In her grandparents’ kitchen, Andrea Fatouros recovered much than recipes. After years of infertility and loss, the laminitis of The Traditional Plate discovered that preserving her family’s Cypriot practice was besides a mode of healing herself.
Growing up successful Matraville, Andrea Fatouros and her siblings had 2 options during schoolhouse holidays: assistance retired astatine their parents’ Bondi Road Seafoods or sleepover astatine yiayia and pappou’s location successful Ashbury. They ever chose yiayia and pappou.
Choosing yiayia and pappou meant choosing escapade and Pappou Savvas was afloat of them. He’d instrumentality them berry picking adjacent Goulburn, searching for mushrooms successful Oberon, connected roadworthy trips that felt similar expeditions. Foraging for nutrient became what they did connected weekends, returning to yiayia Andriani’s room wherever everything they’d gathered would alteration into meals, jams, memories. When yiayia made accepted trahana, the fermented wheat crockery dried successful the prima for 3 days, the children had jobs: flipping the shaped grains truthful they dried evenly, chasing distant birds, shooing disconnected cats.
“In our ain way, we became masters of sun-drying trahana,” Andrea recalls. She has fond memories of being successful her yiayia’s garden, successful the room with her, moments whose value she whitethorn not person understood astatine the time. Years later, those aforesaid memories would dependable her during the astir hard section of her beingness and each look she captured would transportation a portion of her family’s story.



When The World Feels Too Much, Yiayia’s Kitchen Awaits
After the commencement of her archetypal daughter, Diana, successful 2015, Andrea and her hubby Bill spent the adjacent 8 years hoping for a 2nd child. The travel was relentless. Andrea endured aggregate miscarriages, a diagnosis of signifier 5 endometriosis that had dispersed crossed overmuch of her body, and 7 surgeries betwixt 2019 and 2024 – 3 of these occurring successful a azygous twelvemonth alone. In 1 operation, doctors removed her fallopian tubes, a determination she lone discovered upon waking. With earthy conception nary longer possible, IVF became her lone hope. Three rounds ended successful heartbreak.
“Sometimes I conscionable wanted to beryllium down and person a java and cry,” she says, “and I would bash that astatine my yiayia and pappou’s location due to the fact that it was my harmless place. It became my sanctuary.”
During those years, Andrea turned to her yiayia and pappou’s home, which became her haven. In their room she recovered comfortableness and healing done caller nutrient from the garden, heartfelt conversations, and the benignant of hugs that made everything consciousness lighter.
Over time, she realised the comfortableness she felt wasn’t lone successful the nutrient itself but successful what it represented: resilience, love, and the traditions her grandparents carried with them from Cyprus. Their array reminded her that nutrient could beryllium much than nourishment – it could beryllium a mode of holding connected to family, representation and individuality erstwhile everything other felt uncertain.
“Those moments made maine realise that nutrient is much than simply conscionable food,” she reflects. “It’s memory, it’s the connection, it’s the bequest that comes with it. And I ne'er wanted the feeling of however I felt astatine yiayia and pappou’s location to fade.”

So successful mid-2019, Andrea started The Traditional Plate. She began signaling recipes, but what emerged was thing overmuch larger: an archive of flavours, voices and memories that told the communicative of her family’s history.
Every Dish Tells a Story
“I lone began to genuinely recognize my family’s narration with nutrient erstwhile I started signaling recipes with them,” Andrea says. What she discovered was that each household member’s attack to cooking was shaped by their ain experiences and that done their recipes, she was besides uncovering their stories. Food revealed not lone flavours but perspectives, memories and the antithetic ways her grandparents and parents had lived their lives.
Her grandfather, Pappou Savvas, is methodical successful the kitchen, diligent and profoundly creative. He makes accepted fasolada, but besides his ain invention: fasolada successful a reddish condiment with crispy bacon and sautéed onions. “When I was a kid and inactive to this day, I deliberation it’s the champion happening I’ve ever eaten from his kitchen,” Andrea says. His creativity came from accidental – arsenic a navigator successful the army, helium had the state to experiment, inventing dishes that would support soldiers some satisfied and sustained. “If I had to take the champion navigator successful the family, he’d beryllium close up there,” Andrea adds, “because his nutrient is ever truthful afloat of flavour and imagination.”
Yiayia Andriani’s communicative is 1 of resilience. She mislaid her parent astatine a young property and, arsenic the eldest of six successful Cyprus, took connected the work of caring for her begetter and siblings. For her, nutrient was ne'er astir luxury but survival, astir making definite determination was ever thing connected the table. “To this day, she’s lone ever taught maine to marque baklava spirals,” Andrea says. “She’s ne'er taught maine however to cook a barroom oregon marque a dessert. And I deliberation that comes from her narration with food. It wasn’t astir indulgence but nourishment and responsibility.”
When Andriani makes pourgouri, cracked wheat cooked similar rice, it connects straight to her past. In Cyprus, wheat was plentiful and pourgouri became the alternate to rice: hearty, filling and sustaining for agelong days of tract work, often eaten with grapes picked consecutive from the vines. Even now, she holds that relation of keeping everyone fed and cared for.



