Could you share the highlights of your journey and the key milestones that have shaped your path and brought you to where you are today?
I trained as a fashion journalist but after being fired by a fashion start up in london I moved back to corfu with my yiayia for a little while. My fashion photographer friend from london came to visit me and that weekend (10 years ago now!) we photographed yiayia in her kitchen and I cooked with her, noting down her recipes and the stories she told as the flavour and aroma of the food awakened memories inside her. It was the very beginning of the project. I then started sharing the beautiful photos and stories that came from that weekend on Instagram and friends started asking me to cook with their own grandmother. That’s how this all began.
With your experience in journalism at some of the world’s leading publications, what would you consider your greatest strength? What do you excel at most, and what do you most enjoy doing?
I think my strengths are my ability to get along with anyone. Put me in front of the queen of England or with a street merchant in India – we will have a great conversation. I love to converse with people and to engage on a very real and authentic level. I’m not interested in “small talk” – I love to get to the truth (my inner journalist) but always with emotion and compassion. This is why working at a newspaper never really suited me. I have too much feeling!
What is Matriarch Eats? How was the idea born, and how has it evolved over time?
Matriarch Eats is still going! It’s a Substack full of stories and recipes from women over the age of 80, plus essays on how the wisdom of previous generations can help us to live longer fuller and happier lives. Here it is : https://substack.com/@matriarcheats?utm_source=user-menu
It’s such a beautiful and inventive idea, eating with grandmothers carries the comforting promise of delicious, lovingly prepared food. Is there a particular story or moment that has stayed with you?
There are too many. I have travelled the world for this project, from corfu to Cuba and Moscow to Mexico! I ate and cooked with a lady whose husband was a friend of che Guevara and fidel Castro and took part in the revolution of Cuba with them. I have been moved to tears by nonna Alfia in Sicily (in my latest book MEDITERRANEA) who told me she regretted marrying a man who could never show that he loved her, admitting her life’s biggest regret while we cooked. I have watched a 85 year old yiayia do the plank for three minutes to prove how strong she is. I have watched my own yiayia turn into a diva and be on national tv countless times in her eighties – many years after we lost my PAppou, thanks to this project.
Looking back on this journey, what were its most defining moments and perhaps its greatest challenges or disappointments?
Honestly every meeting with a yiayia feels intense and emotional for me. These women are sharing their life wisdom and it’s me as well as recipes that we would lose forever if they were not written down. They always greet me with warmth and saying goodbye always feels pertinent – they hug me like I’m their own grandchild and it moves me every time.
In terms of disappointments – only really with the industry side of what I do. Publishing isn’t lucrative – I only lost money with my first book grand dishes. It sold very well but the publisher went bankrupt and I was never paid! But you don’t become a writer to become rich! I’ve been working on having the entire project turned into a tv show for YEARS now and this journey has been full of disappointments – meetings with huge international streaming channels to then end with “no’s” because I’m not Jamie Oliver (not famous enough!) it’s disappointing but I know that if I keep going with this, the message of these grandmothers will get out there. So I am manifesting positively for the future of the project and my books!
I imagine this is how your cookbook, Yiayia, was born. Could you tell us more about it and the reception it received?
This was my second book. The first as mentioned above was Grand Dishes. Yiayia was my first amazing book deal from a great publisher! It felt like it came at the right moment, I had moved back to Greece and was so happy to be living here since I moved to England as an 11 year old. I travelled all over Greece – from the obvious Ionian where I’m from to Cyclades, Crete, far flung kastellorizo and to northern villages to meet inspiring Yiayiades that really say something about Greece and the way we live and eat here. It is a love letter not just to my yiayia but to all Yiayiades.
With the recent release of Mediterranea, what can readers expect from your new book, and what compelling stories does it share?
MEDITERRANEA is an ode to where I live and love. I have previously lived in Sicily, the south of France and now I’m in athens, in love with an Italian. It’s a book of recipes and stories (again from grandmothers!) but it’s more of an exploration of how nonnas of the Mediterranean live happier longer and fuller lives. The recipes are exciting and so easy to make – my favourite foods that I love to eat when travelling the med (like spaghetti con le vongole or tiramisu) along with some dishes I had never heard of but now love – like harissa spiked carrot salad from Tunis or citron and anchovy salad from Ragusa. It’s a bright celebration of women of the Mediterranean full of beautiful portraiture and travel photography – allowing you to travel from your coffee table!
You recently became a mother as well. In what ways has this new chapter shaped your outlook and reshaped your priorities?
As you can see from how long it took me to answer these questions – mothering is my priority right now! I love cooking with my three year old and sharing my Yiayia’s recipes with her. It means a lot to be able to nourish my growing family with the time perfected recipes in my books. That’s my
Focus… and having a tv show made hahaha
What would you say to your daughter as the wisest piece of advice you could give her?
