Cooking at a mountain retreat

On Friday, 15 September, I rushed from an official lunch in Nicosia to get to the village of Vasa Kilaniou in time to prepare dinner.

Once you get past the traffic havoc of the capital and its outskirts, you cross a mountainous landscape dotted with stone-built villages, fields, green and lush in spring, golden and dry in the summer, but also junkyards and tavernas with plastic white chairs stacked up sky-high, and, the further you venture into the wine country, terraced vineyards and wineries.

Vasa is small and sparsely populated save for during fair weather weekends and holidays, when those with descent from, and properties in, the village and tourists flock in. It is exceptionally well-kept and idyllic without being overdeveloped – the bougainvilleas and the vines are not draped over wooden pergolas just for show, it is how it is.

My talented friend Nicoletta Demetriou, a musician, ethnomusicologist, author, creative writing teacher, runs Topos Retreat for writers, though not exclusively, at Vasa Kilaniou. When I decided to give up academia some six years ago, I did it to fulfil my dream of devoting myself to cooking and writing fiction so I can scarcely overstate my excitement, when she asked me to be the retreat’s resident chef.

The inaugural session of the retreat took place in June 2023. It lasted a week and the tutor and guests came from the UK. It was the most thoughtful and sensitive group, each of them a wealth of experience and wisdom, and it was a great pleasure to cook for them and introduce them to or reacquaint them with dishes from Greece and the rest of the Mediterranean. We kicked off with a meze dinner on the first evening: fava, tomato and onion fritters, parsley dip from the island of Syros, smoked aubergine dip, griddled watermelon with halloumi, walnuts, and mint, manouri cheese with homemade chutneys, lentils with chicory, hazelnuts and a mountain tea dressing, roast cauliflower with tahini and lemon sauce and za’atar, fish with salmoriglio, baklava by Thursday Pastry, who provided all the desserts and cakes. Our other meals included stuffed tomatoes, vegetarian moussaka, pearl barley “risotto”, skioufichta (a traditional pasta from Crete) with aubergine pesto, and much more. 

The second retreat, held over the 15-17 September 2023 weekend, was attended by writers from Cyprus, all of whom have been on Nicoletta’s classes for years. It was a couple of days full of reflection, sounding out ideas, discovery, but also fun, and, of course, good food. Homemade granola, fresh fruit, cheese pie, oven-baked omelette for breakfast, banana bread and biscuits (once again by Thursday Pastry) at coffee break, linguine al limone for lunch, fish with a red wine jus and tiramisu for dinner.

There’s truth in the cliché about the affinity between cooking and eating, on the one hand, and, on the other, writing. Stories leave you with a flavour, a physical sensation in your tastebuds, good food leaves you with a memory, and what is a memory other than a story? That’s one of the many reasons for which I love being part of Topos Retreat and I think many of you would feel the same so how about joining us in one of the upcoming retreats?

Back to cooks home. Back to books home.