When it comes to dreaming up new dishes for cookbooks, Georgina Hayden’s sternest critic is her grandmother – her yiayia as she affectionately calls her in Greek. “I spend days with her in the kitchen,” says Hayden, who still lives close to her Greek-Cypriot family in north London. “She can be quite scathing. She’ll tell me very easily if something’s not right.” But occasionally – as with a baklava cheesecake that Hayden was developing last year – all criticisms fall away. “She’s like: ‘I’ve got nothing. It’s perfect.’ And honestly, I cannot tell you what it feels like when your mentor, the person who’s trained you your whole life, says that. It’s just the best.”
The baklava cheesecake is one of many standouts from Greekish, Hayden’s hugely appealing new cookbook whose imaginative takes on Greek cuisine will have yiayias everywhere nodding in admiration. It’s her fourth book and, Hayden reckons, her most accessible to date. “It’s nice to be able to write something with real people in mind, working mums like myself who are like: ‘We’re busy, do you have something we can make quickly? And can we do it in just one pan?’”
