Sifnos: a gastronomic journey through the coolest Greek island that you probably haven’t heard of
In his book The Greek House: the story of a painter’s love affair with the island of Sifnos, Christian Brechneff recalls his first visit in 1972. After a 15 hour journey in a small, rusty ferry boat, he arrived at three in the morning. The ferry anchored in the middle of the harbour and the passengers had to climb down rope ladders into a range of small fishing boats to reach the shore – there was no ferry dock back then. Sifnos didn’t have many roads in the early 1970s (in fact, just one, from the port of Kamares to the capital Appolonia), so travelling around was a bit of a mission. It’s changed a lot since then. But not too much.
Sifnos is special. It’s a small island in the Cyclades, a group of islands in the Aegean sea. In an age of over-tourism, Sifnos has kept its charm. Two-and-a-half hours from Athens on the fast ferry, the small size of the island and the relative lack of accommodation (there are no sizeable towns) has kept mass tourism away. And the emergence of some seriously good restaurants alongside genuine tavernas means that there’s plenty here to reward the gastrotourist.
It was Sifnian chef Nikolaos Tselementes who first put Sifnos on the gastronomic map. Born on the island in 1878, he was heavily influenced by French cuisine, and his vision was to modernize traditional Greek cooking. From 1910 he published a magazine called Cooking Guide, and in 1930 published the much-reprinted Guide to Cooking and Pastry. Tselementes is the most celebrated Greek chef of all, and his legacy is explored in this article in Saveur. In a great example of metonymy, Tselemente is still widely used as a term for a cook book of any kind, not just his: pass me the Tselemente!
The modern hero of Sifnian gastronomy is Giorgio Samoilis. Born in 1979 in Athens, he moved to Sifnos and opened Omega 3 in Platys Giallos in 2013. It’s now one of the leading (if not the leading) restaurant on the island, and has a reputation that spreads far beyond Sifnos. More recently Samoilis, who has a PhD in protein biochemistry, has been devoting himself to the magnificent Cantina, tucked into the cliffs of Seralia beach, overlooked by the spectacular village of Kastro. He also has another restaurant in Faros, Pelicanos.
I loved Sifnos. It has a series of bays that you can reach by car, and all have their own personality. I spent five nights here, bookended with a night in Athens at each end, and the experience was great. Travelling in the second week of September, we avoided the crowds and the higher summer temperatures, but managed to catch the more seasonal venues before they closed.
SIFNOS GASTRO JOURNEY
- 1 INTRODUCTION
- 2 CHERINOSSOS AND FISH TAVERN FYSOSS
- 3 PLATYS GIALOS AND OMEGA 3; KASTRO AND LOGGIA
- 4 KASTRO AND CANTINA, LOGGIA REPRISE
- 5 CHRYSOPIGI TAVERN; FAROS; VAHTI BAY AND MANOLIS
- 6 VAHTI BAY AND TSIKALI; KEREMOS AND PARALIA BEACH BAR AND AGYRIS
- 7 BACK TO CHERINOSSOS; SIFNOS STONEWARE
