Daniel Mancuso - Yiayia Next Door: Recipes from Yiayia’s kitchen, and the true story of one woman’s incredible act of kindness

Yia a Next Door

To our mother , T e resa, whose love and care for others inspire d this book. Mum, l osing you has cause d us unimaginable pa in, despair , sorro w and hearta che. It has also creat ed unexpected magic and connection , taking us by complet e surpri se. Yiay ia and the Yi ayia Next Door communit y have collecti vely wrappe d their arms around us, opened their hearts and fed our stomachs and our soul s, just like you would have wished. As our communi ty grow s, your love and ethos of kindness to all trav els further , reaching those who need it most. We know y ou d cherish this collection of recipe s as much as we do. I t s our tribut e to all the devoted and loving mothers, especially those who have overcom e adversity for the littl e ones in their lives. May we know them, may we be them, may we raise them. Let s forever suppor t and adore th em. With thanks an d love that never ends, from your two boys, Luke and Daniel

Daniel & L uke Mancuso (t h Yiay ia) next do or

Contents Intro ducti on

Introdu ion by To m Cowi e, journalist, e Age How well do you know your neighbou rs? For many of us, the extent of our relati onship wi th the people we live next door to might constitu te a bit of small talk while putting the bins out or collecting the mail during a ho liday . at s not to say we wouldn t like to be on better terms with those around us. I t s just that , with our busy mod ern lives, we tend to stick with the people we kn ow, and any thirst for a new connection can easily be satised by the endless possib ilitie s oered by a phone screen. Neigh bourly fr iendship migh t be though t of as being a bit old fashioned but there are some people try ing to keep it alive. In a suburban street in Melbou rne s north , two young men and their elderly neighbours have captur ed the hearts of people yearning to connect with the world around them. For brother s Daniel and Luke Mancu so, their relati onship w ith Yi ayia and Pappo u is a very special one indeed. It is a bond b uilt over generatio ns betwe en two families who have shared a fence for decades. L ate r, they were brought even closer by an unspeakab le tragedy . e language that unites them is food, a dialect we can all understand. I rst met the famous Yi ayia Next Door in May 2019 aer reaching out to Daniel and Luke through their Instagram account . I soon found out that there was a lot more to the story than what appe ared on the surface. What starte d o as a bit of fun posting vid eos of Yi ayia sharing her cooking has become it s own social mov ement, sparking impo rtant conver sation s about community and looking out for each ot her . I t s even led to this cookboo k that you are reading. But to begin with, the whole thing was a bit of a mystery . I had the same question as many of their fans when I rst watched Daniel and Lu ke s videos online: who are these guys? e videos record ed by phone were oen shot the same w a y. ey showed several se ts of hands reaching over an unassuming green and cream steel Colorbon d fence to deliver and receive a pl atter , plate or dish. While the characters themselve s were o screen, the re al star of the show was the food. It could be chicken and rice, or a warm pot of lentil soup . Whatever it was, Yi ayia s home cooking looked so tasty you could almost smell it through the screen, once the foil or plasti c wrap was peeled back.

Introd u i on ank you, Yi ayia, was how the brother s always r esponde d, calling her g randmother in Greek. ere were tens of thousands of people followi ng the account , even before they knew anyth ing about what had brought these neighbou rs together . Many commented that the relati onship between Yi ayia and the brother s reminded them of their own yiayia, or that they wished they lived next to someone like Yi ayia. Wor king as a newspap er journal ist, my editor at the time asked me to check out how the relati onship had starte d. I wasn t the rst to wonder; other media outlets had already dra wn attent ion to the account as a viral online curiosity , including mo rning telev ision shows, pop cultu re websites and Greek newspape r Neos K osmos . e premise of the coverage was that these two men had hit the jackpo t by moving into a share house loca ted next door to a very hospitab le neighbou r. Proud Gree ks said the yiayia was displayin g perfec t philoxen ia , literall y translat ing to fr iendship to a stranger . But while it may ha ve looked like it, the people involved weren t really strangers . e re s a bit more to this that w e d like to s hare, Daniel told me when I reached out to him. I had a feeling that might be the case. In prepara tion for an interv iew , I had found several news stories about a shocking case of family violen ce that had taken place in the same house several years earlier . When I visited to record an interv iew , Daniel and Luke told me what unfolded one night in 2013, and in the years since. As a welcomed guest, Yi ayia s hospita lity was extended to me as soon as I got there. I walked through her bounti ful veggie gar den, commen ting on the ourishing lemon tree and strings of dried chillies hanging from the roof. She gave me bags full of both to take home l ater . e Age s photograp her , Joe Armao, took Yi ayia s photo , however she refused to have her face included in the frame. Not the face! she said repeat edly , preferr ing to remain anonymous and allow the brother s to be the centre of attent ion. She didn t really see what the fuss was about. Inside, there was a plate of spana kopita aky pastry stu ed with salty spinach and cheese to eat with our mornin g co ee, as I heard mo re about this remarkable st or y. spinach and ch eese to eat with our m orning co ee , as I heard more abo ut this remarka ble story .