Erik Cosselmon - Kokkari: Contemporary Greek Flavors

The owners of Kokkari would like to dedicate this book to their mothers, Kay Frangadakis, Eleni Eugenikou, Maria Moutsanas, and Jane Otten, in gratitude for cooking countless delicious meals for them. It was their mothers passion for cooking and pleasing their families and friends that gave them the inspiration to start their two restaurants.

It takes a village to execute a project of this scope. We have many people to thank. We want to acknowledge the creative team responsible for bringing this book to life: Janet Fletcher for her commitment to understanding our mission through her thorough research and hands-on experiences; Sara Remington for capturing the images that evoke the spirit of Kokkari and our culture; her assistants Stacy Ventura, Kassandra Medeiros, and Jen Hale; food stylist Robin Valarik; and prop stylist Ethel Brennan. To the team at Chronicle Books who kept us on track and helped us to make the best and most informed decisions at every juncture: Pamela Geismar, Beth Weber, Suzanne Bass, Peter Perez, Carolyn Miller, and our editor Sarah Clegg. To the folks at Elixir Design, Jennifer Jerde, Scott Hesselink, and Kyle Pierce, who so deftly melded many visions into a cohesive and impressive design. You listened and understood.

Mary Jane Marcus, thank you for capturing our journey from childhood friends to successful business partners in the foreword. We could never have told our story without your gift with words and understanding of our Greek heritage.

Efharisto poli to our friends in Greece: Manos Mavrikakis and Annamaria Favilli for showing us a side of Athens we would never have found as visitors and sharing many wonderful culinary treasures; Alexandra, Frances, Christina, and Yiorgos Lemas for opening their home and hearts to us during our visit to Limni, Evvia; Alexandra Manousakis, Kostis Galanis, and Ioannis Galanis of Nostos Winery in Crete for showing us a true Greek welcome; and Eva Drossaki Smith at Avli for sharing her encyclopedic knowledge of Cretan cuisine and her beloved hometown of Rethymnon.

We would like to thank Deborah Kwan for her keen insight and astute feedback throughout the project and Carole Bidnick for her sage advice and for suggesting we take a look at photographer Sara Remington. Thank you to all of our friends and family who enthusiastically road-tested the recipes in the book and provided real-life insight and feedback, and to our dear friend Fanis Economidis for making sure we did justice to the Greek language.

A special thank you to Robin Kirby, without whom this project would have been impossible. Your vision of the completed project was crucial in managing the multitude of opinions and suggestions from everyone involved (and not involved) in the project. Your sense of class and elegance are apparent throughout the pages of this book and successfully represent our commitment to quality in both food and people.

Lastly, a humble nod to our managing partners, Paul Kirby, Erik Cosselmon, and Panos Gogonas, for their commitment to getting it right each and every day. And to the staff at both Kokkari and Evvia, many of whom have been with us from the very beginning (Carol Papazisis, Rito Castaneda, Guillermo Coronado, Frank Gallo, Joanne Kelarakis, Victor Velarde, Fredy Parra, Alejandro Perez, and Victor Espinoza), who help to make our vision of hospitality a reality to hundreds of people each day. -George & Judy Marcus (Moutsanas), Angie & Kenny Frangadakis

I would like to acknowledge my team of chefs at Kokkari for their dedication, loyalty, and hard work: Tony Cervone, Manuel Vera, Chris Briley, and Guillermo Coronado. I could never have put this book together without their help. I also wanted to thank Janet Fletcher for her perseverance and tireless dedication to getting each recipe right. And to Angie Frangadakis and Judy Marcus for their enthusiasm and commitment to keeping the family recipes alive and bringing them together for the book. -Erik Cosselmon

I would like to thank my agent, Carole Bidnick, for her wise guidance; Aglaia Kremezi and Sotiris Kitrilakis for sharing their expertise; chef Erik Cosselmon for being such a thorough and unflappable partner in the recipe testing; Robin Kirby for bringing this enjoyable project to me and overseeing it with vision and grace; and the Kokkari staff for showing me what philoxenia means. -Janet Fletcher

Welcome to Kokkari. It means so much to us that you have joined us on this culinary journey to explore Greek flavors. Welcoming visitors from around the world was a hallmark of the culture of ancient Greece, and we extend our warm greetings to you today. This cookbook is our attempt to embody the love and joy we experience every day at Kokkari and its sister restaurant, Evvia. We opened our restaurants so we could have a home away from home, a place where Greek food is enhanced with the freshest local ingredients California has to offer. This cookbook is a chance for youour friends, our neighbors, and our wider communityto enjoy the warmth and delicious flavors of Kokkari in your own home.

We have taken great care to make these recipes approachable, and every single one is absolutely delicious. This is not a cookbook we want you to leave on display on the shelf. We want it to be stained with olive oil and splashed with wine, a source of laughter and pleasure at the table as you journey through Greek cooking in the years to come.

A special thanks to everyone who makes Kokkari thrive, from the kitchen to the front of the house. We also want to pay special tribute to our mothers, in whose honor we share this food with you.

Lets get cooking!

Kali orexienjoy.

Angie and Kenny Frangadakis

George and Judy Marcus (Moutsanas)

Wouldnt it be fun to have a place to be with our friends and show them what Greek food is all about?

That simple question brought us to where we are today, with two of the top restaurants in one of the worlds culinary hotspotsthe San Francisco Bay Areaserving food that has ushered in a new global movement of contemporary Greek cuisine.

These restaurants grew out of our friendship. We have been the best of friends for many years, all the way back to our childhoods in San Francisco, where Kenny and George and Judy (not yet married) grew up. Kenny and George met at Greek Sunday school. Angie grew up in the Central Valley town of Lodi, where her dad had settled after a successful career as an entertainer in Greece. Judy is a true San Franciscan, tracing her family heritage back five generations.

We remember our mothers gathering wild greens for horta among the weeds in the neighborhood, and cooking them with a bit of lemon and olive oil. At home, we spoke Greek and struggled to find a balance between our Greek heritage and our desire to be American. We came from island cultures defined by their hospitality and welcoming ways: George from Evvia, Kenny from Crete, and Angie from the village of Kokkari on Samos. Our doors were always open; kids from the neighborhood would come over for dinner and loved eating our kapama (lamb stew) and dolmades (stuffed grape leaves), even though they had no idea what they were.

As adults, we re-created our family meals with one another. We would come into one anothers kitchens and cook together; Judy would share her mother-in-laws keftedes (Greek meatballs) recipe, and Angie would cook her famous browned-butter pilaf.