Mother and Son duo, Lyndey and Blair embark on an Epicurean roadtrip around Greece’s Peloponnese, served with tantalizing food, a nod to history and myth and a big slice of adventure.
The series
The series follows one of Australia’s most recognised food and wine personalities, Lyndey Milan and the late Blair Milan, her actor/voice-over artist son as they tour Greece’s fascinating Peloponnese with a crew seeking culinary delights, adventure and antiquities. The result, Lyndey & Blair’s Taste of Greece, showcases the cuisine, culture and beautifully undiscovered land of this region, which is so accessible to Athens. Over seven episodes Lyndey and Blair cook, eat, drink and engage with the locals they meet along the way – a charming yet eclectic mix of home cooks, winemakers, producers, chefs and restaurateurs. While the cuisine of the Peloponnese has a starring role, the historic heart of Greece is not overlooked as ancient sites are explored with an adventurous edge, full of humour and insight.
The presenters
Well-known cook Lyndey and her son Blair, an affable and adventurous young man are perfectly matched. They shared an appetite for life and epicurean delights and believe that good food, good wine and great company always leads to happiness. The unique mother/son relationship between Lyndey and Blair adds another layer of fun and banter. Built up over 29 years, it has expected and unexpected complexities. In each episode Lyndey cooks with a local in a restaurant or private home or creates her own version of a Greek recipe while Blair takes on the more strenuous challenges thrown up by the landscape and traditions, such as bungy jumping in the Corinthian canal and wake boarding in the Aegean Sea.
The food
Cuisine highlights include sheep’s milk yoghurt in Athens; vineyard tour and tasting at Gaia Winery as well as a wonderful goat dish to sample; cooking the freshest squid, barbounia and sea bass on the beach at Vivari; Karonis’ ouzo distillery tour, tasting and learning about food and ouzo matching; traditional stuffed eggplant Papoutsakia in Leonidio; visiting bee hives on Kythira; eating hunks of roast pork cleavered from whole pigs at the gypsy market in Messine, cooking local fish recipes at Dimitris Taverna in Stoupa; the world’s best chocolate covered figs in Kalamata; Kalamata olive oil factory tour and tasting and the visit to Mercouri Winery where Lyndey cooks stuffed lamb to perfection.
The adventure
Adventures start off with Blair going from one extreme to the other: bungy jumping over the Corinth Canal, and then sedately enjoying the thermal waters of Loutraki Spa. To get his pulse up to speed he races up the 999 steps of the Palamidi Fortress in Navplion, and the pair wonder if they will ever find a chef in Navplion. They explore large and small vineyards. In the space of a day Blair dives into an ice cold spring, learns how to Greek dance on Zorba’s beach, and boats through some underground caves, and hikes a gorge! Lyndey challenges a local to a game of backgammon.
The culture
Lyndey and Blair are saturated with culture from their first stop at the ancient Acropolis and the stunning new Acropolis museum and lunch overlooking Ancient Corinth. Mother and son perform at the ancient amphitheatre of Epidavros learn about the significance of worry beads in Greece, explore the stunning Palamidi Fortress and the island fortress of Bourtzi in Navplion, and are stunned by the beauty of the cobbled streets of Byzantine Monemvasia. Kythera island, an Australian outpost is visited .A magical trip is taken in the underground lakes of the Diros Caves. Vathia, an intact town of clan warfare is marvelled as well as the Venetian outpost of Methoni and Ancient Messene, a stunning ancient city inspires awe. The final icing on the cake is Ancient Olympia.
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