Think: olive oil cocktails, caviar, the Greek’s answer to lasagna and about 20 people in the kitchen.
Golden Groves was born, a place to sell their family’s Extra Virgin Olive Oil and learn the Greek way of cooking, eating and entertaining. “For Greeks, every celebration is marked by food, whether it's New Year day or Easter or Christmas. It's honestly the biggest part, no one has any dietary requirements and everything is put out to share. Everyone just eats and everybody is involved in the cooking process. Food is always a celebration for us.” Her family heritage and time in Greece is Kat’s biggest inspiration for Golden Groves. “When we were younger, we would go to Greece, and the emphasis would always be on really good quality, simple food. You know when you're overseas, and you eat quite a bit, and everything just tastes better because you're by the sea and in the sun? Those are the experiences I try to recreate and emulate.”
Since launching the olive oil business late last year, and becoming a bit of a food-influencer in her own right, Kat has become a staple on the Melbourne foodie scene. Working a legal job by day, she’s across all the best places to eat and what to order. Get ready because soon you’ll be keeping your olive oil on your bar cart. Yep, olive oil might just be the next big cocktail movement. Here, Kat gives her solid gold recommendations, and shows you how to entertain like you're on the beach in Greece.
- Q.Go-to drink order?
“I’m huge on natural wines. Something that's light, had skin contact and chilled. Like a chilled pinot or a chilled orange wine. I’m always looking out for a natural Sicilian wine too. I love a lot of those. If I’m choosing a cocktail though, always a Negroni.”
- Q.Favourite way to spend a Saturday night?
“I do a lot of social engagements, going out, eating at restaurants and meeting up with people during the week, so for me, a dream Saturday night is having people over or going to somebody's house and cooking up a storm. It doesn't have to be anything fancy, just a super easy, delicious pasta, some wine, really good music and just chill, relaxing conversations. Followed by a really good sleep. Those are the Saturdays that stay with me.”
- Q.Drink you should always have on hand?
“A nice red wine chilled and ready to serve. Something a bit lighter like a Pinot that’s more drinkable. And gin. I always have gin. Usually Four Pillars. When people come over, the first thing I do is pour them a gin and soda.”
- Q.Any cocktail making skills?
“Lately we’ve been making olive oil cocktails. We've been creating olive oil sours, olive oil martinis. We had an event at Hardware Club in Melbourne and tasked the barmen with coming up with a cocktail using our olive oil. They made a basil sour, and it was beautiful. A tablespoon of our olive oil, infused with the basil and then the base note was vodka in there too. It tasted sweet, but balanced, and you really got strong basil notes, but also with that little kick of olive oil. It sounds very intense but it wasn't, it was such a subtle, easy drink to start the night. After the event they ended up adding it to their menu because it was so popular.”
- Q.What kind of home cook are you?
“Through the week Yianna and I are discovering a lot of new restaurants and a lot of new wine bars, so we indulge a bit and generally don't plan our meals. But on Sundays, we'll go and buy fresh produce and then, throughout the week, we'll buy fresh fish and fresh meats from the market. The only real thing that’s set is Sundays, when we typically have steak night, which I absolutely love. It’s always family night, so my mum and dad, Yianna and our two brothers. Oh, and our two dogs. I always give them the fat off the end of the steak to eat.”
- Q.What kind of entertainer are you?
“Usually when we’re having friends over or we’re eating at someone’s house, we get together early and all go shopping together. We walk around and come up with an idea of what we want to eat and then buy all the ingredients. We were doing this a lot over summer with our friends in Byron Bay. A lot of the time it’s seafood. Then when it’s time, we all cook together. Someone will be up sous chef-ing. Someone will be putting it all together. Someone will be on salads, someone will be on the pasta, someone on the barbecue. It’s so much more fun than just sitting to eat.”
- Q.Go-to tablescaping style?
“It varies from occasion to occasion, but hot tip: a crisp, clean white tablecloth never goes astray. You can make it fancy and more elevated but also keep it simple for a more minimal aesthetic. For home cooking, I also think florals are always the way to go. It's beautiful, it's cheery, it's bright. It can always make people feel super, super comfortable. I absolutely love sunflowers in summer, and then in winter I like things like daffodils. It’s all about choosing the seasonal hit.”
