Diane Kochilas

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Diane Kochilas Diane Kochilas is one of the world’s foremost experts on Greek and Mediterranean cuisine. The series is in its third season.

🍽 Greek-American Celebrity Chef
👩‍🍳Blue Zone Ikaria Cooking Classes & Ikaria PLUS Greek Culinary-Cultural Trips
🛍 Shop Greek Specialty Foods
🎥 TV Show:
TAG ME @ She is the host, creator, and co-producer of My Greek Table, the award-winning 13-episode per season cooking-travel show about Greece that airs nationally on Public Television. Diane hails from the Blue Zone Greek island of Ikaria and New York City and brings a combination of innate Blue-Zone wellness and result-oriented NYC spirit to everything she does. She is an award-winning author of more than 18 books on Greek-Mediterranean Cuisine and runs the Glorious Greek Kitchen on Ikaria Cooking School every spring and fall on the island. Diane also organizes culinary excursions and walking tours in Greece and cooking classes throughout the United States. She has been at the forefront of bringing healthy Greek and Mediterranean cuisine to an American audience for more than 25 years. Diane has been consulting chef for many of the top Greek restaurants in the United States and for years has worked with university dining services at Harvard, Yale, and UMass Amherst to bring healthy Mediterranean cooking to student dining halls. She is a frequent speaker at the CIA and other major culinary institutions.

I am already missing my morning walks…On Ikaria, nobody goes for a walk just to get exercise. We walk almost as a kind o...
15/10/2026

I am already missing my morning walks…
On Ikaria, nobody goes for a walk just to get exercise. We walk almost as a kind of meditation…to see and hear what the land and the season are whispering. Walking calms my soul. 🍂

This season the land whispers…autumn.
The olives turn black and the branches are heavy. The quince is almost ripe, and you smell it before you see it. The crocuses are a favorite – they're hope – a burst of brightness pushing up through dry earth. Pomegranates are splitting open for a few lucky birds before we get to them. The taboura squash, such an Ikarian classic, hangs heavy over the old stone walls in my village. The last prickly pears hang on, and the chestnuts bristle like tiny hedgehogs, almost ready. I can imagine their aroma as they roast. Part of me wants to be in front of an Ikarian tzatziki - fireplace – savoring them.🍁🧡

Walking every day, in Ikaria and everywhere I am, has become a necessary habit for me. It's mostly about clearing my head and living in the moment, slowing down, even if only for an hour, to observe what's all around. Ikarians have always lived this way, and I think it's part of why they live so long. Often enough, too, seeing what's in season inspires dinner. (I can't help it!)🥰

🗨️Comment WALK and I'll send you the full story.
Save this for your next morning walk, and send it to the friend you'd walk with. 💛
Tell me in the comments: what is autumn telling you where you live? 👇

✔️The full story is on my Substack: https://substack.com/
And if you'd like to walk these paths with me, my autumn 2027 Ikaria retreats are now open: a week in my village, cooking from my garden and living by the season. Links in bio.🔗

13/10/2026

This is CABBAGE. And it may be one of the best things I've cooked this fall.🍁
In Greece, when the tomatoes disappear, cabbage takes over. It's our winter salad, on every taverna table from now until spring. But this is cabbage the way most people have never had it: roasted at high heat until the edges are browned, crispy and almost charred, and the inside turns tender, sweet and silky.🥬🧡

I serve the wedges over a cool lemony yogurt sauce with garlic, then finish with feta, toasted walnuts, dill, scallions and good olive oil, of course. Hot and cold, crispy and creamy, salty and fresh, all in one forkful. It'll send you back for seconds.🥰

📩 Send this to someone who thinks they don't like cabbage.
📌 Save it for the next time a head of cabbage is staring at you from the fridge.
What's the most surprising thing you've ever made with cabbage? Tell me below 👇

Full recipe on my website, link in bio.🔗Follow along for how Greeks really cook, season by season.

11/10/2026

Every island in Greece is a world unto itself. We start with the wildest one.🌊
Ikaria PLUS begins on my home turf, the island that shaped me: wild, untamed, and so very different from everywhere else we'll go. (It’s also a Blue Zone…no stress, long, happy living, a follow-the-joy mindset).💙🇬🇷

Tonight we sit down to a meal at Mary-Mary, and a little local trahana and a very cool fall salad that’s spanakopita in a bowl.

