Cookbook author Tessa Kiros on How to Celebrate Greek Easter

By Felicity Loughrey
April 18, 2011

Food From Many Greek Kitchens; Tessa Kiros

Food From Many Greek Kitchens cover, Tessa Kiros

Cookbook author Tessa Kiros has been turning out doorstopper tomes of photographs, reminiscence and recipes more than once a year for the past five years. “It’s crazy” she says of the pace. Her books, created with the same creative team—photographer Manos Chatzikonstantis, stylist Michail Touros and art director Lisa Greenberg—are as much about food as Kiros’ personal journey and home life.

Born in London, Tessa Kiros was raised in South Africa. Her father is a Greek Cypriot and her mother is Finnish. In her twenties, Tessa Kiros worked in kitchens in England, Australia and Mexico. She visited Tuscany to learn the language and met her Italian husband, Giovanni. Her first book, Twelve, published in 2006, counted the months of the year in Tuscan food. Tessa Kiros has two daughters, Yasmine, 13 and Cassia, 11, who feature as young girls in her third family-focused book Apples For Jam. And one of her favorite cookbook titles so far, is her Portuguese cookbook, Piri Piri Starfish. This June, Kiros will release her sixth cookbook, Food From Many Greek Kitchens [Andrews McMeel] in the U.S. (The book was published in Europe and the UK last year.)

Baklava and Baked Chickpeas from Food From Many Greek Kitchens

This year, Greek Orthodox Easter (which Kiros celebrates) and Christian Easter fall on the same date—April 24. With the Greek Easter holiday fast approaching, we were curious as to what Tessa Kiros will be cooking. “I always do a Greek lamb with oregano," she told us. "I absolutely adore Easter in Greece. It’s such an exaggerated thing, in the way that only the Greeks know how to do it. You can’t be in Greece and not know that it’s Easter. All the churches will be packed, packed, packed.”

Tessa Kirros likes to visit Greek islands like Hydra at Easter. “The atmosphere on the islands is amazing.” On the night before Easter Sunday, Kiros says everyone goes to church for a midnight mass and lights candles. When they return home, they make a black cross with the flame at the front door. And then they sit down for an egg and lemon soup with lamb intestines. “Most foreigners wouldn’t find it to their taste,” she said. “You can make a version with mushrooms.

Food From Many Greek Kitchens

Greek Salad and Lamb Cutlets from Food From Many Greek Kitchens

For Easter, Greeks dye eggs red, “then you crack the eggs together. Two people come up and hit the eggs head on. The winner is the one whose egg doesn’t crack.” And on Easter Sunday, just about everyone will be eating lamb.

With her latest cookbook, Tessa Kiros is a cheerleader for Hellenic cuisine. “There is a simplicity of the Greek kitchen that you can’t pretend is not there. In my opinion, it’s a food that you can eat every day. There’s a lot more variety than people think. And of course, there is mezze—you can throw anything onto the table. So long as there is good conversation going, you can get away with anything.”

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Tessa Kiros Books: Apples for Jam; Venezia
Chocolate and Vanilla & Gingerbread Cookies from Apples for Jam
Mozzarella & Clams from Venezia

Last Greek Easter, Tessa Kiros and family went to India. Was she researching a new title? “No, I was just on holiday... I’m open to anything. I’m always jotting things down. Travelling and food is the thing I’m most interested in. Why do people eat things? I find it fascinating, more like an anthropological study. There are so many layers you need to unravel—the mixing over borders, what the land offers you...”

So what’s her next book? “I’m waiting to see what comes. I get some inspiration. I put it on file. I’m just taking a break. It’s a bit of a dialogue with the publisher. I can’t just accept a book on microwave cookery.”