Koutsou & co: The kitchen in the covered walkway

The first impression of the brand new, in those days, Koutsou & co kitchen was that it had already been integrated into the microcosm of the gallery that hosts it, even though not even a week had passed since the day it opened. Even the figure on the faint ochre of the signboard depicting Argyro Koutsou with her trademark torch in her hair felt like it had always been there.

For those who missed her, in `21, when she was cooking in Tzoutzuka in Rouf, perhaps I should say a few words about her, starting with the fact that she is self-taught - as were, after all, most of the people who interrupted the art of the pot in the magical, with mastery and dedication. What distinguishes her from the old potters is her modern outlook and how she combines her family recipes with her recipes.

In all those twenty-two years working as a project manager at major cultural events, it seems that Argyro Koutsou did not only collect tasting experiences and recipes from her travels and the kitchens of others, her friends or colleagues. Equipped with the knowledge she gained from her memos, but also with her ability to improvise, at some point, she began to cook professionally and to formulate an entirely her own exuberant but also characteristic mannerism - which she described as "trampy" in the past, describing, I suppose, her culinary nonconformism. These traits were why the public embraced her and loved her food. This also explains why her old customers rushed to visit Xenophontos` kitchen from the very first day, despite her almost three years of absence from the Athenian restaurant scene.

Argyro Koutsou, trying to find a place to house her culinary vision, discovered a "forgotten" kitchen two steps from Syntagma at 15A Xenofontos Street, in an informal gallery leading to the entrance of an apartment building. Not just any apartment building, though. The building was associated with wine and olive oil for years, since it once housed the associations of wine and distillate and olive oil professionals (SEVOP - and later SEO - and SEVITEL). He took it over and radically renovated it.

Even though the shop had only a liliputian kitchenette, she loved it because it would allow her to realize her old dream - to open a modern winery as she imagined. And that gave her wings. Long before Koutsou & co took "flesh and blood" she had already decided that her menu would change daily, depending on the season and what she would discover each time at the market. She also wanted to include dishes that would occasionally stick in her mind, like that stuffed spleen that she said she had never cooked before, which almost from the beginning occupied a place in her most recent hits.

I immediately appreciated the new look of the place. While everything looks old-fashioned, nothing exudes the old misery anymore. It has taken care of all the details. The well-tied, sand-coloured tablecloths blend with the dyed blue, woven chairs. The wine comes at the right temperature and in a champagne glass.

In a corner of the lodge, she has even posted a blackboard - which may not be black, but it allows her to write with her chalk what the day`s cooking is and cross out what`s finished. She says there are most often figured there, those dishes she`s already loved and repeats because she`s asked for them. Among them will be her eggs with red sauce and pastrami, her fluffy, mint-scented fried meatballs that come with golden, thickly cut, fried potatoes or her onion dumplings and, of course, her generous pastitsio with prawns and sausage from Drama, which she serves in an individual clay pot.

After my first (business) visit, I visited Koutsou & co twice with different groups. This allowed me to try everything I mentioned and conclude that the food here, while not following the protocol of a typical restaurant, is different from the traditional galley too. After all, how likely is it to find cooked lemon peas paired with boiled veal tongue in a galley or a wheat trachea accompanied by authentic Tino`s sausage and paired with polished Sifnos manouri?

The good news is that tourists discovering Koutsou & Co. are also excited. They find that there is such a thing as unknown, everyday Greek cuisine, which moves outside the clichés of muzaka-giros -jakiki-choriatiki.

This cuisine will always be an occasion to meet and share. As all the food is cooked with love, generosity, and good—and carefully chosen—ingredients, it`s easy to overlook the fact that some dishes are too exuberant. Besides, although a virtue, abstraction tends to be considered elitism in our times, which is not in keeping with a kitchen`s daily routine.

At Koutsou & Co., you can get food in a takeaway. I would recommend sitting down for a meal and in company. On the one hand, food is more charming when shared with people who fit in and relax us; on the other hand, we get to try more.