- Q.What makes a great event?
“The main thing is that there’s enough food. Not having enough food would be the biggest disaster. Being Greek, we overcater, because the thought of someone leaving your house hungry is terrifying. It’s also important that things are tasty, but it’s not about it being sophisticated, just that it’s enjoyed and shared.”
Notable mentions
- Q.All-time favourite event that you’ve hosted?
“We launched our olive oil in the first week of December 2021 and had this empty shell of a location whilst waiting for the building permits to be approved – eventually it will be our Golden Grove headquarters, but then it was empty. So, on a Wednesday night, we very impromptually asked a heap of our friends and family to come down. We’d managed to get a huge table, put it through the space and then had all our favourite foods. We got caviar, butter, fresh meat, tomatoes, of course our olive oil, everything, and had a huge party. The property is so beautiful. It overlooks the water and kind of feels like you’re in Greece. It was so much fun. Lots of wine too. Magnums of it.”
- Q.Best restaurant you’ve ever eaten at?
“Locally, Rina’s in Armadale. It's this tiny little hole-in-the-wall place that you wouldn't even notice if you walked past. They have a farm-to-table way of eating, so there’s no menu and what they serve changes every day. You walk in, you don't know what you're going to get, it's only $75 a head and they bring out an assortment of entrees and then a pasta and then you'll always get a meat or a fish and then a delicious dessert. They have lots of natural wines on offer, usually magnums, and they've got a beautiful courtyard. It's always just a fun time. I've never had a lacklustre meal or been disappointed. It's just so dependable and beautiful.
“Overseas, I had to say the tavern in our village, Kalamakia. It’s actually on the beach, hidden from the main road, full of locals and the food is wonderfully fresh and authentic. You get served trays of just-caught fish and, when they can catch it, lobster pasta. It’s backed by the olive grove, and of course has amazing olive oil and olives! It’s so beautiful with the azure water and olive trees and the smell of food cooking. The owners are so welcoming too.”
- Q.Last thing that inspired you to cook?
“I don’t really use cookbooks, but I love to watch Gennaro Contaldo and Antonio Carluccio on YouTube. They're called the Two Greedy Italians. They're my cookbook and they're hilarious because you get this whole storytelling, the setting. Italy in every sense of the word. Lots of family style food that’s meant to be shared, using basics from your pantry, which is how I like to cook.”
Let’s plan... a Greek family feast
- Q.Who’s coming:
“Family is a very broad term for me because, if I look back on any sort of family dinner or family occasion I’ve been at, it’s our best friends, the family of the best friends, our next-door neighbours, our friends visiting from overseas… It means anyone that feels like family, and that we love. For a family lunch, we’d probably have about 20 people.”
- Q.The guest brief:
“I’d always tell them not to bring anything, but they’ll end up arriving with dessert or wine or something.”
- Q.Drink on arrival:
“A nice prosecco. It’s easy to pour as people arrive. We have a friend who always does the cocktail shaking when we get together, so we’ll wait till he arrives for that.”
- Q.The pre-dinner mingle:
“It’s all in the kitchen – everyone helping with final touches and inevitably picking and tasting as we cook. This is usually when someone starts mixing Campari and sodas. I like a lot of garnish: a couple of olives and a good slice of orange.”
- Q.The main event:
“Some caviar and olives, feta, pita breads and a Greek salad and then a hearty tray of pastitsio. It’s like Greek lasagna, but instead of having sheets of pasta, it has layers of meat and then bechamel sauce served on top of these really thick Greek egg noodles. It’s so decadent and so delicious.”
- Q.The decor:
“I like to have a nice and tidy space, but otherwise the table is the main attraction. A tablecloth, some flowers and then you let the food be the decoration. I like to use mismatching glasses and platters, it makes things feel really intimate and welcoming. Making people feel welcome is essential to entertaining. Particularly at an occasion like this.”
