Dinner at Sigri Olive Mill June 2021
Award-winning Michelin Star Executive Chef. President of the Chefs ’Brigade Greece Slow food community
Nikolaos Fotiadis, born in Kavala, showed his interest in cooking from a young age. He studied at the School of Tourism of Parnitha as well as at the School of Cooks of the Armed Forces. His passion and dedication all these years have given him a Michelin star (2002), 2 golden hats (2006 and 2009) and dozens of other distinctions in Greece and abroad.
He has associated his name with the most famous and most successful restaurants in Greece such as Varoulko, HYTRA, Nikolas of Schinoussa, Castello Hydra, Meze, Solymar, the restaurants of the Kastelorizo group, Sourediko, See you, the Shark, Telemachos, Dash and Davantouri while today, he is Executive Chef of the Bank of Greece and curates the menus of the restaurants Balcony, "Lake of Vouliagmeni" and Liogerma. At the same time, he collaborated as a technical consultant in the companies Farma Fotiadis, Paleokipos, Bourazani resort and in the women's cooperative Trigonos Evros "GAIA".
A recognized Executive chef from the Aristotle University of Thessaloniki and certified inspector of the I.S.O. 22000 (IRCA A17365), was from 2000 to 2010 a professor at the cooking school "Le Monde" transferring his experience to young ambitious chefs. He has participated as a speaker in many seminars for catering professionals, such as the Butcher Association, the Costa Navarino Hotel Complex (2017) and the Open University (2014). He has also taken part in dozens of events on local products in collaboration with educational institutions in the country for the purpose of training and informing catering professionals and academics such as the event "Vineyard and wine in Greece" (Institute of Arts - 2014).
His experience and judgment have been trusted by some of the biggest gastronomic competitions in the country (100 restaurant Awards, Estia Awards, Meat days (judge of organoleptic elements in 3 of the 5 exhibitions), Tsakonian eggplant festival, 4th International Gastronomy Festival (2006), Panhellenic Festival of Culinary Arts (2004). He is the author of two cookbooks, "Olive and Rice" (2009), which is a bilingual publication on the occasion of the Beijing Olympics which analyses the common gastronomic aspects of the cultures of Greece and China and of "Musical Peridromos" (2016) in which the rebetiko song marries sweetly with its traditional gastronomy yesterday in a collection that includes rare recipes and re-performances of "culinary" rebetiko songs. It is worth noting that the latter received an audience award from the company Public (2017).
Having been significantly active in the field of specialized gastronomy and the peculiarities of local cuisine in Greece, he transfers his deep knowledge of Mediterranean and international cuisine either as a speaker at conferences and Executive chef at gastronomy festivals, or as a collaborator of scientific bodies such as the EK Hotel Chamber of Greece (on the subject of the Greek breakfast) and in SETE conferences (on the subject of gastronomic tourism) while it took part in conducting research on the organoleptic components of products in collaboration with the TEI of Athens. He had a presence at the TIF with a live cooking presentation on "Ancient Greece and China at the same table" and gave an interview to a similar Chinese media (2010). He collaborated with the Greek Tourism Organization as an inspector, with the aim of recognizing the quality of Greek cuisine and took part in the program of the Ministry of Health of Cyprus entitled "Food profit" for the promotion of the Mediterranean diet with rapporteur Ms. Trichopoulou. Nikos Fotiadis, intensely aware of environmental issues, participates in WWF campaigns for proper fishing (2018).
Being active abroad, Nikos Fotiadis has represented the country in dozens of gastronomy festivals with the aim of promoting the gastronomic uniqueness of the country. Some of the activities in which he has participated include the representation of the country and the Bank of Greece, in the European Central Bank within the week of Greek Culture & Gastronomy, in South Africa within the festival "Flavors and Aromas of Athos and the Aegean" and in Moscow, Russia in the context of an honorary award ceremony at the restaurant "Molon Lave" for the use of Greek olive oil (2016). He also participated in the festival "Greece on your plate!" which took place at the restaurant "Philema" in Brussels on the initiative of MEP Mr. Kouloglou and brought to the center of gastronomic interest the Greek gastronomic wealth (2017). At the same time, he took part in Food Expo 2017 in the context of the presentation of the program "Meet the Lamb" in order to highlight the Greek lamb in the Mediterranean diet.
In an effort to highlight the high gastronomy and training of catering professionals, he has been Executive Chef and presenter of the symposium of the Epirus Gastronomy Club at Bourazani Ressort, with the theme of hunting, while at the same time, he was organizer and Executive chef of the trio event in Trigono. Balkan cuisine in the Triangle "as well as a speaker at a conference of the same event, on" The contribution of local gastronomy to tourism and rural development "which was attended by catering professionals from Bulgaria and Turkey. He has contributed to the organization of a conference on the promotion of olive oil in collaboration with producer groups and has edited a recipe booklet as an insert in the magazine "Health & Wellness" on the subject of olive oil on behalf of the Olive Oil Company. He has been a keynote speaker in a series of seminars on cutting & anatomy of meat from SOPEXA (2005-2006) as well as in a seminar for catering professionals, students and graduates of the LE MONDE school on "The Roe".
He has also coached teams in national competitions of young chefs from which he managed to win 4 medals, three gold, one silver and one bronze. He was a speaker and coordinator at the meetings of the chef club Athens (2006) and at the 6th Eyroasper conference on "Asparagus". Finally, he was in the discussion panel and edited the menu of the 1st International Hellenic Gastronomic Conference held at the Athens Concert Hall (2018).
His deep knowledge of the Mediterranean diet and its importance in childhood, led them to participate in the educational festival of cooking and nutrition for young children in collaboration with Giannis Baxevanis (2008) and in the festival of child nutrition and cooking in the camps of the Bank of Greece (2009).
For Nikos Fotiadis, continuous education is the secret of his successful course. Throughout his career he has attended dozens of seminars, including workshop & theory seminars on "Molecular Gastronomy", training seminars for teaching culinary art, French-Mediterranean cuisine by chef Stefan de Mikeli, French-Mediterranean cuisine chef Jacques Cibois.
He has been a member of the association for the revival and rescue of Greek cuisine "Arhestratos", president and founding member of the Institute of Greek Traditional Food Culture as well as Vice President and founding member of the Institute of Gastronomy Pieria. He has been a member of the Chef club of Athens, May Fair, and Euro Toque and today he actively participates in "DIMOFELIA", carrying out a series of actions in collaboration with the Municipal Public Benefit Enterprise of the Municipality of Kavala to promote local Kavala cuisine and local products.
