Aegean: Recipes from the Mountains to the Sea

Marianna Leivaditaki was brought up in Chania on the Greek island of Crete. Her father is a fisherman and she spent most of her childhood evenings in her family's seafood restaurant, standing on a chair peeling sacks of potatoes and gutting the day's catch. After finishing her studies, she traveled through France and Spain on a bike and lived in the Ecuadorian jungle for a while, eating local fresh produce and learning to cook in local ways. After returning to the Cretan restaurant for 2 years, she went to London and began working at Moro with Samantha and Samuel Clarke. Since 2016 she has been Head Chef at Morito, where she has brought a Cretan influence to the signature Spanish and Middle Eastern menu.

So much more than a cookbook; it is a love song to Crete and its cuisineMarianna Leivaditaki is a natural storyteller. She grew up in Chania, on the Greek island of Crete, and spent her childhood helping out in the family-run taverna. After school, she carried around her blue notebook, writing down all the recipes she would like to cook, helped by the kitchen wisdom of her Greek grandmothers. Marianna's love for the food of her heritage flows through every page, but she brings it her own contemporary style, honed through an illustrious career in professional restaurant kitchens. As head chef of the celebrated London restaurant Morito, she has championed high-quality ingredients, presenting them in simple, beautiful sharing plates. The recipes in her book, inspired by the Sea, the Land, and the Mountains of the Aegean islands, celebrate the wealth of the Mediterranean diet, rich in olive oil, fresh vegetables and fruit, nuts, fish, and whole grains, and a passion for good food and shared meals. Marianna offers achievable, delicious dishes celebrating fresh, seasonal ingredients that you can take time to enjoy with friends and family.