♪ ♪ [Diane] I'm in Mikrolimano today, one of the most beautiful places in Piraeus, and a really popular dining destination for anyone visiting Athens.

I'm here to see my good friend, Lefteris Lazarou, chef owner of Varoulko Restaurant.

He's one of the most renowned seafood chefs in the world, and to my mind, the father of modern Greek cooking.

We go back a long way.

[Diane] Lefteris and I will grill whole squid on top of an amazing spanakopita puree.

To me, this is absolute Greece.

And turn the humble weever fish and cabbage into an elegant dish.

In Greece, we say drakena with lahanorizo crema.

And in the kitchen, I'll roll up cabbage shrimp dolmades with a saffron béchamel.

We're gonna make use of this entire head of cabbage.

Join me on My Greek Table to celebrate the birth of modern Greek cuisine.

♪ ♪ [Announcer] My Greek Table with Diane Kochilas is made possible in part by...

The Fillo Factory.

Grecian Delight Kronos, A family committed to better eating.

Dodoni, tradition in taste.

Celestyal Cruises.

Meltemi Greek Yogurt.

The National Hellenic Society And by the following... ♪ ♪ [Diane] I go back a long way with Lefteris Lazarou, arguably Greece's most renowned modern chef.

To my mind, he is the father of modern Greek haute cuisine and his path parallels the story of food over the last three decades in Athens.

From the simple cooking of a small provincial city to a world-class culinary destination, Lefteris was at the helm of this transition.

Born in Piraeus to humble roots with the sea in his blood, his father was a galley cook and Lefteris himself started to cook on boats as a young man.

With well-honed technique and creativity, he became renowned not only as the father of modern Greek cuisine, but as one of the great seafood chefs of the world.

In his hand, the humble monkfish was brought from obscurity to become one of the most sought-after fish species on Greece's gastronomic scene.

That's but one example among countless ways that Lefteris, throughout his career, looked to some of the humblest fish in the Aegean and transformed them into high art on the plate.

Now, Lefteris himself is like an elder statesman, but tireless.

And he's gone full circle back to his roots in Piraeus with a gorgeous restaurant overlooking the very sea that runs through his veins.

Lefteris.

(both laugh) [Diane] Okay.

(sound of motorcycle engine) (background chatter) [Diane] Okay.

[Diane] Okay.

[Diane] Okay.

(laughs) [Diane] Okay.

You put a mountain of spinach in there and it has to be humbled.

So, what does that mean?

It just has to lose some volume.

(Diane laughs) (food processor whirring) Dill... Anithos... A little lemon juice.

Little bit of dill at a time, little bit of lemon juice at a time, because he wants to also test the acidity.

(food processor whirring) [Lefteris] Feta.

Love Feta, I love it.

[Diane] These are pre-baked phyllo sheets.

(food processor whirring) Smells like spanakopita.

Ah, he puts the olive oil in the tentacles.

That's a first.

A little salt, okay.

And those tweezers.

[Diane] You want to score the squid tubes.

Ah, so he just puts a little spatula in there and that stops the knife, so you don't go all the way through.

He doesn't want to make rings.

♪ ♪ It's so simple.

[Diane] Ah, okay.

That's beautiful.

We're gonna serve now.

The ice made this color bright green.

Yeah.

Beautiful color.

His food philosophy, his cooking philosophy is founded on two things, great ingredients and great ideas.

It's very simple.

It's exactly what I've known Lefteris for, you know, these past 30 years.

That's beautiful.

[Diane] Mm.

I just took a deep sea dive into the deliciousness of Lefteris's cooking.

(chuckles) The squid is so tender, but married with his spanakopita cream, to me, this is absolute Greece.

This is what it's all about.

This is real Greek cooking from the father of modern Greek cooking.

(glasses clang) Eis ygeian.

One of the things I've learned when it comes to food is that tradition and innovation are not mutually exclusive.

Today I'm making a stuffed cabbage dish, lahanodolmades, a really traditional dish, but this one is inspired by my good friend Lefteris Lazarou.

