ATHINAGORAS KOSTAKOS
They say in any great adventure, it’s not where you end up, but how you get there that truly matters. For Athinagoras, his origins where what set the tone for his entire journey.
He grew up among the tables and aromatic roasting spits of his family’s taverna, “Ta Vlachika”, a popular Greek meat restaurant so distinct that its name became synonymous with the whole area surrounding it, in Vari. Here, Athinagoras soaked up the rich, rustic flavours and briliant clarity of Greek cuisine — a culinary baptism, of sorts.
Several “roasteries” later, followed by a rigorous culinary education at Le Monde in Greece, Italy’s Casta Alimenticata, and the famed Ritz Escoffier in France, we find him working alongside none other than Pietro del Grosso at Grand Resort Lagonissi and winning the Greek “Top Chef” shortly after. His impressive resume includes top culinary landmarks such as the Sofitel and Fresh hotels, the acclaimed Pil Poul in Thiseion, the chic Moorings restaurant in Vouliagmeni, and, of course, the lauded Bill & Coo Rastaurant in Mykonos.
In 2015, Athinagoras introduced the world to Scorpios Mykonos as it’s culinary director, a concept beach-bar-restaurant that quickly became the global jet set’s reason to raise their glass. Such was its influence that, inevitably, it became a kind of blueprint for many others to follow. A few years later, as a key partner to the celebrated “enfant terrible” of the business world, Richard Caring, Athinagoras co-launched Noema, a dining phenomenon and a case study in Mykonian chic. This stellar duo are also the masterminds behind Bacchanalia, in Mayfair, London – a restaurant so adored, it may well require its own postcode.
Athinagoras is the master of the “sharing food” true Greek spirit and philosophy. His tables are set with a joyful, convivial spread where good food, good wine, and good company conspire to capture that quintessentially Greek festive vibe. This “sharing” concept has gathered millions of devotees with projects sprouting up from London to Los Angeles, New York to Singapore, and Mexico to Cyprus, each like a pin on the map of global Greek culinary influence.
Deemed the most influential Greek chef by The Chefs Power List 2023 in the highly regarded Food & Leisure Guide, Athinagoras has been dubbed the “Chef of the Cyclades,” “the ingenious Odysseus of Greek gastronomy,” and “the hottest Greek name on the international culinary scene.”
Yet, for all the adulation, he still describes himself as a humble cook, a devoted husband, and a father to an “exceptional family,” which, as he puts it, remains his life’s greatest creation.
