About Maverick Chefs Cooking Courses - Served 3 Ways
Cook with locals
"Spending the day with the lovely Adyna was a great privilege. We learnt healthier ways to cook traditional Balkan dishes."
Stay with us
"A truly magical location for experimenting with flavours of the Mediterranean and learning about their health benefits."
Relax
"That last day yesterday was bliss, revolving around food but with loads of relaxation as well, so it's a great way to finish."
About Fiona - Maverick Chefs Founder
Hello! I’m Fiona Hall and have been working at the cutting edge ( or cooking edge !) of Vegan/ Vegetarian cuisine for over 20 years.
My Background
Before discovering and falling in love with The Peloponnese I ran my own restaurant, ‘Fiction’ in Crouch End for eight years. Prior to that I worked with an endlessly inspiring collective of chefs at Food For Thought in Covent Garden. We’re all still firm friends and you can expect them to guest here from time to time.
Fiction and Food for Thought won many awards for their creative cuisine and were well known London eateries with a devoted clientele. Happy regulars included Ray Davies, Michael Stipe, Dustin Hoffman, Thom Yorke, Red Hot Chilli Peppers and many others.
But running a busy restaurant in the UK, however successful, has limitations. Quantifying the nutritional value of the food we serve is only possible if we are absolutely sure where it was grown, what it has been exposed to and when it was picked. It was only when a famous astrologer, hoping for a miracle asked me to cook for a friend of his with cancer that I became aware of the glaring gaps in my knowledge.
Greek Food Culture
This part of Greece lies at the epicentre of an incredible age-old food culture and was an irresistible draw for a chef like me. You simply can’t source the variety and quality of produce and wild foods in the UK.
Maverick Chefs is the manifestation of years of experience, research and collaboration combined with age-old secrets and knowledge of rural field-to-plate cooking which have been all-but lost today.
Cooking in Greece has brought everything full circle for me. After 20 years in vegetarian and vegan cooking in the UK, the produce here is a revelation. It's all locals talk about – what to cook, how to cook it, what to pick and when. Food is at the very centre of people’s lives. Recipes follow the seasons. Every week at the market or in the olive grove there’s something new to be discovered. With our team of dedicated local talent we aim to welcome eager, but perhaps trepidatious cooks of all levels of culinary skill ( or none ! ) and guide, inspire and transform them into Maverick Chefs.
We're based in Gialova, Messinia Greece 24001 - just 800m from the beach. Our nearest local town is Pylos at 5km and our nearest city is Kalamata 45km. Kalamata has our local international airport. The most popular airlines from the UK are Easyjet, BA and Thomas Cook (flight only). Kalamata has flights to Thessalonika all year round and to many destinations in Western and Eastern Europe from spring to late autumn.
Location
We're based in Gialova, Messinia Greece 24001 - just 800m from the beach.
Our nearest local town is Pylos at 5km and our nearest city is Kalamata 45km.
Kalamata has our local international airport. The most popular airlines from the UK are Easyjet, BA and Thomas Cook (flight only). Kalamata has flights to Thessalonika all year round and to many destinations in Western and Eastern Europe from spring to late autumn.