Andrea’s father carries memories that helium seldom speaks about. One day astatine her parents’ spot successful the Southern Highlands, Andrea filmed him and her gramps Savvas picking prickly pears, teaching her however to harvest them without cutting oregon picking herself. The effect stirred thing heavy – memories of his plot successful Cyprus, of the abundance earlier everything was lost. For the archetypal time, helium began to stock what it meant to beryllium sixteen during the Turkish invasion. He told her helium took lone 1 happening from his bedroom: a trophy from a contention he’d won successful his hometown. It inactive sits proudly successful the partition furniture successful his location today.
“Did you cognize what was going on?” Andrea asked him astatine the time.
“I was sixteen, of people I knew what was going on,” helium told her recounting however 30 radical astatine slightest crammed into an aged Range Rover that night, its wires sparked to beingness by the section mechanic, Cypriot soldiers clinging to the sides arsenic they escaped south.
“He had ne'er told maine that communicative earlier due to the fact that it’s not thing helium commonly talks about,” Andrea says. “I would ne'er person known if we didn’t person that infinitesimal with the prickly pear.”
Yiayia Kalisteni, Andrea’s paternal grandmother, passed distant earlier Andrea was aged capable to genuinely admit the acquisition of her cooking. She was an unthinkable cook, and Andrea inactive chases the sensation of her recipes. After proceeding her father’s story, Kalisteni’s flavours took connected caller meaning for Andrea.
Kalisteni would either hole the humblest peasant dishes – black-eyed beans oregon fasolada made with bonzer attraction – oregon she would spell each retired with trays of pastitsio and gemista. Andrea’s favourite representation is of Kalisteni’s chips fried with onions and olives added astatine the end.
When the household started implicit successful Australia, the archetypal things they bought were not beds but forks, knives and plates – the tools to marque a location consciousness similar location done food.
“I tin ne'er fathom what they went through, but my gosh, it’s those stories that I’m truthful humbled by,” says Andrea.






Cooking Me to Mati (By Feel)
When Andrea started taking The Traditional Plate seriously, she tried to measurement everything, penning down quantities truthful she could stock nonstop recipes.
But the older procreation each navigator ‘me to mati’, oregon ‘by feel’, Andrea explains.
“Yiayia is truthful aged schoolhouse she doesn’t person recipes, it’s each successful her head. She’s cooking with her senses,” says Andrea. “The consciousness of the dough, tasting food, listening to the dependable of the wood occurrence crackling to cognize erstwhile the oven is acceptable for bread. The older procreation are wholly immersed successful this sensory acquisition astir food.”
“Meanwhile I was trying to grounds recipes and I needed to cognize measurements,” Andrea says. “How galore tablespoons americium I doing here? It changes the flavour. I request to cognize exactly!”
But she yet enactment it successful perspective. “I’m not going to beryllium capable to alteration them. They’ve been cooking for generations and it’s conscionable truthful unfair to alteration thing they emotion truthful much, which is cooking, into this methodical way.”
She realised that nary 2 dishes were ever the same. Each clip she cooked with her grandparents the measurements shifted, the ingredients varied, the quantities changed and that each household had its ain way, its ain allusive flavour. That was the point.
“This is however we’ve been cooking for generations,” she understood. “I don’t request a recipe, I conscionable request to larn to spot myself.”
Her contented shared connected The Traditional Plate started being much earthy and astatine times she records her vexation astatine not being capable to get the measurements right. Yet contempt this, and immoderate followers besides expressing annoyance astatine the imprecision of the recipes are maine to mati, Andrea has continued to champion her conception that nutrient is astir stories and cooking with instinct. It’s a rule that she carries into her cooking classes, which she begins by saying, “I privation you to navigator with your instincts. I privation you to consciousness what you make.”
From the Kitchen to Instagram and Beyond
Over the past 5 years, The Traditional Plate has grown acold beyond Instagram. Andrea has collaborated with brands including Harris Farm, Sergio’s Cake Shop, and Antoniou Fillo Pastry,. For Antoniou, she filmed a peculiar conception alongside her pappou Savvas and his sister Panayiota, who lived adjacent doorway successful Ashbury and was the household baker of Andrea’s childhood. Together, they showcased however to enactment with fillo, making titsiropita – a motion to the look theia Panayiota had perfected implicit decades.
Alongside these collaborations, Andrea has been steadily gathering her programme of unrecorded cooking classes, into which she often brings members of her household with her, recognising that The Traditional Plate was ne'er hers unsocial but the bequest of galore hands. At 1 of her cooking classes astatine Rose Bay Church, for example, yiayia and pappou joined her to thatch the younker however to marque bourekia, the celebrated food pastries.
In Robertson, successful the NSW Southern Highlands, Andrea besides runs regular classes astatine Moonacres School, teaching accepted recipes that link backmost to her grandparents’ plot and table. For her upcoming people connected 1 November, she plans to instrumentality things a measurement further -transporting a souvla, the accepted Cypriot charcoal barbecue each the mode determination from Sydney. Instead of reasoning that the logistics of specified a expansive program were excessively difficult, her pappou came with her to measurement the abstraction and simply said, “Why not?”
It’s the aforesaid adventurous tone from her childhood, erstwhile he’d instrumentality them berry picking and mushroom foraging. Pappou is ever consenting to enactment her ideas, nary substance however chaotic they seem.

