Book review: The Athenian - Eat Like a Greek

From stifado to spanakopita, this colourful cookbook from street food operator The Athenian is very much designed to give its fans a wider flavour of Greek cuisine. The group, which operates a handful of restaurants across London and Bristol alongside a nationwide estate of delivery-only kitchens, has long proved itself to be a specialist in serving souvlaki and gyros wraps, but here author Tim Vasilakis, who grew up in Athens and founded The Athenian in 2014, is keen to demonstrate the culinary breadth of his country through a range of contemporary, crowd-pleasing dishes.

Releasing a cookbook has become something of a rite of passage for many a restaurant brand, and The Athenian isn’t the first Greek operator in the casual space to pack together a recipe volume of its best-loved dishes (Fulham Shore-owned restaurant chain The Real Greek released its own tome back in 2016).

That perhaps explains why The Athenian: Eat Like A Greek​ makes no attempt to be a definitive embodiment of Greek cooking. At 18 x 20 cm in size and holding 62 recipes in total across its 128 pages, it works best as an overview of the cuisine’s essentials. The first half primarily focuses on ‘signature’ dishes from The Athenian menu, with one section dedicated to ‘fundamentals’ including a recipe for handmade Greek pita breads; and others focused on meze plates and souvlaki and gyros wraps, respectively.

It's in the second half where Vasilakis’s passion for his country’s gastronomy really comes to the forefront. One section in particular, titled ‘mum’s home recipes’, offers a selection of more humble, rustic dishes that defined the author’s upbringing. They include slow-roasted lamb with potatoes and onions; white bean soup; moussaka; and baked fish with a Greek marinade.

Throughout, Vasilakis remains focused on his mission to make Greek food ‘as accessible as possible’ – “I hope that this book serves as a foundation to learning how to cook tasty and healthy Greek recipes,” he writes in the introduction. And while The Athenian - Eat Like a Greek ​may feel like something of a nuts-and-bolts cookbook, the result effortlessly hits the author’s brief.

The Athenian - Eat Like a Greek​​
Tim Vasilakis​
Number of pages: 128​
Standout dish: Pastitsio​
Publisher and price: Ebury Press, £14.99​