Gran designs

ANASTASIA MIARI SHARES THE RECIPES OF MEDITERRANEAN GRANDMOTHERS IN NEW COOKBOOK MEDITERRANEA.

- BY ELLA WALKER

FOOD writer Anastasia Miari has been cooking with grandmothers for 10 years. Her last cookbook, Yiayia, focused on Greek grandmothers, including her own.

In Mediterranea she meets matriarchs from the “usual suspects” like France, Italy, Greece and Spain but “wanted to show that the Mediterranean is so much more than just pasta, olive oil and good tomatoes. It is also the Balkans, the Levant, North Africa.”

Anastasia was born in Corfu and moved to London aged 11. She lived in the UK until she was 28 and then returned to Greece six years ago to raise a family.

“My life has changed completely. Now I'm picking fruits at the market, able to actually squeeze tomatoes and smell them and know whether they're going to taste of something or not, instead of having things in plastic [from the supermarket],” she says, explaining that eating in the Med is about “more than just fuelling your body.