Young Chef Spotlight Joanna (Ioanna) Kremmida

"Always keep Ithaca in your mind.
To arrive there is your ultimate goal.
But do not hurry the voyage at all.
It is better to let it last for many years;
and to anchor at the island when you are old,
rich with all you have gained on the way,
not expecting that Ithaca will offer you riches.

Ithaca has given you the beautiful voyage.
Without her you would have never set out on the road.
She has nothing more to give you.

And if you find her poor, Ithaca has not deceived you.
Wise as you have become, with so much experience,
you must already have understood what Ithacas mean."

Constantine P. Cavafy (1911)


From the surface of a magnificent infinity pool on the island of Kefalonia, my mind is temporarily suspended in time. It is no ordinary scene from my daily life, but rather the gift of blissful contentment in a Shangri La of sorts, which I may refer to in the future and reflect as I do now. What did I ponder as I looked out onto the Ionian island of Ithaca in the distance? My evening meal…

There is a young Chef at the Hotel Emilisse named Joanna Kremmida. Although she is only 24 at the time that I write about this memory, she is a master of food preparation and of the very sort that I sought on my culinary adventure in Greece. The menu, which she is responsible for, is designed for a “Continental” audience, however, she is clearly inspired by her roots and the food she loved as a child. She knew that she wanted to be a Chef from the age of 18 upon her completion of high school.

Her extraordinary cooking talents were inspired by her Mother’s kitchen in the town of Megara, 40 kilometers to the west of Athens. Joanna arrived at Hotel Emilisse four years ago, but first under the tutelage of another Chef with whom she worked with on the island of Spetses. It was in this year that she recalls tasting a seafood risotto prepared by this Chef that transformed her life. It was “magic food” she recalled to me. Within a year she found herself on her own and has been in charge of this premiere seasonal restaurant kitchen ever since.

Even though Chef Kremmida’s belief is that global trends suggest a continued rise and appreciation in the cuisine of China and Japan, she is challenged by the “discipline and details” of French culinary arts and a desire to master the art of pasta making. Still when asked about her favorite food to prepare, she will answer, “Greek! In addition it is difficult to prepare, one reason being that there is a lot of olive oil in the preparation of so many Greek dishes, thus, it is necessary to find the perfect delicate balance. “Not too much and not too little”, she added. No dish that I tasted at the restaurant probably offered as much satisfaction as the lobster and spaghetti platter, which requires a 24-hour advance order. Naturally the appearance of fresh steamed colossal lobsters will delight any seafood loving audience, but somehow it was the fresh and simple tomato sauce for the spaghetti, which I recall most.

Chef Kremmida’s recipe for Fresh Tomato Sauce (Spaghetti for 2)

2 tblsp butter
½ large yellow onion, finely chopped
1 tsp garlic, minced
5 firm ripe tomatoes, grated
2 spring onion, chopped
1 glass dry white wine
2 tblsp dry basil (or 1 tablespoon of prepared basil pesto)
½ tsp sea salt
Pinch of hot paprika
1 ½ tblsp white sugar

To garnish:
Fresh basil for garnish
Fresh cracked black pepper


Melt the butter in a pan. Add the onions and garlic and sauté the mixture until golden brown. Add the wine and the remaining ingredients. Reduce the sauce until the juice from the tomatoes has thickened. Pour the mixture over fresh cooked spaghetti. Sprinkle with fresh basil and cracked black pepper.


My final evening at Hotel Emilisse was one, which I actually dreaded. To soften the harsh reality of departure, Chef Kremmida asked what I would like for my party’s farewell supper. I knew that her season at the hotel was coming to a close and that within a matter of days, she would be returning to her home and her Mother’s kitchen. “What is the dish which you miss the most and would like your Mother to cook for you when you come home?” I asked. “It is a slow cooked meal, prepared in a cast iron casserole. She combines chunks of lamb, veal and pork along with three cheeses, feta, Kefalouturi (a yellow goat cheese from Crete and harder than feta) and Metsovone (a smoked local goat cheese). She adds (red bell) peppers, tomatoes, a little olive oil and water, covers the dish and lets it slow cook at a very low temperature for at least 4 hours. I will make it for you and your guests as a farewell dinner.”

I can still recall the arrival of this dish! It appeared as a feast for the gods, a shared memory of home and all under the stars burning in the sky like butter lamps of the ancient Greek temples. The world must keep its eyes on this upcoming Chef. Her kindness even extended in presenting to me my favorite dessert in the world, “galaktoboureko”, the ultimate comfort dish with layers of filo dough and slow cooked semolina in sugar and milk. She understands how the power of food can translate as an expression of the soul and delight the occasional “accidental tourist”.
For the visit of a lifetime check out the link for Hotel Emilisse and the other expertly managed properties of the family owned Tsimaris boutique hotels at

www.arthotel.gr/emelisse

While you are there, rent a car and explore the array of small fishing villages, delightful tavernas and dreamy hidden white-pebbled beaches in the land of “Captain Corelli’s Mandolin”.

by Scott Givot, CCP - IACP Secretary-Treasurer
Oslo, Norway

Dinner on the Diner – The Trans-Siberan Express

IACP member Sharon Hudgins has returned to the United States after working as the Resident Expert for National Geographic Expeditions on an 18-day tour across Russia and Mongolia—6,000 miles on the Trans-Siberian Railroad, from Vladivostok to Ulaan Bataar to Moscow. The tour visited many of the places she described in her award-winning book, The Other Side of Russia: A Slice of Life in Siberia and the Russian Far East. Read more about her adventures here:

After working for eight days in Russia on a food article I was writing for Saveur magazine, I boarded a chartered Trans-Siberian train in Vladivostok, in Russia's Far East, along with 70 other passengers from the United States and 35 Russian crew members. We were embarking on the longest continuous railroad journey in the world, across the largest country on the planet, on the iron road that was the greatest engineering achievement of its time—the Trans-Siberian Railroad, built between 1891 and 1916.

