Funkalicious THE STORY OF CHEF GEORGIANNA HILIADAKI
WRITTEN BY: CARY WONG
Chef Georgianna Hiliadaki
T he moment her mother inspired her to open a restaurant called “Funky Gourmet,” it should have been clear to an observer that Chef Georgianna Hiliadaki has a cool family.
moment her cooking talent first shone through. After studying, she started working at various restaurants in the United States, Greece,
and Europe. One of her most memorable
experiences was staging at the legendary “El Bulli” under Chef Ferran Adrià. She observed firsthand how much research and development meant for a cutting-edge restaurant. She saw cooking from a very different viewpoint in that difficult and hectic environment. “All of a sudden, from being a student and a culinary infant, I was transported into the best kitchen in the world,” she says. “There were no fires… and no salt (in the kitchen). Everything was weighed with a scale.” She also saw the philosophical side of Chef Adrià. When he was not creating at the chef’s table, he gazed into the sky for inspiration. Eventually, Chef Hiliadaki returned to her native Athens and worked at numerous establishments. She met her business partner and now husband, Nikos Roussos, and they decided to open up their own business along with her sister. They looked at different houses to bring patrons into a home-like experience. The restaurant would have tasting menus with 13 courses. However, they were responsible for everything— cooking, serving, and cleaning up afterward. It was a very entrepreneurial venture.
She was studying the rather normal and plain subjects of Italian and European Relations at England’s Reading University. As soon as she graduated, her open-minded and forward-looking father told her that she should follow her passion instead of taking the safe route as her friends. So, he persuaded her to go to New York and study culinary arts. There, she attended The Institute of Culinary Education, one of the best cooking schools in the country. In truth, her love of food and kitchen experience started much earlier—precisely when she was six years old. “I remember that I asked my mom to give me something like $1 to buy a book that was called Little Chefs ,” she says. “It only had pictures and [instructions on] how to cook food from around the world.” The dishes came out delicious. And that was the
122
Powered by FlippingBook