Annie - Fine Cooking

The visit to Annie - Fine Cooking It was not a routine business visit or a chance encounter, it had many doses of emotion, surprises and finally tasty surprises.

The invitation to visit a new store was sent by my favorite George Haidopoulos, Nestoras of the legendary team of Neos Katoikein - of which I was a member - who from 1980 to the mid-2000s had stirred the waters of furniture in Greece (both with the furniture, the synthetic proposals but also with the famous his party).

His daughter h Ioli Vrycheas - from his first wife, architect Annie Vrychea - whom I had met as a child in the 1980s, George sued me that he had just opened a restaurant named after her mother and it was worth knowing. Ioli Vrychea in the 2000s had already done with him Pano Stogianni, one of the first hangouts of Kolokotroni, the Bartesera, who still operate it. Together with Panos, Ioli tried on the quiet sidewalk of Menaichmos, perpendicular to Kalliroi at the height of EMST to do more with Annie - Fine Cooking mature intervention and try her luck in the deepest waters of gastronomy.

And after searching for 2-3 years to find the right chef partner, he opened the store as soon as the measures of Covid-19 were lifted.

There, in my meeting with George Haidopoulos and Ioli Vrycheas, I met the chef of the shop, Stavriani Zervakakou, an old acquaintance! And I felt that some people who need to meet, will meet at the right time and a good result will come out! The sense of fit was the feeling I felt as a start in exploring the gastronomic event itself. I met Stavriani 5 years ago when she was the chef at Sir, an excellent and award-winning hotel in Gerolimenas of Mani, and I was impressed by its cuisine, I still remember her dish that toasted bread with fish: Toasted bread with garlic butter, caramelized onion, freshly boiled greens with lard from the grill just to get the fragrant fat and on top of all that a juicy whitefish fillet with crispy cuticle.

The open kitchen of Annie - Fine Cooking is not only visible inside the store, but also from the large windows on the sidewalk where the summer seating tables are located. So Stavriani Zervakakou with him Serkan, her partner and her right hand, sets up a gastronomic show every day and at the same time a different gastro-festival. The menu, following the seasonality and the moods of the chefs, changes daily, while its raw materials are Greek and in fact with the identity of place and producer. And Stavriani has chosen them one by one.

And she is so obsessed with the ingredients, that in the end the description of the menu is nothing but the long and detailed description of the ingredients of each dish. The ingredients play a leading role in the menu and their composition leads to proposals that, although they do not refer to home references of Greek cuisine, create pleasant, melodic and balanced flavors.

We quote two or three dishes that we particularly liked, as presented in Annie menu - Fine Cooking:

"Lightly marinated magic, wild heads Mesa Mani, tomato, red batik onion, boukovo, fresh smells".

"Floral Lemnian Garali cooked in grouper and crayfish broth, sautéed with tomato, clams and grilled fillet stewed in white wine and milk butter of Larissa Ghana, pasturmas Atlamatzoglou and salami of Lefkada, fresh".

"Strapatsada on toasted bread with mussel rye, Trikalinos roe crumbs, salted lemon, Comeco top noumboulo, chives".

Anyway the theatrical performance at Annie - Fine Cooking is won from the beginning, when they arrive at the table as a blanket a pre-baked bread (from wholemeal lemon flour, yellow rustic Salamoussa and yellow Poriazi), lupins of Gythio Karabamba, afrina collected from the Mezapou pan of Mesa Mani and extremely virgin esto.

I wish my friends, good strength in this beautiful journey and beautiful creations!