COOKBOOK: MAZI – Modern Greek Food by Christina Mouratoglou and Adrien Carré

COOKBOOK: MAZI – Modern Greek Food by Christina Mouratoglou and Adrien Carré

Octopus Publishing Group
March 2018
Hardcover, $39.99
Reviewed by Shane Pinnegar

Cookbook
7 ½ /10

When Mazi restaurant opened in London in 2012 there were precious few Greek restaurants offering any kind of innovative take on Greek cuisine, but they soon enticed a strong clientele and became reknowned throughout that most cutthroat of culinary scenes.

This book details how to make many of the most popular dishes from the restaurant’s first five years, with the emphasis on making the preparation and cooking of a meal a celebratory experience best shared with loved ones.

Here you will find many traditional Greek favourites – but always presented with a twist.

Take dolmades, for instance. We’re all used to the tinned ones in the supermarket, but not only do Mazi teach us how to construct them from scratch, but also pair them with an edgy wasabi mayonnaise.

Fava bean dip is coloured with squid ink and paired with crispy fried calamari, lamb belly sits atop a hummus-like puree of chick peas and tahini but also shares the plate with miso aubergines. Feta is tempura battered and served with a caper meringue and lemon marmalade.

More expected are courgette cakes with cucumber mint dip, Grandma’s meatballs, grilled cod with skordalia and potato roesti, loukoumades (Greek doughnuts) with lavender honey and walnuts.

We could have done with some more photographs – especially to help the home cook go step-by-step through some of the trickier methods (especially intricate items like dolmades & galaktoboureko – a filo parcel alleged to be the finest desert one critic had ever tasted in London), but apart from that this is an illuminating tome that will definitely be getting a solid workout in our kitchen.

Category: Book Reviews