From here we sail to the sanctuary of Apollo on Delos, once one of the most important places in the ancient world. Then Syros, the capital of the Cyclades, and Tinos, carved into terraces so beautifully that one of its marble artists told me all of Tinos is a sculpture. And a taste of glorious Athens at the end.😍

I'm taking you with me, dear friends: one island at a time, one dish at a time, each stop with a story. Next stop, Delos, via Mykonos. Follow along so you don't miss it 👇

‼️📢Want to join us in 2027? BOOK before October 15th and enjoy an Early-Bird Price – 10% off.

Details are linked in my bio.🔗

09/10/2026

Greeks eat more pasta than you think: second only to the Italians in Europe. We're just not obsessed with it! But we do have some great recipes, both traditional and modern, like this one, a new fall dish I just made.

It all comes together in about 40 minutes with everyday ingredients you can find anywhere: cauliflower, garlic, capers, lemon and good olive oil, of course. Garlicky breadcrumbs and feta bring it full circle.

This combo has a true Greek soul, thanks to the oregano-lemon-garlic trio and the feta. The texture will win you over and send you back for seconds: comforting pasta in the same forkful as crunchy cauliflower and all the tangy goodness of the caper-feta-lemon mix.

📩 Send this to whoever's cooking dinner with you this week.
📌 Save it for the next busy weeknight.

Did you know Greeks love pasta this much? Tell me below 👇
Full recipe linked in my bio. Follow along for how Greeks really cook, season by season.

07/10/2026

Every Greek cook I know would call this cheating. 🫘
But slow-cooked Greek food was always made ahead. My chickpeas, braised for hours with vegetables and a touch of honey, taste even better the next day, so they were made for the freezer.

This is my recipe, now in a box. Let’s say it’s a kind of Freezer Diary: the real story of taking a recipe from my kitchen to your freezer aisle.

Want it in your freezer? Comment your city and the store where you shop, and I'll make sure the right people see it. 👇

Retailers and distributors: [email protected]

In Greece, fall doesn't start with pumpkin spice. It starts with the first rain. 🌧️It’s always sad to say goodbye to sum...
05/10/2026

In Greece, fall doesn't start with pumpkin spice. It starts with the first rain. 🌧️

It’s always sad to say goodbye to summer, but fall has its glories, too. A day or two after it rains, the landscape changes completely. Greener, and largely edible! Wild greens come back to fields and slopes. The heat finally breaks, and the pots I ignored all summer go back on the stove: chickpeas, lentils, slow braises. Cauliflower piles up at the market. And pumpkin? We put it in savory pies, not lattes. No offense!
These are the 5 dishes that tell me fall has arrived in my kitchen:

🌿 Greens & rice, the first thing I cook when all those mineral- and antioxidant greens return
🥣 Greek chickpea soup, simple and slow, borrowed from Diporto in Athens, and my Athens book
🍠 Lentil & Kale potato soup, my weeknight pot
🥦 Braised cauliflower, unusual and so good
🎃 Squash filled with everything that goes into spanakopita

All these recipes are warm, comforting and hearty, but not heavy. That's how Greeks eat when the weather turns.

📩 Send this to the person you cook with this fall.
📌 Save it for the next time you're wondering what to make.

What tells YOU fall has arrived where you live? I want to know. 👇

Recipes are linked in my bio. Follow along for how Greeks actually cook, season by season.

01/10/2026

I’m back in my kitchen cooking up new ideas—and happy about that. 🍂

After a great summer teaching my cooking classes on Ikaria, and before I head off again on my fall travels, I just wanted to cook up some seasonal recipes that welcome Fall to the table..

✔️This Roasted Butternut Squash with Whipped Feta, Walnuts & Pomegranate is first on the list.😉

Sweet, caramelized butternut squash over a creamy blend of Greek feta and yogurt, finished with toasted walnuts, pomegranate, herbs and plenty of good Greek olive oil. How can you not love that?🧡

There’s a little optional Greek secret in there, too: petimezi, our traditional grape molasses. I love the depth it gives the roasted squash.🇬🇷

It’s creamy, salty, sweet, crunchy and fresh all at once—and much easier than it looks.

