From avgolemono to zucchini chips: Hellenika’s greatest hits are getting the cookbook treatment
Next month, one of Queensland’s most important restaurants will celebrate a significant moment in its storied history. Hellenika will be releasing a cookbook of its own, with chef and co-owner Simon Gloftis immortalising more than 100 recipes from the restaurant’s 15-year lifespan. Part handy compendium and part time capsule, this is a collection of the dishes, people and memories that have defined Hellenika for 15 years, bound together in a form designed to be passed on.
Simon Gloftis loves cookbooks – he reckons he’s “got a million of them” at home. While the chef and restaurateur behind Hellenika, Sushi Room and SK Steak & Oyster likely has enough recipes in his head to fill a dozen cookbooks of his own, the hospitality veteran never believed he’d make one.
“I’ve thought about it over probably the last 20 years, but, to be honest, I never thought that I’d do it,” Simon admits.
“I’ve looked at a lot of restaurants – some of my own included – and I’ve thought, ‘No, they don’t need one.’”
In early October, Simon will release Hellenika, a cookbook dedicated to his storied Greek-inspired restaurant.
Charting Hellenika’s history – from its humble beginnings on the Gold Coast all the way to its current era at The Calile Hotel on James Street – the 272-page tome comes at an inflection point for the operator, who is celebrating 15 years of Hellenika.
So, what (or who) has caused Simon to change his mind and finally put recipes to paper?
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“It was Marie-Christine Sourris, one of our regular customers who’s become a family friend,” reveals Simon. “She’s been an author and done things like this before. She kept pestering me and I thought, ‘Why not?’ I just felt like Hellenika deserved a book.”
With Marie Sourris as co-author, Simon has plumbed the depths of his own recipe trove to find 110 recipes from Helleinka’s history. Divided into 12 sections, Hellenika gives readers the chance to cook Greek fare in an approachable and honest format, with recipes for breakfast dishes, mezedes, mains, desserts and cocktails revised and apportioned for home cooking.
Alongside the recipes, Hellenika features introductions from Simon himself, the Gloftis family history (including snaps from Simon’s childhood) and a comprehensive timeline of the restaurant’s lifespan.
Interspersed between how-to guides for cult-fave Hellenika dishes (yes, including the famous zucchini chips) are contributions from past and present members of the Hellenika team (including Simon’s business partner and Hellenika co-owner Theo Kampolis), who have shared personal stories and memories of their time at the restaurant.
“I didn’t want to just make a recipe book,” Simon reveals. “I wanted to do a book that had some stories backing it up.”
Subscribe for updatesFeaturing photography by Annika Kafcaloudis and styling by Stephanie Stamatis, Hellenika looks and feels like a coffee table book as much as it does a recipe book. But, according to Simon, this cookbook is one that demands to be used over and over again, until its pages are dog-eared and splattered with drops of olive oil. In fact, Simon explains that many of the featured recipes are deceptively simple, with only a handful of ingredients each.
“I think people can use this cookbook as a reference for cooking for the rest of their lives,” says Simon. “It is so simple, but it’s also real food and that’s what people want, especially today. We haven’t had to change anything – it’s just naturally like that.
“You don’t have to be a chef to cook these dishes. I think that’s what people will like and appreciate being at home, that they can make this dish, put it up and feed their family or themselves.”
Just about every Hellenika dish you’ve seen on the menu has been considered for inclusion. You’ll spy pastitsio, dakos salata, spanakorizo and Simon’s personal favourite dish, Corfu bianco. Even some older recipes, which these days only appear as specials, get some time in the sun.
“I’ve got every Greek cookbook that’s ever been made,” Simon admits. “There are Greek cookbooks with more recipes and more depth, but I think – in terms of practicality and use – we’ve got the best collection of actual recipes that you can use at home that have been tried and true for such a long period of time.”
For many buyers, Hellenika will be a valuable addition to their culinary library. But there will no doubt be a subset of the community that will value the cookbook for other reasons. Many Hellenika regulars, some who have been frequenting the restaurant for 15 years, will likely cherish the stories shared on the pages. To Simon, it’s these supporters and friends that have enabled the restaurant to not just survive relocations and pandemics, but thrive.
“There is a little caption in the book about VIP customers,” says Simon. “A VIP, to us, is not a big spender. Big spending people come and go, but it’s people who are regulars in the restaurant that are the VIPs.
“That’s the special part about Hellenika – it’s a local. Some people think Hellenika is a tourist place and it’s not true. If you don’t have locals, your restaurant won’t work, and that’s what I think has held Hellenika in good stead – we pride ourselves on looking after our regulars. That’s another really important reason why I wanted to do the book – I want people to know where it has come from.”
In many ways, the cookbook is a time capsule: a collection of the dishes, people and memories that have sustained Hellenika for 15 years, bound together in a form that can be passed on. For Simon, who started his hospitality career at the age of 11 selling corn on the cob at a Brisbane market, the release is a full-circle moment.
“It is a bit of a legacy piece for me,” Simon reveals. “Anyone who’s done a cookbook or anything like it knows it’s a labour of love. I believe Hellenika deserves to tell its story and to see it on a bookshelf will just be really special.”
Hellenika will be available to purchase in early October both online and from all good bookshops. Head to the St Albans website to pre-order a copy. Simon Gloftis will be sitting down with food writer Jill Dupleix on Thursday October 15 to chat about Hellenika’s collection of recipes and memories – as well as the process of compiling them into a book – for a forthcoming edition of Calile Culture. Click here for more info.
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