Hellenic high
Maeve Haldane
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photo: Maeve Haldane
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Hour shares lunch with Toronto Life food critic James Chatto, who waxes poetic about Greece
My literary introduction to the Greek island of Corfu was English zookeeper Gerald Durrell's My Family and Other Animals, a rollicking romp about his childhood. It made me dream of long sun-filled days and quirky characters. I still have yet to go there.Toronto food writer James Chatto read Prospero's Cell by Durrell's brother Lawrence at an impressionable age, and rented a house for a summer in Corfu in the '80s with his girlfriend, Wendy Martin. Though she thought Prospero's Cell "purple prosed and fey," they saw beyond their differences and fell in love with each other, and with the island they would soon call home. Chatto writes of these years in his brand-new The Greek for Love: A Memoir of Corfu.
I met with the softspoken Chatto at resto Mythos Estiatorio to talk of his book and time in Greece.
While there, Chatto and his wife learnt a lot about the local grub: picking greens, harvesting olives to be pressed for oil, grilling meat and hunting octopus (a rather grisly affair that involves turning the beast inside out then dashing it repeatedly against rocks until it dies).
The Greek for Love isn't so much about food as about the pleasures of building a home in all senses of the phrase. Overwhelmingly sad things happen too, events for which writing about them was "an unburdening" for Chatto. He wrote the book because their son, who was born there, is now in his early 20s, and Chatto wanted to convey what they were up to at his age, recount the mistakes
they made, and curb the risk of forgetting.As we chatted, Mythos laid out a feast. Grilled octopus, Mediterranean pink snapper, Quebec lamb, horta (a generic word for greens, in this case pleasantly bitter chicory), spinach salad with creamy feta dressing, grilled oyster mushrooms, cheese-and-pepper-stuffed squid. Meats were tender and flavourful, brightly enhanced by the veggies. We finished with cow and goat's milk yogurt from Skotidakis Goat Farm topped with spoon sweets, a.k.a. fruit preserves.
As good as the meal was, Greek in situ is incomparable, thanks to the quality of the basic ingredients, Chatto said. "A Greek tomato makes even the finest Canadian tomato taste like a tennis ball." And Greek lambs have "a slightly fennelly, herby flavour from what they eat," Chatto recalls.
Chatto still spends part of the year in Greece, in the same house he and Wendy bought those years ago. He feels as though their life there is completely separate from that in Toronto. "It's like Greece is another world," he says. "It's Munchkinland."
But culinary changes are happening in Corfu. Meat used to be only for special occasions, now it's frequently available and often processed. Chatto was horrified (as were most Greeks) to see EU-sanctioned encroachments such as feta from Ireland, yogurt from France, kefalotiri cheese from Denmark. Tourists buy the products, not knowing or not caring if they're local.
They miss out on great pleasures, like the seasonal nuances of ewe's milk feta. Chatto gets his from neighbours, and the cheese gets tangier over the months the longer it's kept in brine. (I'm left with the impression that to get the real stuff you have to know someone who knows someone.)
But it's too easy to romanticize a fat-of-the-land lifestyle. After all, if Canadians followed the seasonal-only ethic they'd be eating turnips four months of the year. And what does Chatto miss when he's at his Corfiot house? Chinese food and soy sauce. There's something to be said for modern availability of ingredients.
Although best known for his Toronto Life restaurant reviews, Chatto says he's not a foodie. "I wouldn't go searching for the best falafel in Toronto if I weren't paid for it," he admits. Though he's very grateful for his food writing gigs ("I'm still a hustling freelancer," he says), he was a writer first and came to food later. He reads M.F.K. Fisher and Elizabeth David for the prose, and sees the topic of food as a vehicle for an exploration of the soul. Chatto would like to write a book about food the way Bruce Chatwin writes about travel.
Although Chatto can be easily recognized from photos, he honestly thinks it doesn't matter when it comes to reviewing restaurants. Sure, he may get better service, "but it's not rocket science - look around at others' plates!" If a suspiciously large dollop of caviar is on his alone, then clearly something's amiss.
At home he's most likely to eat Japanese food. "It's clean and simple, and such a break from what I do."
Chatto hesitates to recommend restos in Toronto, particularly Greek ones. To taste true Hellenic fare you must go to the source. Fortunately, it's easier to get a taste of what it's like to live in Corfu by dipping into the Durrell brothers' books or The Greek for Love.
