Η Antonia Zarpa and her husband Aris Tatsis, both from Teno, decided not to live in Athens, but to set up their nest on their island and revitalize the place. Fifteen years later, the Sea located in the bay of Ysternia at the foot of Kardiani is the best Tinos in the field of gastronomy.

And where can one imagine that little Antonia, with studies of social worker and with apprenticeship of photography in Plato Rivelis, would become one of the best cooks in Greece!

 

You were born: I was born on June 16, 1973 in the Elena maternity hospital. My mother's name is Froso.

Childhood memories: I remember the lady "Lambri" who came before the Resurrection. I remember the cuckoo that cried at night in the village. I remember the canines of the garden. I remember the walk in Sangari and the almonds that my grandfather treated me to that morning and the water that he could hold in his tight handfuls. I remember the rivers that were on the table and the rare table coumarins that did not go to the press. I do not forget the unspoken water. I want to remember the violins and the feast of the Holy Apostles that we observed while listening to them. I vaguely remember Annezoula and Katerinaki playing black or red and in the above village the Athenian company can be heard. I will not forget Argyro and the candies "vivi"… "vivi" as well as the net she wore in her hair… a! and the smell of her suitcase. It smelled like "Athens". I remember the black pebble we had and we broke the almonds and my grandmother considered it unique and rare because it was mountainous and the sea was far away!

I do not want to forget the pigeons we made with the playing cards, the masquerades, the decorated Russian salad, the potato meatballs, the beige on the buffet, the curtains with the thumbtack, the blue paper behind the glass. I'm sorry that I forgot the fairy tale with the miller and the biggest lie και ..and there is no one here to tell me again.

Children's favorite food: Lemon veal with rice .. reheated on an aluminum plate in the gas tank with a little water… to squeak.

Studies: TEI of social work Patra. I never practiced with a degree! I was not for such jobs !!!

When did you feel that you would dedicate yourself to cooking: When I saw that I can make a good living from it… The culinary thought is lonely. But the cooking is group. How else anyway! Cooking is fine thoughts combined with fine ingredients and fine people. It is a meeting. You spend hours. If this is done with will… what you offer will have an opinion. When I felt that cooking makes me and I find myself in space and time I devoted myself to it with greater zeal and sincerity.

Cooks who influenced your cooking: A fresh hazelnut in San Sebastian, a fresh cuttlefish tagliatelle with ink in Ragusa, Sicily, Pino in Ligata (a large village outside Agrigento), the last meal I remember from my grandmother, Antonia, bloom potatoes… honeyed Or with pork. My godmother with her winter ice cream and her casserole pie.

Images or events that inspired you: The kitchen peels-garbage! The light on the vegetables. A bunch of perfect grapes. A Venetian pumpkin. My notes when I read them again.

Where did you work?: In the Sea. Older in a photo studio, and in the cafe of Aris that had spaghetti, appetizers, juices, crepes, Viennese chocolates and three balconies on the old street of Panagia.

Materials you love: I rub the fresh marjoram in my hands and smell it. To cook the okra with yahni and to decorate it festively. To see the onion and to photograph it. To plant the carrot. I can make egg whites into meringues… maybe because they were one of the first sweets I managed to tame in Thalassaki. The ink because it says "salty".

Philosophy of your kitchen: To think when you cook what you share ... and you share what you offer. This is what cooking taught me. I did not have it; I did not know it. I have won. Let me tell you - I play a lot with colors. This helps me where to stop so as not to overload the taste. Slowly I remove.

Dishes you created, loved and left traces: The Turkish delight with the mastic ice cream, the lemonade with defeat, the octopus cooked in the petimezi, the taramosalata with the ink, the roasted onions with lemon jam, the cod boiled, the koromilada with wild Tinian koromilia, the xeronia the T the reggae salad.

The role of locality in food: Delivery must be sustainable. To enclose the wealth of time… but not to stop. The table must commemorate our dead, but also life. Our place is a point. Our point. We need to move around and motivate others in this direction.

Greek cuisine today: I would not like to include branch.

Greek gastronomy in the face of the crisis: Thoughtful and free from misery. Whatever you give or take. Let us think that we will give and take back experience and joy. So fatigue will find support.

How would you like to be considered: Cook and photographer

An unforgettable moment: "Andonia your food is more than food… is nourishment… like breastfeeding" the words of a friend the day before last in September written on the tablecloth.

Dreams of gastronomic content: To plant all kinds of artichokes that exist on the planet and to choose the most prosperous in Tinos better. A great gastronomic trip to the Mediterranean with the return open !!! Starting from the Cyclades month of June without stress !!!

Life dreams: Watching. To listen. To feel. Do not grieve them next to me.

Farewell: Find what you like and combine it with your work… with everyday life. I have the photo… and I see things differently. I like to work on my emotion. It is a higher ability that completes life. When we educate it αυτό it educates us too.