Real Greek Food – Theodore Kyriakou and Charles Campion

I have always been aware of Theodore Kyriakou as a chef, as I have known people who have worked for him, and greatly enjoyed his food. When my wife, Sam, and I were setting up Moro, we would eat at Livebait and think how clever it was of him to have opened on the Cut, near London's Waterloo station, and how the food was never quite the same since he moved on. But when he opened the Real Greek it all seemed to make sense: he was returning to food that for him had a strong emotional and cultural attachment.

Real Greek Food has a healthy smattering of Turkish and Jewish recipes, which is greatly to its advantage as they give the book depth and variety. The recipes are a good mixture between the exotic (baked eels with feta) to simple and clean-tasting dishes (poached rack of lamb with fennel). Although I must have read almost every book on Mediterranean cooking, I still found myself picking up good ideas. Particularly useful are the boxes with suggestions for other dishes that go well with each recipe. There are also suggestions for which Greek wines go well with what.

The recipes themselves are co-written by Charles Campion, a veteran food writer, which ensures a smooth and reliable read, although one does feel the loss of a degree of personal contact with the real author. But, as a whole, this book is hard to fault. While it's not ground-breaking, there is something for everybody at every level.

by Samuel Clark, chef-proprietor, Moro, London

Real Greek Food - Theodore Kyriakou and Charles Campion. Pavillion Books, £25.
ISBN 1-86205-464-9