THE GUEST CHEFS OF THE GREEK CUISINE AWARDS

2025

Sotiris Evangelou

Sotiris Evangelou

Dimitris Pamporis

Dimitris Pamporis

Vassilis Mouratidis

Vassilis Mouratidis

Manolis Papoutsakis

Manolis Papoutsakis
Makedonia Palace Hotel
The cuisine of Thessaloniki. A historical, different cuisine, influenced over the centuries by the culinary cultures of other peoples, a cuisine of particular interest. First the Byzantine, much later the Ottoman and Sephardic, and in modern historical times the Thracian and Pontic, give it the unique style that distinguishes it. Four important and influential chefs of the city, after the research and study they did, chose six emblematic dishes that tell the stories of its cuisine, modernized them and brought them to today. The Sotiris Evangelou presented his own perspective on the meze that is at the forefront of the political cuisine of Thessaloniki. The Vassilis Mouratidis honored Pontic culture with imagination, while the Dimitris Pamporis undertook to combine the city's deep love for fish and seafood with elements of urban cuisine. The Manolis Papoutsakis creatively confronted the rich Jewish tradition of Thessaloniki. Together they created the gala dinner of the Greek Cuisine Awards 2025 and together a new narrative about the cuisine of Thessaloniki.
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2024

Luca Piscazzi

Luca Piscazzi
Luca Piscazzi
The 34-year-old Roman Luca Piscazzi came to Greece in 2020, carrying in his suitcases a series of strong distinctions. Taking it on Pelagos at the "Four Seasons" in Athens, he achieved his award with Golden Caps and Michelin stars. He fell in love with Greece and began to explore the local products, touring the islands and tasting. He was excited by the rare, unique ingredients he discovered and inspired by them the kitchen of the restaurant he leads. For the menu of the Greek Cuisine Awards 2024 he proposes a combination of our local and iconic specialties, seen and refined through a modern Italian eye.
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2023

Asimakis Haniotis

Asimakis Haniotis
Makedonia Palace Hotel

Greek cuisine through the eyes of a Londoner
Ο Asimakis Haniotis, the 33-year-old chef of 'Pied à Terre', one of London's best Michelin-starred restaurants since 1992, will create the menu at the Greek Cuisine Awards 2023. It comes from the most consistently Michelin-starred independent restaurant in the British capital, while in 2018 he won the star as the youngest chef to do so in London and the only Greek. In 2020 he was the winner of the Gastronomy Award at the "Argo" Greeks Abroad Awards. Haniotis cooks an exciting cuisine, introducing original Greek innovations to its French base. He dares, for example, to combine foie gras with the "humble" trachanas in a signature dish that is consistently requested by his loyal customers – along with the equally iconic chicken fricassee! He is a fanatical forager, something his parents in Kefalonia taught him, and his favorite material is the sea urchin. He loves the countryside of England, but catches the sun, as he visits Greece at least once a month.
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2022

Lefteris Lazarou

Lefteris Lazarou
Lefteris Lazarou
Attuned to the message of sustainable seafood cuisine, the award-winning chef Lefteris Lazarou, owner-chef of the best Greek restaurant in the country and for 2022 (Varoulko Seaside) created and cooked the award ceremony menu with ecological sensibility and emphasis on excellent taste. Small and humble fish of all kinds and in their season, rockfish, fish farmed with almost zero footprint in our seas were in the spotlight and proved that in the hands of a great chef they can easily be transformed into high-level specialties and also put their own little stone in the conversation around a sustainable exploitation of the seabed. For the needs of the menu, the "Varoulko" team - led by chef Thodoris Kyriakidis, Manolis Aslanoglou as well as the restaurant's pastry chef Thodoris Mousidis -, who collaborated with the team of the executive chef of "Makedonia Palace" came together to Thessaloniki Sotiris Evangelou.
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2021

