How to Roast a Lamb_ New Greek Classic Cooking - Michael Psilakis [10]
I decided that I wanted to give it a try. I wanted to open a restaurant in New York City with a purpose—to teach people about what I had learned as a child, to transmit that culture and heritage through my Greek cuisine. My goal was to elevate Greek food to its place alongside French and Italian food. If I was going to hit the big city, it would be with this goal in mind, and if I didn’t succeed at least I would not live with the regret of not trying.
I sold Ecco and found a small space in Manhattan. I was struggling. We weren’t making any money and I was back to the old days when I had to do everything myself because I couldn’t afford to hire enough staff. No one seemed to understand what I was trying to do with Greek cooking, and there I was, a struggling, no-name chef fighting to stay afloat. It seemed that I had chosen the wrong restaurant, in the wrong neighborhood, with the wrong cuisine.
My publicist asked me if I could do something special, something unique that could get some media attention. I came up with an eight-course offal tasting menu. She put the word out and writers started to come in, but only for offal. I got coverage in Newsweek, Time, and BusinessWeek—all articles about offal. I guess you could say that I became the offal king of New York City—not exactly what I was hoping for. With all of the hype, Anthony Bourdain came into my restaurant to try my offal menu and I made him a twelve-course all-offal meal. He looked at me and declared, “You will be a star.” My bank account, however, indicated otherwise.
I was on the verge of closing and losing everything. Then, at long last, Frank Bruni from the New York Times came in and reviewed the restaurant. He gave it two stars. Calls for reservations started flooding in, and the restaurant was full.
Once again, Donatella approached me with a project. This time, I was ready to open the door to luck and welcome it in. Donatella had a restaurant, Dona, that she wanted me to re-create. This was a big-name, 130-seat, glamorous restaurant. This could be my “Broadway debut.” But I had my goal, another objective: I still wanted to show the world what Greek cuisine was and what it could be.
Donatella and I made a deal: I would do Dona with her, with a menu of Italian-Greek fusion, and then we would open a Greek restaurant showcasing my dreams. Dona was a smashing and critical success. In 2006, we were named Best New Restaurant by Esquire magazine and received Bon Appétit’s Best Dish of the Year honors. In 2007, New York included Dona in their Top Ten Best New Restaurants.
Then we opened Onera, which means “dreams.” This was “my” restaurant and I was cooking rustic Greek food my way. We were getting great and enthusiastic media attention. And then we were approached by our landlord. He was going to be renovating the building all around us for the next seven years, and we could either stay and endure it or get bought out. We already had plans under way to open another Greek restaurant, Anthos, so we moved ahead with that and, in the meantime, I opened Kefi.
It was now not only my goal but also my mission to teach people about my vision for new Greek cuisine. At Kefi, I took the food of my childhood and executed it with my own twists. I told all of the journalists who came in, “Taste this food at Kefi and when you come to my new restaurant, Anthos, you’ll see how I have evolved that same dish to something new—a whole new level.”
Looking back, it is amazing to me how many twists and turns my life has taken to bring me to where I am now. Had Maria not had the friend from the sorority whose boyfriend was the manager at that T.G.I. Friday’s, I would not have had my start in the restaurant business, or met my wife—the two most important things in