Showing posts with label Agnes Weninger Interview. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Agnes Weninger Interview. Show all posts

Friday, August 2, 2013

Deli Fare in the Village Square


In the pretty village of Archanes, Crete,
a charming, new bistro is open for business!
Bakaliko, a specialty grocery store and deli, 
cooks up delicious delicacies with a fresh twist!


 Agnes and Zsuzsa, two lovely ladies,
have an interesting story to tell of their chance meeting
and, ultimately, a culinary collaboration that
satisfies both the savoury and the sweet, 
using locally grown treasures from the island of Crete!


Won't you have a seat by the window, 
overlooking the village square?

Agnes (left), was kind enough to grant me an interview on behalf of Zsuzsa, and herself.
And prepare for an appetizing account
of this talented pair!


How did you and Zsuzsa meet?

Soon after I arrived to Crete 7 years ago, some friends and I had gone to Istioploikos (the tavern at the sailing club) for dinner. Giorgos (Zsuzsa’s husband) the maitre d, heard me speaking Hungarian on the phone and said a few words to me in Hungarian. You can imagine my surprise! But he quickly explained that his wife, who happened to be in the kitchen cooking, was Hungarian. And that was the beginning of our friendship.


How did you decide on the colours and decor in general?

My good friend, Ellen Weijers, was first charged with the task of designing a logo to go with our name. During this process, we looked at mood boards and color combinations and finally decided on this combination of mauve, olive green, beige and grey.  This then led naturally to the colors in the store, but of course an incredible amount of thought went into how exactly the colors should be used. We could not have done it without Ellen’s design advice and help and great ideas.


Do you have professional backgrounds in the restaurant business,
or are you self-taught and just plain talented?!

Yes, I do. My undergraduate University degree is a B Comm in Hotel & Food Administration and then I have a Masters in Business Administration (MBA). I am not however a professional chef, so that part of my restaurant life has been self-taught. I have also taken many, many wine courses along the way in my life and consider myself a connoisseur.


What is the most enjoyable part of your job? The least?

There are just so many enjoyable parts. For me, the best part is when customers get what we are trying to do. They understand that even though most of the products are traditional, we and our cuisine is not. We use the products in more innovative and non-classical ways to show all that can be done with these superb ingredients and each time we do a new menu item, it is exciting. I also really love it when I discover a new product that I think would be good for the store.

 Summer Salad: Grilled Haloumi skewers on a bed of watermelon,
 cucumber and red onion with a fresh mint-honey sage vinaigrette.

For me the least enjoyable part is knowing how much more I could be doing to promote the store and things like that if I were more at home in the Greek language and if the day had more than 24 hours!


What inspires your culinary creations?

It is a combination of so many things, including of course both our long years of experience in different countries and with differing cuisines. We are also often inspired by our Hungarian backgrounds. We also subscribe to the paradigm of using local and seasonal ingredients, so we are inspired by what is freshly available.  We also peruse food blogs, internet sites and often cookbooks of famous restaurants worldwide.


What is your favourite thing to eat on the menu?

It changes all the time. The first week it was the Mediterranean chicken sandwich, but  since we expanded the menu with lots of interesting Meze, I would say my favorite is our version of Saganaki. It is Graviera cheese first of all, then it  goes in an egg wash and is rolled in carob flour with dark and light sesame seeds, then sautéed and it is served with a seasonal chutney. Currently it is a grape chutney.  There are just so many combinations of flavors.


What are some surprises that you've had since you opened?

That there is no way of predicting what the day will hold since there are no 2 days alike and so far after 2.5 months, no patterns have emerged. Also surprised that overall we are quite accepted here in Archanes, even though we are both foreigners and our concept is very new to them.


What do you love most about life on Crete? Least?

As cliché as it sounds, to me the weather is all-important. Having so much sunshine is a blessing for someone who had seasonal affective disorder in the long, dreary winters in Canada.  I love that you can go on an excursion for half a day even and discover amazing vistas, sights, foods.   I love the fresh, simple ingredients available here and that the big trends in North America, like “farm to table”, local, seasonal and organic is as natural to Cretans as breathing.


One of the things I don’t like is the lack of civic pride of most people- littering all over the streets and not seeming to care as long as their place is immaculate, but one step beyond has nothing to do with them. I also have trouble with the way most locals treat stray dogs and cats. I cannot understand the cruelty of so many toward our four-legged friends.


 Besides great food and service, do you plan on introducing anything else with regards to your business, for example, music?

We have lots of plans for Bakaliko starting with “Producer Showcase” weeks, where each week we will highlight one of our suppliers and their products on a table outside with tastings and even having some company representatives available on say Friday and Saturday nights. We also want to do some community-based events such as art exhibitions, poetry and music nights, and in the later Autumn and Winter we will have wine dinners, wine and oil tastings, etc.

We hope to expand our product line in the Fall and Winter to include products from other parts of Greece so that it would be of greater interest to local.  I would also like to have our e-shop up and running by late Fall so all those who have visited us and have purchased, can buy online and never be without their favorite Cretan products.

 

Do you consider yourselves entrepreneurs?

Absolutely! Apart from a few stints teaching at Colleges & Universities and working in International Advertising, most of my life has been starting and operating my own businesses. I opened my first restaurant and 4 bedroom lakeside country Inn when I was 24.  This was followed by an Art Gallery featuring art from Hungary. These 2 business were in Canada in and around my hometown of Ottawa. 
Carob Pasta Salad with lemon, peppers and Feta

 Then I left Canada for Hungary and in 2000 opened a fine dining restaurant in the World Heritage Castle district of Budapest. I sold this when I moved to Crete in 2007. My first business in Crete was my gastronomic guide- Meet & Eat in Crete, which is now in its 7th year and also includes applications for iPhone and Android. I also have an online villa rental company called Elite in Crete and now BAKALIKO.


Thank you Agnes and Zsuzsa
for your inspiring story!


So, dear readers, 
next time you're visiting our island,
take a break and stop by Bakaliko 
for a delightful, deli experience
that is both tasty and tasteful.

Thanks for visiting me today!

Poppy


Photo credits:
Images, from top, 2, 8, 12, 14, 15, 17, 19, 20: Bakaliko
All other images: Poppy View

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