CULTURE CLUB

There's so much more to Greek cheese than staples like feta and haloumi, discovers EMILY LLOYD-TAIT.

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Greece’s culinary traditions stretch back millennia. The very word “gastronomy” is of Greek origin, translating to “stomach knowledge”, and you can find references to Greek cheese in Homer’s epic poem, The Odyssey. Given there are thousands of islands in the Greek archipelago, there are subsequently countless local iterations of cheeses that take into account specific climatic, environmental, and cultural elements. But there is also a core line-up of all-star Greek cheeses that you can seek out to imbue your cooking with a distinctly Hellenic flavour.

To guide us on our own epic delicatessen adventure, we asked Dimitri Kapernaros for the lowdown on all the Greek cheeses he and his father import into Australia. Together, they run the Lakonia Group, which has been bringing the taste of home to Sydney’s tight-knit Greek community for more than 30 years. They import close to 200 tonnes of Greek cheeses each year, with about half of that devoted to feta. In fact, the global appetite for Greek cheese means that cheese claims the fifth spot in Greece’s top exports list.

FETA