For the next 15 days we ate most of our meals on the train, in two dining cars that each seated 36 people at tables covered with white linens and set with stemmed wine glasses and vases of fresh flowers. In both dining cars a staff of one chef, two sous-chefs, and a dishwasher (a person, not a machine) worked together in a galley smaller than my bathroom at home to prepare excellent multi-course meals accompanied by very good imported wines, Russian vodka, and dry champagne. All the meals were served by two friendly waiters adroit at balancing plates of food and pouring drinks while the train swayed back and forth along rough stretches of track.

The table d'hôte menu included red and black caviar, buckwheat bliny, smoked salmon, an enticing array of cold salads, freshly baked breads, a variety of traditional Russian soups, and main dishes such as beef Stroganov and Siberian pelmeni (meat-filled pasta, like tortelloni). Before and after dinner, many of us gathered in the comfortable lounge car for mixed drinks, glasses of wine, or mugs of cold Russian beer, on tap, as we listened to piano and guitar concerts by two Russian musicians who rode the rails with us. The food on the train was so good that many of the passengers asked for the dining-car recipes at the end of the trip.

My job for National Geographic Expeditions was to give lectures on the train as we traveled through the Russian countryside, from the Pacific coast in the Russian Far East, across Siberia, into Mongolia, back to Siberia, over the Ural Mountains, and onward to Moscow. Since this was a shared tour with Smithsonian Travel, their group's lecturer was on board, too—a professor of Russian history from the University of North Carolina/Chapel Hill. Both of us presented our lectures in the dining cars when they weren't being used for meals.

I gave lectures on the History of the Trans-Siberian Railroad, the Settlement of Siberia, the Buriat-Mongolians (history, foods, customs), Contemporary Urban Life in Russia, and Russian Holidays and Festivals. We had no blackboards, easels, projected slides, PowerPoint, or other visual aids. But I thought it was really cool to be lecturing about the Buriat-Mongolians as the train was rolling through the Buriat Republic, or to be talking about urban life in Russia as we passed through cities and towns. (The cities are changing rapidly, with economic development very evident, although the log houses in rural villages look just like those in 19th-century paintings, except for the big satellite dishes in their yards.) Instead of using standard visual aids, I could just point out the train windows and tell the tour group to look at the scenes going by. Those were the most fun "illustrated lectures" I've ever given. What an exotic venue for a classroom! (However, the challenge was to speak coherently, for an hour at a time, while standing in the aisle of a dining car and maintaining my balance as the train swerved around curves, lurched over bumpy stretches of track, and blacked out the "classroom" as it passed through long tunnels. I quickly learned to carry a flashlight so I could read my notes.)

We also had a full schedule of activities at stops along the railroad route. I treasure my memories of the guided city tours in Irkutsk, Yekaterinburg, Kazan, and Moscow; the visits to historical and ethnographic museums; a communal dinner at an Old Believer village south of Ulan-Ude; several folk music performances (including two "throat-singing" groups in Mongolia and Siberia's Sayan Mountains); boat trips on the Golden Horn Bay at Vladivostok, on legendary Lake Baikal, and on the Volga River at Kazan; a private classical music concert and champagne reception (by candlelight) at a historic house-museum in Irkutsk; a barbecue on the shore of Lake Baikal; the meals we ate at several very good regional restaurants; and a private vodka-and-caviar reception at St. Basil's Cathedral on Red Square. (Red Square was closed that evening, for security reasons, but we got special permission to be there, because of our event at St. Basil's. It was amazing—and a bit eerie—to have Red Square all to ourselves!)

The excursion to Mongolia was fascinating, too. Ulaan Baatar is an interesting and vibrant city, with an excellent historical museum and a colorful Buddhist temple complex. We also traveled to a national park and visited a nomadic Mongolian family in their yurt (where we tasted some of the homemade milk products that I wrote about in my book). In Mongolia I bought several hand-carved wooden ceremonial milk spoons, decorated with the images of the animals that produce the milk, which are used for making offerings and performing other rituals. The perfect souvenirs for someone interested in Mongolian foods!

After the tour ended, my husband and I stayed in Moscow for another week to visit the museums and scope out the food markets. We also discovered the Red October chocolate factory outlet store and another large shop that sells 100 different kinds of honey from all over the Russian Federation. Jars of honey and bags of chocolate confections added even more weight to our luggage already filled with pine-nut products (vodka, liqueur, chocolates, edible oil) that I'd carried all the way across the country by train from the Russian Far East.

I'm looking forward to working for National Geographic Expeditions again on their next Trans-Siberian Railroad tour, scheduled for July 12 – 28, 2007. For more information see www.nationalgeographicexpeditions.com/ (Click on Trips, Rail Journeys, then Trans-Siberia Rail Journey. For more information on Sharon Hudgins, click on the Experts tab.)

© Sharon Hudgins
IACP Member
Author, THE OTHER SIDE OF RUSSIA: A SLICE OF LIFE IN SIBERIA AND THE RUSSIAN FAR EAST (Texas A & M University Press, 2003, 2004)
Photography by Sharon Hudgins