SBS Food Safari – A Full Circle Moment
Over 20 years ago, Maeve O’Meara filmed an occurrence of SBS Food Safari at Savvas and Andriani’s home, capturing kleftiko successful the wood-fired oven and yiayia’s celebrated bourekia. Andrea was astir 10 oregon 12 astatine the time, and she remembers the thrill of the time – adjacent managing to sneak successful her archetypal sip of ouzo with her cousins due to the fact that everyone was successful a celebratory mood.
Earlier this year, Andrea bumped into O’Meara astatine a function. They reminisced astir that archetypal shoot, and not agelong after, O’Meara joined her for java astatine her grandparents’ home, wherever the thought for a caller gourmet Greek Food Safari began to instrumentality shape.
That thought has present travel to life. On 18 October, twenty-two guests volition circuit Greek and Cypriot institutions specified arsenic Dulwich Hill Meats and boutique winery, Miloway Wines earlier returning to Savvas and Andriani’s room for a accepted luncheon with cooking demonstrations. Tickets sold retired astir immediately.
“Yiayia and Pappou truly emotion the company,” Andrea says. “They would ever beryllium keen to provender everybody.”
Home is Where Yiayia and Pappou Are
When learning that the 4th circular of IVF had succeeded conscionable implicit 2 years ago, Andrea called her grandparents earlier calling her husband. “They were specified cheerleaders for me, ever rallying for me,” she says. “It was a truly affectional moment.”
Baby Anthia arrived successful 2023, and present twenty-two months old, she reaches for flour successful her great-grandmother’s room portion ten-year-old Diana rolls dough for bourekia amended than Andrea can.
One day, Diana brought location a schoolhouse artwork astir comfortableness nutrient – hers showed avgolemono, the ovum and citrus crockery that for her means warmth and care.
“Just arsenic I person nutrient that gave maine comfortableness erstwhile I was increasing up, she has her ain dishes that evoke emotions for her and feelings of being harmless and nurtured,” Andrea says. “As overmuch arsenic I privation to sphere the traditions and the civilization and the recipes, I privation to beryllium capable to sphere the feeling that nutrient gives. Especially astatine yiayia and pappou’s house. The feeling of nutrient and the comfortableness of it, and the stories down the recipes.”
The Traditional Plate has implicit 17,600 followers present and growing. Messages get perpetually from astir the world: “That reminds maine truthful overmuch of my yiayia and pappou,” oregon “I haven’t seen this crockery since my yiayia passed away.”
“I americium the fortunate one, being capable to bash this,” Andrea reflects. “I’m inactive grateful that I person my yiayia and pappou, my daughters person their great-grandparents, and we tin inactive person these fond memories astir food, astir the room table, which is what it’s each about.”
“That is astir apt the champion happening that’s travel retired of The Traditional Plate,” she says. “Understanding my family.”
In the Ashbury room wherever a young Andrea erstwhile stood connected tiptoe to assistance her grandparents cook, the occurrence inactive burns, the dough is inactive worked by hand, and the recipes brought from Cyprus are made conscionable arsenic they ever person been.
“Having 4 generations successful the room together, cooking, those are the moments that are astir memorable for me,” Andrea says astir the mode her household continues to travel unneurotic sharing nutrient and stories that hindrance them. Through The Traditional Plate, Andrea continues, not lone to amusement however thing is cooked, but to seizure wherefore it matters – the sensation of her puerility and the feeling of walking done the doorway of her yiayia and pappou’s house.
As she says simply: “For me, my grandparents’ location is wherever nutrient genuinely feels similar home. I ever accidental their location is the champion edifice I’ve ever known.”


For much stories and heart-warming recipes travel @the_traditional_plate
Read besides Chef Peter Conistis, The Godfather of Greek
Natalie Martin
Editor
Natalie Martin is exertion and writer astatine Greek City Times, specialising successful penning diagnostic articles and exclusive interviews with Greek personalities and celebrities. Natalie focuses connected bringing authentic stories to beingness and crafting compelling narratives. Her endowment for storytelling and compassionate attack to journalism guarantee that each nonfiction connects with readers astir the world.