience, creating the most attractive layout and design, indulgent food photography, short tutorial clips and smart wording. However, we are never satisfied. We are on a constant search for more ideas, which is why our website is growing and evolving every day, yet keeping its fun nature intact.
Is there a concept behind the Eaters? What triggered you to start this project?
We grew up in kitchens, watching our mothers bake and cook. We have had epic fights over ‘this last bit of pizza’ and travelled those extra miles to taste ‘this exquisite dish’. Looking inside us we saw this inescapable love for food, which we wanted to share with the rest of the world.
The Eaters, our beloved project, is primarily about fun, joy and hunger. It’s the fun of getting into the kitchen and messing with ingredients and pans. It is the joy of the first bite from the plate that you created. It’s the hunger for new tastebud adventures.
Is there a special significance to your title?
We like to think of eating as something much more significant than a mere condition to stay alive. For us, eating is a constant search for that unique flavour that will blow your mind away, the satisfaction which can be derived from putting together a tasty meal, even if someone hasn’t got the skills or time to create fancy dishes.
Do your recipes take up only 15-20 mins of our time?
Our goal is to bring the joy and happiness that comes with cooking and tasting your own delicious creations to everybody; including several time-strapped individuals out there. We therefore carefully choose recipes that are easy to execute, in terms of ingredients, effort and time. The Eaters believe that anyone can prepare a tasty meal, a healthy salad or an addictive dessert within 15-20 minutes maximum.
What is your relationship with food? Have you always liked spending time in the kitchen?
As I said, the three of us were blessed with a mother who could easily run her own restaurant. She has probably spent most of her life in the kitchen, preparing her next masterpiece. Our childhood memories are thus sealed with smells, flavours and some hilarious fights over a bite from our brother’s souvlaki and so on.
When you want to treat yourself or your loved ones what do you prepare or splurge on?
I guess that depends on their preferences or the occasion. I wouldn’t prepare a burger for a romantic dinner.
If you had to pick a favourite sweet and one savoury recipe from your website, which would these be?
That’s a tough one. I would say the peanut butter cheesecake and the lasagna with aubergines.
What is your most memorable kitchen/eating experience?
We had a massive brothers’ brawl over guacamole once. I can’t say more, but we still laugh when we remember it.
Do you have a food vice?
I am a sucker for pizza. Basically, I could live on pizza variations. I once tried to make a pizza with gyros.
Based on your experience, what do people love to eat in Greece? Which foods are more popular?
We have witnessed the rise of the brunch concept as well as several attack waves by burgers of all kinds, but we have now reached a point of maturity and balance. I would have to say that there is no specific ‘trend’, ‘fashion’ or ‘wave’ which prevails and would be easy to identify in Greece when it comes to eating. Every person is different and one’s taste in food is most definitely affected by their culture, lifestyle, experiences; the list of factors is endless. There’s one thing I can assure you of, however. No Greek can resist a nice, juicy souvlaki.
Has the crisis affected you personally? Do you believe it has had an impact on the Greek ‘eating-scene’?
In terms of food and eating trends, the economic crisis has been a mixed blessing. On one hand it has severely reduced the part of the disposable income which people would normally spend on high-quality food. Yet, at the same time, it has brought a lot of people back into their kitchens. More and more people are trying to satisfy their need for food in a way that is obviously healthier than take-out choices and saves them a lot of money. Also, on a larger scale, the crisis has resulted in the decay of businesses that didn’t respect their customers and had low quality standards.
To check out The Eater’s recipes and tutorials go to www.theeaters.gr