The first thing, we're gonna do is get the core out of the cabbage and blanch it, so that the leaves are nice and soft, malleable enough to roll.

You want to just cut at the base.

Carefully, because it's a little bit tough.

And just get that core out of there.

You might have to work at it a little bit.

There we go.

I've got some salted water simmering.

I'm just gonna lower the cabbage in there carefully.

Cover the pot.

We're gonna get going on the filling.

I'm gonna just heat a little bit of olive oil.

We just want to sear the shrimp.

All this great shrimp liquid is gonna add a lot of flavor to the rice filling.

We're just gonna cook the shrimp until they turn pink.

I'm just gonna get whatever juice is left in here.

We want to get going on the rest of the filling, which is a little bit more olive oil.

Chopped red onion.

Together with the onions, I've got some coarsely shredded carrot.

And chopped garlic.

You want to keep the garlic moving so you don't burn it.

Next in, the rice, and I'm using a medium grain rice here.

And I like to sauté the rice.

Get it coated with the olive oil, because that brings out this beautiful, nutty flavor.

And now, we're pretty much ready to add some vegetable stock.

And next in, crushed tomatoes.

These are canned tomatoes.

I'm gonna get the wine in here next and this is just a dry white wine.

I want to get a little bit of salt in here.

It's time to get the shrimp in here.

I want to empty out all this beautiful shrimp juice first.

Now, I'm gonna coarsely chop the shrimp.

I'm gonna turn this off and just stir in the shrimp.

(hits the spoon on the side) A little bit of fresh mint.

You can use fresh or dried mint in this.

And one last little secret ingredient, some lemon zest.

Just get that mixed in here.

We're ready for the cabbage.

It's nice and tender.

Want to do this carefully because it's hot, obviously.

And I've got a bowl of ice water here.

Just to cool it down.

You don't want it to continue cooking.

As soon as this drains, we'll be ready to roll, because the rice filling is nice and cool.

Let's see these beautiful leaves here.

They should peel right off.

Don't worry if some of them are torn.

We're gonna make use of this entire head of cabbage.

I'm gonna separate out the better leaves.

Whatever's left at the end, I can just chop and add to the filling.

Okay, I'm just gonna chop whatever's left here.

I'm adding this to the filling, mostly so that it doesn't go to waste.

Little bit of olive oil goes on the bottom of the pan.

So, what I'm doing now is finding, kind of the torn leaves, just to layer on the bottom of the pot so that the cabbage rolls don't come into direct contact with the flame.

Let me just get a little bit of filling on here.

Try to get a shrimp, at least one piece of shrimp in each dolma.

So, you start rolling from the bottom, and you try to fold in the sides.

And as you do that, you're kind of working all your fingers.

You don't want this to be too tight.

That's really important.

You want there to be enough room for the rice to expand a little bit.

You want to put the seam side down so that the roll stays closed.

I'm just gonna work concentrically.

You want to be careful not to overstuff the leaves because as the rice expands, you don't want the leaves to tear.

Get the sides in and remember, use all your fingers or most of them.

And roll that up, seam side down.

You just want to make sure they're snug.

That keeps them from opening.

The last one going in.

And a little bit of extra virgin Greek olive oil, just for good measure.

A pinch of sea salt.

And a little bit of vegetable stock.

You can also use water.

We don't want to cover the dolmades.

We just want to make sure there's enough in here, so that they essentially steam.

A little trick, we always put a plate over any kind of dolmades that we make.

And we do that to keep the leaves from opening as this gently simmers.

So, this is going to get covered.

We're gonna simmer this for around 20, 25 minutes until the cabbage and rice are tender and all that liquid pretty much absorbed.

I'm ready to make the béchamel and this is a little bit of an unusual recipe because it calls for olive oil and butter.

As soon as the butter melts, I'm gonna add the flour to make the roux.

We want to make sure to cook the flour and you want to cook it a little bit, so you don't get that raw, pasty flour taste.

This is ready.

I can tell because it's got this almost velvety consistency.

