This past Saturday was one of the most anticipated evenings, preparing for a Greek Supper Club in Manhattan. Here’s the setting: Upper East Side of Manhattan, a cozy restaurant called Amali being the venue and over 50 guests bought seats to try out my food. MY FOOD!
The idea to do this dinner in New York came about earlier this year, after a successful dinner that was held in Buffalo, New York. Folks began to see that I could do these dinners away from Toronto and my friend Artemis of mastihashopNY was interested in doing a similar dinner in New York City. 
Artemis and her sister run mastihashopNY, specializing in products containing a resin that grows on particular tree that grows only on the southern half of the island of Chios. This spice has been used often for baking, desserts and sweets and now its use has crossed over into savory cooking as well.
That takes us to this past Saturday’s dinner where I featured either mastiha or tradtional products of Chios using mastihashopNY’s products in all the dishes. The dinner followed my usual format of three appetizers, two starters, a main and then dessert. All course were paired with Greek wines, selected and furnished by Eklektikon.
The featured wines came from Oenogenesis, a winery near Dram in northern Greece. Thank you to Bakis Tsalkos for his delicious pairings.
Another mastiha twist was featured in a cocktail that was served to guests as they entered the restuarant – created by Ya Mastiha liqueur. Thanks to Niko for his support and the delicious mastiha digestif after dinner.
A special thanks to Paula Costa, who’s always by my side helping with planning and prepping for my dinners and the staff at management at Amali Restaurant for their enthusiasm and courtesy while I was prepping for the dinner.
Last but not least, a heart-felt thank you to the guests who attended the dinner, from Washington DC, New Jersey and New York, Los Angeles and as far away as New Zealand!
My next Greek Supper Club is here in Toronto, June 15th where I prepare a whole rotisserie lamb, guests will dine outdoors with Toronto’s skyline as the backdrop. Get your seats now.
Another successful dinner under your belt Peter. I am sure your guests know they are very lucky.
We enjoyed the evening and the food was fantastic!
Always great to see you Peter!
Congratulations Peter! I’m happy to see Stacy was there. One day I will be too!
Congrats Peter. How I would love to join my friends Val, Stacey, and Joan at one of your events. Although we are pretty spread out across the continent :(
Best wishes for continued fabulous success!
LL
Looks awesome Peter! Wish I could have made it for the dinner. Looks like you rocked it! Come back to USA soon.
Great article Peter! Mastiha is such an amazing product, it’s a shame that is not promoted as it should worldwide…(the same fate many Greek products have).
Thanx for sharing!