How did you all learn how to cook Greek food?

For all of you who know a lot about Greek cuisine, how did you learn?

For me, I learned from a combination of my family, with recipes handed down, and from cookbooks to fill in the gaps.

My yiayia was straight from Greece and she taught me everything she knew. She didn't really teach me on purpose, I just cooked with her a lot.

When she passed, I realized that the recipes were all in my head, and if I neglected to learn something from her, the rest of the family somehow didn't know either. So I had to find some good cookbooks to help.

How about you guys?

mastichas09 said:

For all of you who know a lot about Greek cuisine, how did you learn?

For me, I learned from a combination of my family, with recipes handed down, and from cookbooks to fill in the gaps.

My yiayia was straight from Greece and she taught me everything she knew. She didn't really teach me on purpose, I just cooked with her a lot.

When she passed, I realized that the recipes were all in my head, and if I neglected to learn something from her, the rest of the family somehow didn't know either. So I had to find some good cookbooks to help.

How about you guys?

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Well, I learned from my mom my two sisters and my wife. Now get this my wife is an American. We were married in 1958 so things were different back then. She was always introduced at the Greek church as an American " but she cooks Greek". My mom bought her a Greek cook book in 1961 and it is still in use. To tell the truth my mom was not a very good cook,she was great at pastries,but my sisters were outstanding cooks including pastries. We use my sisters recipes for a lot of pastries and food.

I learned from my yiayia! What a blessing. She lived across the street from me and when I was young, she watched my while my parents went to work. She had my learning by watching and helping. She trusted me with a sharp knife and chopping from a very young age. My mother caught her and yelled at her but I have a feeling she taught me the way she learned.

Now, all the recipes and methods and tricks are all in my head. When my yiayia was nearing end of life my mom tried to archive all her recipes, and it drove my mom nuts, and now I am the one driving the family nuts telling them - you don't need to measure that just eyeball it.

It is fascinating when you think how all these Greek grandmothers (γιαγιάδες) and the grandmothers before them, learned how to cook at a time where there were no cooking shows or cookbooks. There were no Aki or Argiro on tv or no worldwidegreeks on the internet. But all these women managed to learn not only on dish but multiple dishes without needing to peek at a written recipe. And it wasn’t only food. It was bread baking and baking sweets and pasta making, making cheese and curing olives and preserving fruits, and foraging and making soap. Yes k_tsoukalas what a blessing it was to learn from these amazing women. For those of you that still have a giagia in your life, spend time with her, write down her knowledge. Because their knowledge is better than any expensive chef’s cookbook you have.