Food Five with Diane Kochilas

Plus Maureen Abood's Manakeesh Recipe + Member Spotlight

Jan 13, 2026

Welcome culinary community to IACP on Substack! After an informative presentation last fall at the IACP Summit, the Substack panel convinced us to make the leap. This space is a work in progress; expect two newsletters coming your way each month with ideas and insights, introductions and even occasional recipes — all by and for culinary professionals. We, as a food community, are in the midst of a pivot. Since a rising tide lifts all boats, let’s come together in support and solidarity.

Happy New Year, friends in food!

DIGEST

Creating a Multi-Pronged Culinary Travel Business Model

Multi-hyphenate culinary maven Diane Kochilas has built a platform that spans across TV, books, in-person instruction, and culinary travel. Join us as she takes us Behind the Scenes: Creating a Multi-Pronged Culinary Travel Business Model.

January 20 at 9:00 am PT / 12 pm ET
Save Your Spot & Sign-up

with Diane Kochilas

Athens or Ikaria? Tell us why / take us there!
Both! It depends on the season, of course. Athens is lovely in the winter, and I thoroughly enjoy being in the city between October and April. I am lucky to be able to divide my time. On the other hand, Ikaria is gorgeous in the spring, summer and early fall...lush and green, then just fun (in the summer) and calm as the season turns a little, the light changes, and the garden is at its peak.

Greek Olive oil or Cretan Olive Oil?
Well, Cretan olive oil IS Greek olive oil! I buy (and sell in my e-shop) various oils from different parts of Greece. Crete is one of them, but so is the Mani, other parts of the Peloponnese, and Lesvos, among other places. There is a lot of very good olive oil in Greece!

Grated or Chopped Tomato? Why?
Grated for sauces and chopped for salads. I love to grate tomatoes for sauces and sometimes to use as a topping over barley rusks because the liquid consistency helps soften the rusk; but chunky chopped tomatoes are the way to go for a perfect Greek salad in season. Different uses call for different methods of cutting.

Recipe you learned from your grandmother or back pocket recipe you make for last minute meals?
I didn’t really know my grandparents, unfortunately. But my back-pocket recipes are a few things I can put together really quickly: a classic Greek lentil soup, a barley rusk tomato salad with feta and oregano, and a great Greek omelet!

Cookbook or TV? How is your audience different?
Both! Cookbooks are a very different animal than the TV show. They need long-term planning, they take time to bring together and they are big, lots of words, lots of recipes, lots of research. The audience may be wider for the books. PBS, where My Greek Table airs, tends to attract an older, more affluent audience. I love doing both. There is teamwork involved in both, but with the show and its production that teamwork is more immediate. We’re all working in tandem on the set, for example. I love it. Everyone has a role and I couldn’t do the show without the amazing team of people around me. But I also love to conceptualize each episode and to see the show develops and come to fruition. Holding a finished bound book and seeing 13 episodes of the TV series come to life are both extraordinarily gratifying. I feel fortunate to have these experiences.

Diane Kochilas is one of the world’s foremost experts on Greek and Mediterranean cuisine. 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. The series is in its third season. She 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. Diane has been on 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. She is the recipient of a Taste Achievement Award, 2020, My Greek Table, IACP Award 2019 nominee for My Greek Table, IACP award-winner of three cookbooks, and more.

with Maureen Abood

How long have you been a member of IACP?

I joined IACP when I first started my culinary career back in 2012.

How brought you to join IACP?

The opportunity to connect with other professionals, to learn, and to get inspired all drew me to join IACP. The community was so welcoming and always brings together “the best and the brightest” stars along with people just starting out.

Tell us about yourself in 1 sentence. What do you do?

My mission is simple: to help us all cook, bake, gather, and enjoy—with Lebanese Mediterranean recipes that work, ingredients that inspire, and traditions that connect us to one another as well as the past and the future.

When did your passion for food begin?

Long before I understood what a passion for food even was, the magnetism of the kitchen, the table, and all that happens there had me under its spell. This is because of how my Lebanese American family and wider community operates: in relationship to one another with a hospitality, a generosity and caring, that emanates from good food prepared with love.