George Papazacharias

George Papazacharias

Thanos Fescos

Thanos Fescos
Makedonia Palace Hotel
The dinner de gala menu of the Greek Cuisine Awards 2021 was created by two young and distinguished Greek chefs, Thanos Fescos and George Papazacharias of the "Delta" restaurant at the Stavros Niarchos Foundation Cultural Center. Fescos spent years as Assistant Head Chef of the 3-star "Geranium" in Copenhagen and 5th in the ranking of the 50 Best Restaurants in the World. Papazacharias, experienced and emerging in R&D kitchens (Research and Developement) has worked in famous award-winning, and 3-star, restaurants such as Fat Duck, Quique Dacosta, Maaemo, L'air Du Temps, Under. The chefs are inspired by raw materials and flavors of Greece, putting in the foreground rare Greek products, they use the fermentation technique to create new flavors from fruits, vegetables, flowers and leaves. They present a nature-loving gastronomy with unprecedented combinations and a cosmopolitan spirit, grafted with the abstract spirit of the Scandinavian mentality.
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2020

Sotiris Evangelou

Sotiris Evangelou
Makedonia Palace Hotel
Sotiris Evangelou, awarded with Golden Caps and Greek Cuisine Awards, stands out among the top Greek chefs. Artisan and artist, an iconic figure of Greek gastronomy, he takes the beloved Greek flavors to a new level of modernization and refinement, creating a sophisticated neoclassical cuisine which he has presented all over the globe. He has successfully managed the kitchens of the country's largest hotels to return again from 2017 to Macedonia Palace where he has already made history from 2004 to 2007. He was deeply influenced by the cuisine and principles of Alain Ducasse, and has been in contact with cuisines of the world working in Hong Kong, France and Monaco.
The menu created by Sotiris Evangelou for the awarding ceremony of the Greek Cuisine Awards leads us through 6 meticulously crafted dishes in search of a new sophisticated Greek Cuisine.
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2019

Andreas Mavrommatis

Andreas Mavrommatis
Makedonia Palace Hotel
It is a great honor for Greek gastronomy in Paris to win a Michelin star, and the Greek Cuisine Awards in 2019 invited to Thessaloniki chef Andreas Mavrommatis who achieved this high distinction for the first time in 2018. After 38 years of hard quality work in upgrading presence of Greek flavors in the French capital, his elegant restaurant "Le Mavrommatis" is a reference point for haute Greek cuisine in Paris, combining the best Greek products with French cooking techniques, and Presidents François Hollande and Emmanuel Macron honor it by enjoying its cuisine Macron. The menu created by Andreas Mavrommatis for the dîner de gala of the Greek Cuisine Awards ceremony took us on a journey through 6 elegant dishes to the products and flavors of Greece and Cyprus.
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2018

Apostolos Altanis

Apostolos Altanis

Sotiris Evangelou

Sotiris Evangelou

Athenagoras Kostakos

Athenagoras Kostakos

Giannis Baxevanis

Giannis Baxevanis

Hector Bottrini

Hector Bottrini

Giannis Parikos

Giannis Parikos
Grand Ballroom "Hyatt Regency Thessaloniki"
Creative Greek flavors
The official dinner was a special proposal that aspired to be a point of reference in the evolution of Greek cuisine. "athenorama" invited six award-winning chefs to create a menu with reference to regions of the country that they loved and in which their cuisine stood out. Thessaloniki and Macedonia and Northern Greece in general were represented by Apostolos Altanis ("Hyatt Regency Thessaloniki") and Sotiris Evangelou ("Salonica" at "Makedonia Palace"). The first gave us his own modern version of meze using ingredients with a long tradition and the second a new Greek dessert that plays with halva, chocolate and cream. Western Greece and the Ionian Islands were represented by Hector Botrini ("Etrusco", Corfu), who refined the pasticada with an unexpected variation. From the Cyclades side, we invited Athenagoras Kostakos (acclaimed in Mykonos and now the chef of "Meraki" in London), who opened the dinner with three appetizing bites - the epitome of Greekness. Yiannis Baxevanis ("Ferryman", Elounda), who has made Crete his second home, took us on a journey to the heart of its very special cuisine with a delicious combination of rooster and goat. Finally, Yiannis Parikos ("Varoulko Seaside", Athens) expressed the metropolitan spirit of the capital with a Valley shrimp tartare.
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