The Greek for Love: A Memoir of Corfu
by James Chatto (Random House Canada), 316 pp
Mythos Estiatoria
5318 Parc; 270-0235
Dinner for two, not including tax or tip: $45-$70
For other Greek fare, try Milos's $20.05 lunch specials (5357 Parc; 272-3522) or Petit Milos's takeout (5551 Parc; 274-9991)
For more on Skotidakis Farm, visit www.skotidakis.com
| what's Max's character's last name on Greek |
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Dear Greek Producers,
Could you guys put the cast's real names by their faces on opening credits? Could Max be a perminent cast member on Greek? Could the bloopers be shown at the end of each sagmant? Can Cappie's real name in the show be revealed? Could Cappie and Rebecca have a baby together? Could Greek be made into a musical where the cast sing and dance? Could the entire cast of High School Musical sing and dance on the show? Singing songs from all 3 High School Musical movies?
Sincerly Delmar Dartt
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Delmar Dartt
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Nice interview but it did nothing to sell me on the man or his book. Clearly, fun was had in writing this article but not nearly enough for me to be moved by it.
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Oh, and yeah...$45-$70 for two people? Are you nuts? I don't know about you but it seems to me that no one has that kind of money anymore, especially for just one friggin' meal?! I'll settle for doing internet searches on the subject and invest the money in a gourmet shopping spree. Pretty sure I'll have lots more left over than if I would have gone to eat at Mythos Estiatoria.
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Pedro Eggers
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I agree with most of the reviews ---- the food sounds good but the prices sound out of whack. Twenty dollars for lunch is out my price range. I know the food is good quality but there are other very tasty Greek restaurants that will not break your bank. I will stick to my Greek favs that are delicious and affordable.
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Selena Lobo
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{1 vote}
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I simply love when Maeve Haldane writes, however her subject in this article seems uncouth as James Chatto is quoted as saying "It's like Greece is another world, It's Munchkinland." Only nasty American travelers usually say remarks such as this but this gentleman is from Toronto.
Sigh.......
Anyways besides James Chatto beating octopuses on rocks and eating Japanesse cuisine at home, well that doesn't sound interesting to me, and neither does the book.
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Renessa Cabrera
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{16 votes}
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Now that's an interesting read. I don't know whether to classify that as torture or boringness. Imagine reading about SOMEONE else's experience of eating delicious food. That'll just make me hungry and crave for food I cannot have (Corfu is a tad far).
In fact I only do that to my friends if I want to annoy them. They're stuck in the lab working, and I happened to be done at home and full from a good cooked dinner. So to annoy the hungry souls I tell them of the delicacies I eat.
This sounds exactly what this book is. A book just telling us, I ate this, it taste good, but you can't taste it too bad. But if you go to Corfu you can taste it, or maybe reading this book you can imagine the taste and texture... but it'll never be something tangible in your hands.
At least the Fat man's guide to Montreal book sounded entertaining and did a lot of comparisons to his hometown in New York. So at the very least it is entertaining.
It's bad enough to read about restaurants people can't afford, now we got a book telling us of restaurants and places we can't afford to just go to? That's just torture of the worse kind! Enticing our favorite sense (taste, eating), but without feeding it.
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Alexander Yu
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{55 votes}
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Usually, when I read a review about a restaurant, I need to know all about the food. But in this
article, which has over a dozen paragraphs, food is mentioned in 1 paragraph. I want to be tantilized
into trying out the restaurant and in this case, no way. And lets not mention the prices, do you
really want to try out a new place at prices so high. No Thanks!
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Rita Reale
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{32 votes}
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| Sounds like a travel guide this week |
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I thought that this was a food column instead what we have here is a travel promotion for the island of Corfu. And, to a certain extent, this article seems to be promoting James Chatto's book. If this were on tv, I swear I would be watching an infomerical. There is one other quibble I have with this article and that is we learn very little about the restaurant featured in this week's article (Mythos Estiatoria), which I'm sure makes the owner(s) happy, especially since the lack of details about the food and service of this restaurant do not make me curious to check it out.
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Basil James
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{26 votes}
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why have we a book report in a food column...shouldn't m. haldane have done his job and done a critique on one of montreal's inumerable restaurants, instead of promoting some book on food....seems like the article was misplaced and misguided. i lost my appetite!!!
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Alberto Olivera
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{16 votes}
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| Nice place but who can afford it! |
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Another Restaurant for the rich and famouse. So how much for the Salad $10.00 and $5.00 a coffee or glass of water. How can anybody afford to pay $50.00 to $70.00 a meal. With the pirces of gas and rents and everything else , how can you afford to eat at these restaurants unless you are working for the gouvernment. They have all our money !
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Maria Cecillia Silva
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{16 votes}
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