What culinary projects are you currently working on?

I’m focused on the ever-changing tides of the channels for sharing my recipes and stories with others: website publishing, social media content creation, and communicating via email marketing. I love developing and curating products that inspire in the kitchen, so I’m deeply engaged with my online shop to keep that relevant to my audiences and what they want and need to be successful in the kitchen.

What culinary work have you done that you are particularly proud of?

My most recent book, Lebanese Baking, was such a meaningful (and huge!) project. A book like it did not exist before now, so every aspect of its creation was laser-focused. I wanted to be sure that I covered as much of the Lebanese sweet and savory baking repertoire as possible, along with some of my own innovations using traditional ingredients and techniques. I’m so proud that we have this book to bake with, to expand our understanding, and to share.

What ingredient are you currently obsessed with?

Raw pistachios. These little nuggets of green gold populate Levantine cuisines for the beauty they bring to everything they touch.

Any advice you’d provide to people interested in working in the food industry?

Bring your passion and dream to fruition by immersing yourself in all things food and by reaching out to talk with others who do what you would like to do. Network, network, network to bring yourself into community with people you can learn from. Be dedicated to finding out what area of the food industry you’d like to be a part of by trying out different paths until the right one feels right.

Who is a culinary hero or mentor of yours?

My culinary heroines start close to home with the women who came before me in our family tree. They mastered so much about Lebanese cuisine, and food in general, and they taught me the heart of what I need to know to do what I do today. My Sitto (my grandmother) mentored me by keeping me close in the kitchen and teaching me why sharing with our next generations is so essential. With this legacy-in-action, we will keep our valuable culinary traditions alive.

Maureen Abood’s Manakeesh Recipe

ZA’ATAR MANAKEESH RECIPE

Manakeesh is a wonderful, simple flatbread with toppings. The iconic Lebanese classic, topped with za’atar spice and olive oil, is full of flavor! Eat it for breakfast wrapped up with labneh and loaded with cucumbers and fresh mint, or alongside a cozy bowl of soup to start the year off right.

YIELD: Makes 4 (8-inch, 20-centimeter) Flatbreads

PREP TIME: 23 minutes
COOK TIME: 12 minutes
TOTAL TIME: 35 minutes

INGREDIENTS

TOPPING

24 grams (4 tablespoons) za’atar
63 grams (¼ cup plus 1 tablespoon) extra virgin olive oil
¼ teaspoon fine sea salt (optional)

DOUGH

30 grams (¼ cup) bread flour or unbleached all-purpose flour for shaping
1 recipe Manakeesh Dough (page 221) (See below)

INSTRUCTIONS
1. Arrange an oven rack in the lowest position and remove any other racks. Place the baking steel, baking stone, or an overturned dark, heavy baking sheet on the rack. Preheat the oven to 550°F (288°C) or its highest temperature.

2. In a small mixing bowl, combine the za’atar, olive oil, and salt, if using. Set aside.

3. Lightly dust the center of the bread peel with a pinch of flour and place it next to your work area.

4. Dust the counter with the flour, place a dough ball on it, and dust the top with flour. Pat down the dough and roll it into a 9-inch (23-cm) circle, maintaining an even thickness. As you roll, stop to lift the dough and rotate it to roll an even circle and to prevent it from sticking to the counter. Dock the dough with a fork or docker, pricking the top all over.

5. Transfer the dough to the prepared peel. Spoon a quarter (22 grams) of the za’atar oil on the center of the dough. Use the back of the spoon or an offset spatula to coat the dough evenly, leaving a ⅛-inch (3-mm) border around the perimeter. Some spots will have more za’atar than others.

6. Shake the peel to ensure that the dough moves easily. If any spot sticks to the peel, lift the dough and dust more flour underneath it.

7. Transfer the dough from the peel to the baking surface in the oven. Bake until the edges turn golden brown and slightly char in spots, 3 to 4 minutes. If needed, use heatproof tongs to turn the bread for even browning.

8. Use tongs to transfer the bread back to the peel. