Interview by Lillian Psylla for GRtraveller @ WTM London 2025
Few people embody the intersection of culture, hospitality, and emotion as naturally as Angela Gerekou.
An actress, architect, and former Deputy Minister of Tourism, she has long been a genuine voice of Greece’s creative identity.
Her book, “Flavours & Memories – 30 Corfiot Recipes of My Mother,” is a tender homecoming to her roots — to the family courtyard in Corfu, to the women who shaped her sense of taste and belonging, to the scents that became memory and culture.
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1. Your book “Flavours & Memories – 30 Corfiot Recipes of My Mother” is a heartfelt return to your roots and to the culinary soul of Corfu. What personal moment or image sparked your decision to capture these flavours in a book?
The need to write this book was born from an inner return. After years of journeys, I felt it was time to go back to where it all began — my mother’s kitchen, the courtyard of our home in Corfu, the aromas that defined my childhood soul.
I remember my mother Maria cooking, and my grandmother turning the pages of her recipe notebook. Our lives were inside those pages — a glance, a flavour, a touch that held within it the entire past.
That’s how the idea was born: to preserve those moments before they vanished in time. The book is a tribute to the women of my life, to the people who taught me that food is not just nourishment, but a way to love, to remember, to continue. And within the recipes lies the infinity symbol (∞), intertwined with my initials, A-G. It’s not a logo but an inner signature — a reminder that nothing truly ends; everything continues, transforms, and returns with a new face yet the same soul.
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2. Corfiot cuisine is a colourful mosaic of cultures — Venetian, continental, Mediterranean. If you had to choose one dish that captures the essence of your island, which would it be and why?
If I had to choose just one, it would be pastitsada. Not only because it’s the most iconic Corfiot dish, but because it embodies the island’s entire spirit. The fragrance of spices, the richness of the sauce, the passion of the flavour — together they compose a culinary melody full of intensity and tenderness.
It’s a dish born of Venetian influence, yet rooted deeply in our own land, in the Corfiot heart.
For me, pastitsada feels like a Sunday family table — it brings generations together, connects memories, and turns the moment sacred. It’s that meeting point between old and new. And like the infinity symbol (∞) in my book, it represents continuity — a circle of life that no longer belongs only to yesterday but lives and breathes in the present, like every tradition preserved with love and respect.
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3. Having served Greek tourism for many years and knowing the power of culture as a medium of promotion, how do you view the role of gastronomy in shaping Greece’s modern tourism identity? Can food truly act as an ambassador for the country?
Absolutely. Food is a living vessel of culture — a universal language that requires no translation. It’s the most direct, most human way to get to know a place. When you travel, you may not always remember the landmarks or the scenery, but you always remember the taste, the aroma, the feeling left by a meal cooked with love.
Gastronomy is the soul of hospitality and the most genuine expression of a place’s identity. It’s no coincidence that science has proven the memory of taste is the last to fade — it stays with us until the end, engraved in our very cells. It’s a form of memory that travels through our DNA, passed from generation to generation, carrying the history and affection of our ancestors.
Greece possesses this rare culinary identity, deeply rooted in nature and culture. Through it, we can speak of our way of life, our relationship with the land, and our understanding of well-being. That’s why I believe food is Greece’s strongest ambassador — it speaks both the language of the heart and of memory. And memory is eternal: it connects people to their land, the past to the present, and experience to emotion.
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4. We live in an age where authenticity has become a buzzword but is often lost behind the trend of “gastro-tourism.” How can we promote our culinary heritage without over-marketing it?
Authenticity cannot be advertised — it can only be lived. When something is real, it doesn’t need staging to touch the soul. Greek gastronomy requires no embellishment or passing trends. It already holds within it the poetry of simplicity, the truth of its people, and the wisdom of balance and light.
What we need today is not to “sell” flavour, but to tell its story. To speak of it as we speak of a memory — with respect and sensitivity. To remind the world that behind every dish there is a person, a story, a moment in time. A grandfather kneading dough, a grandmother patiently stirring olive oil, a mother cooking with her gaze fixed on her family.
Tradition is not something static; it is a living organism that evolves with us, as long as it keeps its soul intact. We can bring it into the present without distorting it — with respect for our roots, but also with courage for renewal. The goal is not to commercialize it but to share it. Like sharing a table with friends — with light, simplicity, and love.
Because authenticity is not a trend; it’s a way of life. And Greek cuisine, with its flavours and memories, reminds us of this truth:
Food is an act of love — a form of communication that unites people. That is where its greatness lies, in a simplicity that needs no proof, because it already speaks directly to the heart.
Angela Gerekou reminds us that flavour is memory — and memory is culture.
In an age where speed threatens meaning, she invites us to return to the family table, the courtyard, the scent of basil and tomato.
There, Greece is not a trend but a way of being — a homeland kept alive through taste, memory, and love.
Learn more about Angela Gerekou’s work here: www.angelagerekou.com
This feature is part of the GRtraveller @ WTM 2025 “Flavours” edition, celebrating the emotional essence of Greek gastronomy through the voice of Angela Gerekou — where taste becomes memory, and memory becomes culture.