💌 My newsletter subscribers got to see this recipe first (yesterday). Subscribe if you haven’t yet. (link in bio)

👉 Get the full recipe at DianeKochilas.com. Find the link in bio.

And tell me: What’s the first ingredient you start craving when fall arrives? Squash? Mushrooms? Lentils? Apples? Something else?

Save this one for your fall cooking and send it to someone who loves feta as much as I do.

29/09/2026

Most people outside Greece have never heard of this ancient Greek food.
It’s called trahana—and introducing my guests to ingredients like this is one of my favorite parts of teaching on Ikaria.😍

ℹ️Trahana has been part of the Greek kitchen for generations. It’s one of the world’s earliest slow fast foods – humble, comforting, nourishing and incredibly quick to cook. And, like so much traditional Ikarian food, it reminds us that eating well doesn’t have to be complicated.

This soup wasn't planned. It was an ad hoc recipe inspired by a bowl of zucchini water left over from squeezing out the liquid from grated zucchini we used for making fritters. I sautéed onions and garlic in extra-virgin olive oil, added the trahana, and then used the liquid we'd saved earlier that day.

✔️Nothing good goes to waste.

That kind of instinctive, resourceful cooking is something I want my guests to understand—not simply how to follow a recipe, but how to think like a real (Greek!) cook.😉🇬🇷

It's also one small window into the traditional food culture of Ikaria, one of the world's original Blue Zones, where simple ingredients, seasonality, resourcefulness and cooking from scratch have been part of everyday life for generations.

And a few minutes later, lunch was ready: warm bowls of trahana finished with Greek yogurt, extra-virgin olive oil, herbs and a little hot pepper. 🌿
This is what I want you to experience when you come cook with me on Ikaria.

🇬🇷 My June 2027 Ikaria Cooking & Longevity Retreats are now open.
👉 Details and booking at the link in my bio.

❓️Have you ever eaten trahana—or is this the first time you've heard of it? Tell me below.
👉️Save this so you remember trahana—and share it with the person you'd bring to Ikaria.

27/09/2026

Come cook with me where I learned to cook. 🇬🇷

Ikaria is where I really learned to cook. Not from cookbooks or in a school, but from the women in the villages, from family kitchens, from gardens, and from a way of life that taught me about fresh, seasonal, simple food shared with others.

Now, so many years later, I feel blessed that one of my greatest pleasures is also something I share with others. (My guests seem pretty happy, too!)

Together we cook traditional Ikarian and Greek dishes, sometimes with a twist, discover local ingredients – from the island but also from around Greece – visit my fellow villagers who keep bees, breed and graze goats, make w**e and more. There's plenty of time for swimming, exploring, conversation, and simply enjoying life.

But what stays with me most are the friendships we make.

A heartfelt thank-you to all my amazing guests who have joined me over the years, and especially to those who shared their experiences in this video. You bring so much to my kitchen and to this island. ❤️

I'd love to welcome you to Ikaria in 2027.

Come cook with me where I learned to cook.

👉 Explore my Ikaria cooking classes and upcoming dates through the link in my bio.

Tell me: If you spent a week cooking with me on Ikaria, what would you most want to experience — the cooking, the island's food traditions, or simply slowing down and enjoying life?

24/09/2026

What if the Greek greens pie you love could be waiting in your freezer? 🇬🇷

My Longevity Greens Pie is inspired by Ikaria and by the way I’ve cooked for my own family for years: lots of vegetables and greens, good olive oil, herbs, and big Greek flavor.

Inside the crisp phyllo are Swiss chard, leeks, onions, butternut squash, carrots and fennel, with olive oil, parsley and oregano.

It’s part of Diane Kochilas Greek Kitchen, my frozen Greek food line. I created it to make the kind of vegetable-forward Mediterranean food I cook for my family easy for you to enjoy at home — straight from the freezer.

And now comes the important part:

We’re actively looking for retail and distribution partners to help us bring the line to stores across the U.S.

If you’re a grocery buyer, retailer, distributor or specialty food professional, I’d love to connect. DM me or share this Reel with someone in the industry who should know about Diane Kochilas Greek Kitchen.

And if you’re a consumer: Where would you like to buy my Longevity Greens Pie? Tag your favorite supermarket or specialty food store below. 👇

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