And you keep whisking while you add the milk.

The cream goes in next.

And this isn't gonna take very long to cook.

Want to season this up a little bit, so a little bit of salt.

A little pepper.

Some turmeric, and what really gives it the beautiful flavor, Greek saffron or Krokos Kozanis.

And I'm just stirring this to help thicken it a little bit.

Okay, this is done.

So, you basically want a really thick but loose béchamel.

The dolmades definitely smell like they're ready.

Let's get the plate out of here.

It's hot so when you do this, you want to be careful.

Yeah, they look really beautiful.

So, let's get them out.

I want to do this carefully.

They smell really great.

I'm gonna get a little bit of béchamel over this.

Just adding a round of lemon and some mint.

Let's taste this beautiful dish.

Mm.

Wow.

It's really elegant, this dish.

I got the beautiful seafood flavor from the shrimp.

All of those very subtle spices are coming through in full bloom in the béchamel.

The saffron and the turmeric just add this wonderful exotic note.

The sauce is rich.

And I'm thinking, "What would I pair with this, in terms of Greek wine?"

It would definitely be a Malagouzia, which is one of the oldest indigenous grape varietals in Greece.

Beautiful citrusy flavors, a little bit floral, and it goes beautifully with rich seafood dishes like this.

Eis ygeian.

This next recipe I can happily describe as the meeting of poor man's food and the rich, fertile imagination of a world-class chef.

[Diane] Okay.

It's... [Diane] Okay.

[Diane] Leeks.

The cabbage goes in next.

There's about half a head of cabbage in here, coarsely shredded.

[Diane] Mm.

This recipe in itself, the lahanorizo, cabbage rice, is one of the great vegan and vegetarian recipes in the Greek kitchen.

It's one of the classics of the Lenten table.

We eat it, you know, throughout the year, but especially during periods of fasting.

[Lefteris] Mm-hmm, mm-hmm, mm-hmm... [Diane] Okay.

The saffron, Krokos Kozanis.

This is in powdered form.

So now it's perfumed.

It's got beautiful color.

[Diane] He goes right to the bone from the head.

And he's going along the top of the spine of the fish.

There's a tiny, tiny but sharp line of bones down the middle, and that's what he's cutting away.

Okay.

(food processor whirring) That's apple cider vinegar.

And a little bit of salt.

[Lefteris] Oh... Yeah.

(Diane laughs) Yeah.

[Diane] Perfect.

Ah, okay.

So he's cutting it, thinking ahead about how he's gonna serve it.

Skin side down first.

The frying pan is hot, which is why he's oiling the fish instead, so that it doesn't splatter.

[Diane] Ah, he's looking for the dark color on the skin.

It's beautiful.

Well, it's that beautiful moment of getting to taste this beautiful dish.

If we were somewhere else, say Italy, they would call this cucina povera, poor man's cooking.

In Greece, we say drakena with lahanorizo crema.

Mm.

I can taste the rice, I can taste the cabbage, I can taste the saffron.

It's really, really subtle, but also very, very much there.

I can also taste a little bit of that nice acidity from the vinegar and the lemon juice.

I can believe he created it.

Not only because I witnessed it, but because I have 30 years of memories of his flavors, of his dishes.

(Diane laughs) So, may the universe keep us well, so we can meet again, and enjoy delicious food with each other, but also with you.

[Diane] For recipe links and information about My Greek Table , visit my website, DianeKochilas.com.

[Announcer] Diane's cookbooks "My Greek Table" and "Ikaria" are available to purchase online at DianeKochilas.com Or call the phone number on the screen.

My Greek Table with Diane Kochilas is made possible in part by...

The Fillo Factory.

Grecian Delight Kronos, A family committed to better eating.

Dodoni, tradition in taste.

Celestyal Cruises.

Meltemi Greek Yogurt.

The National Hellenic Society.

And by the following... Uh-oh.

Now, the fun is starting.

(laughs) Cheers.

Yamas.

♪ ♪ ♪ ♪ ♪ ♪