“For me, this is Greece”: chef Lefteris Tsoukas

This interview was first published after the guest dinner on 9 June 2026. The answers reflect that conversation.

That evening, Kuzina felt a little closer to Athens, with a guest dinner by chef Lefteris Tsoukas.

The five-course menu brought together contemporary Greek cooking, seasonal ingredients and a precise approach to texture and contrast. Champagne, Greek wines, land and sea: choosing a favourite course was difficult. But the conversation went beyond awards. Behind the food were memories of Thessaloniki, his father’s kitchen and journeys that shaped a flavour long before it reached a plate. We asked Tsoukas about cooking outside his own kitchen, putting the story before the technique and the dish he would use to explain Greece to a first-time visitor.

What do people most often misunderstand about Michelin-starred restaurants?

Lefteris: People confuse Michelin with tiny portions. They imagine large plates with very little food. For us, dining in a starred restaurant is much more than that. From arrival to departure, it is an experience,

something you may remember for the rest of your life.

That is part of what you are offering.

You describe your food as a contemporary reading of Greek tradition. Which part of Greece did you bring to Kuzina?

Lefteris: I did not bring the dishes we make at Delta. If you want to dine at Delta, you should come to Delta. I was born in Thessaloniki and lived there for many years before travelling. I use techniques I learned abroad, but the flavours come from Thessaloniki.

The menu included Naxos arseniko cheese, Thermaic Gulf prawns, Greek lobster and galaktoboureko. Which dishes best represent you now?

Lefteris: I would say the fish course with Champagne sauce and the blue lobster. They remind me of things I ate as a child, when my father cooked for me.

They represent who I am now

because I have taken ingredients we used to prepare differently and applied new techniques and flavour combinations, making recipes of my own.

When you create a dish, what comes first: the ingredient, the technique or the story?

Lefteris: Usually the story and the images. I travel a great deal, often into the mountains or to the sea. I see something, and an idea appears. Then I look for the ingredients and the techniques that will let me make it real.

If you could cook one dish to introduce someone to Greece, what would it be?

Lefteris: Prawn saganaki: prawns cooked with tomato sauce, star anise, feta and ouzo. It is something I love, and something my father made for me. For me, that is Greece.

What is the biggest challenge when you cook a guest dinner outside your own restaurant?

Lefteris: My first concern is always ingredients: finding the ones I want. Then the people I will work with. They need to care about what they do to follow the way I work.

They have to be committed and love being in the kitchen.

Finally, there is the kitchen itself: whether it has the equipment we need and enough room to work.

Did you have to bring ingredients for this dinner, or could you find everything here?

Lefteris: Apart from things that needed to come from Greece, such as the prawns and lobster, we found everything here. It was straightforward. It was also the right season, warm, which probably helped.

And what technique did Tsoukas share for bringing more flavour into a home kitchen?

That conversation continued in a separate piece. For now, his approach begins with something simpler: a memory worth turning into food.

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