Lyndey & Blair’s Taste of Greece media launch at Sydney Studio Kitchen

You may know that the first episode of the television series I shot with my late son, Blair, in Greece aired at 8pm last Thursday night on SBS One. In the week prior, we hosted a dinner at Sydney Studio Kitchen for twenty journalists to launch the series.

For the night our Sydney Studio Kitchen was transformed from a television studio into a glamorous event space, complete with gorgeous little jars of olive branches.

We even decorated the napkins with olive branches and Greek evil eyes (which actually are lucky charms).

The menu was Greek (of course!), some courses from the show, others inspired by it and included: 

Haloumi, about to be grilled until golden brown, and served with a spritz of lemon

Baby prawns which were deep fried until crisp  

Tiny white fish got the same treatment 

 I helped out by preparing the mezethes in the set kitchen 

My fabulous mates Julie Ballard and her son Andrew (pictured) prepared the entree, main course and dessert. We began with an easy Mediterranean fish soup, much easier than the traditional kakavia. My good friend, Greek-born chef Janni Kyritsis proudly told me it was the precursor to the popular French bouillabaisse coming from the Phoenicians, an Ancient Greek people who founded Marseille in 600 BC.

For mains, we feasted on goat two ways – grilled long rib cutlets with rigani and stewed shoulder and leg with eggplant and tomatoes (from episode 2 so don’t miss it!), lemon potatoes, horta (wild greens) and my favourite marouli salad – a fresh mix of cos lettuce and dill. The mains were served ‘family-style’ as is traditional in Greece, in the middle of the table.

Dessert was Greek rice pudding, known as Rizogalo, which we served drizzled with fragrant Greek honey and poached quinces.

Executive Producer, John Caldon with Erik Dwyer, Executive Producer Food & Leisure, SBS 

Yasmin Newman, MasterChef Magazine, Jessica Brook, delicious magazine and Deb McDiarmid, Sydney Studio Kitchen

As well as Greek wine, we also drank ouzo

Feedback on the first episode has been fantastic. The second episode airs at 8pm on Thursday 2 June on SBS One.