Life is long. Don’t worry about small things. They will be a distant memory when you’re 80!
Among everything you’ve tasted, which dish stands out as the most delicious?
My Yiayia’s grilled tsipoura and her patates tiganites me Rigani Kai xorta!
Which grandmother did you love the most?
Mine. Obviously! It’s hard to choose from the others as they are all incredible women and have stayed with me in so many different ways. Nonna Italia from my latest book MEDITERRANEA was very impressive in her views on life and I will take that with me forever. She also wouldn’t let me drink water at 10am in the morning when I arrived to cook with her – telling me my bones would rust and insisting I drink wine.
What’s the secret ingredient that takes a dish to the next level?
ΛΑΔΙ! Ελαιόλαδο !
How would you describe Greece to you personally, and how did your experience of it shift during the creative journey of your book projects?
Home. I left when I was 11 so my education and working life happened in the UK but I never really felt at home in England. When I moved to Athens and during the research for Yiayia I realised how greek I am in many ways. It was a real connection to the heart of what it is to be greek: to have heart and passion and not need many material things to find the true joy in life. (And to be late for everything and very spontaneous). It’s all I was missing in london and I feel complete being here now. It makes a lot of sense.
In which places has Greece remained authentic?
All of them, you just have to search for the authentic. Even in Corfu where it’s so over touristed I know mountain villages where the Yiayiades there have never left. Places that stayed with me though were Kassos and Karpathos, Ikaria and Tinos ( where I just bought a house).
Which places do you think represent Greece’s most important values?
Ikaria is really a place where I found people to be authentic and representative of a kind of “greekness” that embodies who and what we all are. The joy in small things and the essential energy that makes us greek.
Looking back, what would you say are your greatest achievements?
Sharing the lives, stories and recipes of incredible women that might never be heard from were it not for my research and my writing. It’s amazing that I can pass these books onto my daughters.
Who and what in your life give you the strength to keep going?
My man! I have amazing female friendships with inspiring, intelligent and beautiful women all around me. They are always encouraging me – even when I feel like my career is completely buried by being a mother, they are there for me, cheering me on and also inspiring me and showing me how it’s done.
What exciting things do you have coming up next?
My three month old daughter Alia! Tv show tv show tv show.
What are your non-negotiable values?
Love life. Juice every last moment out of every last day of life. Experience everything – it’s highs and it’s lows. That is what it is to live.
What’s a project you’ve always dreamed of bringing to life?
My tv show – a show in which we travel the world to cook with grandmothers and learn about where they live through the food they prepare.
Which Greeks hold a special place in your heart, and what makes them important to you?
H YIAYIA MOU – for obvious reason.
Melina Mercouri – cultural hero, completely enchanting, intelligent and an exemplary woman who did a lot for culture and modern greek art at a time that it was so difficult to.
Yiannis Varoufakis – says it how it is and is not afraid to expose the stark and sad reality of what it is to live on Greece today.
Are we defined by the choices we make?
Eventually, yes. A lot of who we are is shaped by upbringing and values. We’re all a product of the ideology we found ourselves in but with education (and probably a lot of therapy) we can eventually make a lot of choices.
What was the most recent item you bought, and why did you choose it?
Eco and Zero waste laundry detergent from the market in Kypseli – a guy who has a eco store In Thessaloniki was there selling his stuff – so that I can wash my clothes without poisoning the planet?
What’s the best book you’ve read recently?
Perfection by Vincenzo lattronico – a portrait of a millennial couple who have moved to Berlin and take part in its gentrification without even realising it – never quite happy with what they have. Makes me think a lot of the “nomads” passing through athens all the time…
An object you would never want to part with?
I have a lot of journals that I’ve written since I was a kid. I wouldn’t want to lose those but in general, I’m not very attached to items.
Who would you like to be in another life?
A historian or a Spanish translator living in Latin America somewhere. I love speaking spanish.
Three places you love to return and why
Colombia, Argentina, Cuba – the people, the landscape, the energy.
Your definition of beauty
Colour, light, symmetry and boldness
About Anastasia Miari
I’m a writer based between Athens and London. I love playing with words. When I’m not doing that, I’m cooking for friends or out in the world, getting to know new people and places.
For my decade-long project Matriarch Eats, I have travelled the Mediterranean to cook with and interview grandmothers. The result is my new book, MEDITERRANEA: Life-perfected Recipes from Grandmothers of the Mediterranean.
My other books are γιαγια : Regional recipes and stories from Greece’s grandmothers published by Hardie Grant in 2023 and shortlisted for Best Cookbook in the Fortnum & Mason Awards 2024 and Grand Dishes: time perfected recipes and stories from grandmothers of the world published in 2021.
You can find my words on food and travel in Konfekt, Monocle, The Telegraph, The Independent, The Guardian, The Sunday Times and The New York Times.
Photography @marcoandres Marco Arguello
