Ο Lefteris Lazarou First of all, he is from Piraeus, with solid, well-worked hands, a warm smile, a dumb face, but also a naughty child who dared a lot. One of them is the one who conquered the first Michelin star - for Greek cuisine - in Greece.

The child of Piraeus is not an ordinary case of chefs, he did not study cooking in schools nor did he learn next to great chefs abroad.

Nevertheless, it is considered one of the best chefs in Greece. When the Winch on Distomou Street in Piraeus, with him was born the kitchen of Lazaros, a cooked seafood cuisine that appeared for the first time in the menu of a gastronomic restaurant in Greece. Lefteris section to use Greek fish and seafood, not in the pan or on the grill but to cook them. From the famous peskandritsa in 1987, to the squid pesto with ouzo in 1994, to the Athenian salad (the old recipe of Celemente) in 2017.

Marrying his love for fish and seafood, with the high technique, creativity and experiences from his voyages in the kitchens of the ships, Lefteris Lazarou took out of obscurity unknown and humble fish and made dishes creatively, with high cooking technique , which remain classics in the Greek gastronomic scene.

The most important distinction in the international field of gastronomy came in 2002, when he won the Michelin star -the first ever given to a restaurant with Greek cuisine- which he maintains.

Lefteris Lazarou closes this year (2017) thirty years of hard work and adventure, creation and success. With special prices that do not exceed 14-16 Euros per portion, one can enjoy the whole gastronomic history of the young man who dared a lot. And what remains unchanged is his Piraeus dobro smile, which is the same and unchanged from what we remember from when we first met him in 1987 in Distomou a few days after he opened the first Winch.

Squid with basil pesto in a nest of toasted potatoes

• You were born: In 1952 in Evangelistria of Piraeus. My father was a ship cook on Chandris cruise ships. The house behind the Kerani tobacco industry. Hard work and a good heart. At that time Piraeus was a neighborhood and it was very nice.
• Childhood memories: The fields of Piraeus and the stone war, the Karaiskaki stadium with the coal dust, at the time when it was half over. From a "gastronomic point of view", I remember the nut with the cheese before the match started and the tsaka-tsoukas, the sunflower seed paste that we ate during the match to calm our anxiety in the derby. I remember again, when we ran away from school and went to Palio Faliro to play in the sea. We buried the bags so that they would not see that we had beaten them, but from the game we lost the marks and then we opened whole burrows to find them.
• Children's favorite food: French fries with the previous day's wave of spaghetti - I presented it this year with a wave of shrimp!
• Studies: My studies in gastronomy were special! High school by force, in the fifth grade of high school I leave for Italy, in Naples, from Patras. Five times I was caught working illegally and sent to Thessaloniki at the border, because then they did not easily give me residence cards in Italy, five times I went again. I worked in trattorias in Naples and Genoa for five years. Difficult years but also unique experiences, I learned the secrets of Italian cuisine and I was introduced to the art of risotto. In the army I am classified as an electrician, because of my thoughts! They did not want to make me a bass cook and poison the army! Finally I cooked at the Infantry in Patras without any casualties.

Fish fillets with sourdough and vegetable creams - smoked eggplant, tomato and peas

• When did you feel that you would dedicate yourself to cooking: For as long as I can remember! There was cooking at home by my mother. At noon the mother cooked for 8 people, seven of us at home - parents, grandparents, three children and a plate always for passers-by. Some guy from the neighborhood, Gaidouras, Masouras, and some other strays would pass by. There was the kitchen of everyday life, but also the one with intense sociability, the sociability of humanity. My father, who was a cook on the ships, did not work in the winter and was at home. The party with his friends took place in taverns, in the ouzadiko of Paraskeva, in grocery stores, in karvouniarika, with retsina, Kefalonia cheese and meze refene. My father was preparing his own. His favorite snack is snails. I watched and participated in the whole process. Feeding with flour and chopped macaroni, cooking and skimming with dried onion, cooking with spring onion. What snail I washed for my father is not said. I lost it when I was 15, but I have it very deep inside me!
• Cooks who influenced your cooking: My Father and Italy. On Sunday, my father would take me with him to carry the "flower", a five-pound hammer to break his stone pipes. And then I clean the garlic and onions for cooking the appetizers. So my father was diving into the sea, and I was behind him, dragging a peculiar construction, a black truck tube that had a crate inside. So the two of us, with two buckets of tin that we had changed the bottom with glass - another patent and this - we used them as masks and with harpoons we swept the bottom, octopuses, cuttlefish, stone pipes, scallops, bubbles and whatever we found the flies on the boat! In Italy again I remember the chefs who came out to the dining room and talked and laughed with the customers. All this was written inside me! I had connected the food inside me with the sociability.
• Images or events that inspired you: Taste is memory. It is written as an experience and therefore you carry it within you. Everything I lived was performances and experiences that defined me.
• Where did you work: After the army I worked for ten years in restaurants and boats. In fact, because I was tiny and thin then I left a mustache to gain weight and they take me seriously! In 1987 I opened the first winch in my neighborhood 31 Distomou and Koundouriotou, named after a verse by Vangelis Germanos, my good friend. In 1994 I moved to Deligiorgi to a much larger and "as it should be" store, in 2004 to Piraeus Street in Athens, and in 2013 I returned to my port in Turkolimano. And of course the most important distinction in the international field of gastronomy came in 2002, when I won the Michelin star - the first ever given to a restaurant with Greek cuisine - which I still maintain.

Roasted squid with fava flavored with cumin

• Materials you love: Olive oil, basil, tomato and of course fish and seafood
• Philosophy of your kitchen: Sea, everything known or strange in the sea worked with a creativity.
• Dishes you created, loved and left traces: It must be countless, but let me mention two or three historically. Steamed anglerfish with Zakynthos spring onions and celery -my emblematic dish-, seafood pie, shrimp wines with garlic, kale stuffed with crayfish, pesto squid with ouzo in a toasted potato nest!
• The role of locality in food: Experiences are acquired in one place. My cuisine is the memories of my place, enriched with new experiences.
• Greek cuisine today: Too many possibilities, great enthusiasm, but disorganization at the institutional level and minimal exploitation of its enormous potential.
• Greek gastronomy in the face of the crisis: She endures, she shows her dynamism but she wants a lot of work from both us and the State!
• How would you like to be considered: Colleagues and the world to remember me for what I testified in Greek gastronomy.

• An unforgettable moment: In the first years, Koundouriotou was a very loving hangout, due to its size but also due to nice groups. Everyone then wanted to get to know Varoulko, I also remember surnames, Vangelis Germanos, Hatzidakis and Melina. At some point, in winter, a couple of friends arrive. "I do not have a table, but to give you something casual, out of here, in my caravan, until a table is empty." We served them casually, the time passed, the store emptied, I told my assistant "lock it up, let's go to bed". Arriving at their house I remembered them. "Find Lefteris" I say to myself. "The children would not leave without greeting me! We locked them! " and anxiously I run back to Koundouriotou. I open the door, and Nato my friends, they had found some grappa bottles there and they were in good spirits. "What happened? Lefteri finally emptied any table?" Nice years carefree!
• Dreams of gastronomic content: Greek cuisine to find its place in world gastronomy. And this will be done thanks to the demon and the mind of the Greek cook, and thanks to the unique raw materials, fish, seafood, goat, olive oil, spices and wines.
• Life dreams: This year I will celebrate 30 years of Winch (1987-2017). I want to write a book to record my story. For the moments I lived, with my partners, friends and clients. I have so much to remember! And of course the countless recipes!
• Farewell: Health and good heart to all of us!