Tessa’s recipe for a successful cookbook is nothing else but passion, ‘Tessa Kiros: The Recipe Collection’ was published in May by Murdoch Books.
130 family-friendly recipes from Kiros’ eight best selling cookbooks are now compiled in her newly released Tessa Kiros: The Recipe Collection.
It doesn’t take long to realise, once you’ve struck up a conversation with Tessa Kiros, why her nine cookbooks have become bestsellers, at a time when the bookstores are over-saturated with so many that every cooking show contestant has their own.
You will definitely remember two things about Tessa – travelling and passion for food is what drives her and what makes her stand out.
She becomes the interviewer towards the end of our conversation – digs into my heritage, asks about one favourite traditional recipe.
You witness her passion.
Born to a Finnish mother and Greek Cypriot father in London, growing up in a multicultural family didn’t seem like anything unusual for Tessa Kiros. When she was four, they moved to South Africa, where she mixed with many different communities. Even her own family was a mixture of everything, Tessa says – of French, Scottish, Finnish, Greek, Cypriot.
At the age of 18 she set off to travel. Without knowing, it was her first lesson into the world’s cultures and traditions, new ways of living and eating.
“It was something that I always wanted to do. I wanted to study and travel at the same time, to learn about different cultures which interested me and to learn more about these different places – not only food, but the way people lived. I guess it’s just a part of who I am,” Tessa tells Neos Kosmos.
This fascination with human interaction and with people of the world and their lives, customs and food took Tessa around the world – from working as a volunteer in kibbutz in Israel, to Greek bars and Sydney restaurants. The things she learned then are still in use today, she says.
And without any intention, it was this experience that served as Tessa’s informal training in cooking.
“I chose to work with the people who really inspired me. They were my mentors in my journey through the world of food. I love travelling. Food. People.
Different cultures and traditions. Why they do what they do and how they put their dishes together. How people, families and nations connect,” she says.
Passion for cooking was already there even then.
“I didn’t know then that this is what I would be doing. I didn’t think then that I would write a book. It wasn’t intentional, or planned.
“In fact, my first book was just a collection of recipes for me which I wanted to keep to remind me of time spent in Tuscany. It was like a diary – and then I thought ‘I have a book here’.”
On both sides of Tessa’s family, the Finnish and Greek Cypriot side, food was a big thing. It was in her parents house that Tessa was learning first hand the world’s cultures and cuisines.
“The Christmas Eves were with homemade mustard, and cinnamon and cardamom buns made by my mother, and lamb, souvlakia and different Cypriot delicacies like flaounes for Easter – by my father.”
For Tessa, it was always about the food of everyday people.
After having lived in the Tuscan countryside for the last 20 years, with her husband Giovanni and two daughters, she is impressed with the simplicity of their cuisine over and over again.
“Where I live, you can’t just go in the afternoon and get Vietnamese food. It’s beautiful, and peaceful here, a nice place to bring up your children. Food is very important here.
“I was totally inspired by the clear way people eat in Tuscany – no questions – just what is in season is accepted – when the produce is at its best tasting, freshest and also less costly.
“It’s very easy to eat well over here. You can just go anywhere and get a great tomato and a mozzarella and great olive oil. They don’t look for things when they are not in season. For me it has been an incredible learning experience,” Tessa says with admiration.
With a degree in anthropology and sociology, no wonder the culture and heritage of people is what interests Tessa in one’s cuisine. And it is her interests and passion that are the inevitable ingredients of her bestseller cookbooks.
“The products they’ve been given or have grown, a lot of thought went into it, it’s what makes a culture and for me it is what brings a culture together at the table.
“I always write a book about something that interests me. Either something I want to record, like a diary, or something that I’m looking to learn more about.
“I also have my own team that works for me – it’s a good combination of efforts. Each part of the book is important and has to have an integrity.”
With her books often described as part travel guides and part cookbooks, Tessa says travel is part of her writing, not a separate notion. For her book about the cuisine of Venice, she visited the city on numerous occasions – in order to put her experiences and feelings into it, as she says.
“Without it you can just open any other book and take recipes from Venice. It has to be authentic, genuine, your own feelings. And if other people like it – that’s wonderful.”
Tessa’s latest book, The Recipe Collection, was released by Murdoch Books in May this year. It’s a selection of recipes from the author’s culinary publishing career to date, with over 130 meal ideas pulled from her Finnish and Greek Cypriot heritage alongside dishes she has discovered in the tavernas, restaurants and neighbourhood kitchens of the many countries she has visited on her travels.
She is always working on something new, she tells Neos Kosmos, full of hope that her next project will involve travel. With certainty, she assures me it’s going to be a mixture of things that interest her.
“Otherwise I will stop.”
Tessa Kiros: The Recipe Collection, published by Murdoch Books, $59.99, is available from bookstores and online bookstores.
source: Neos Kosmos
STUDIO 3 NEWCASTLE AUSTRALIA 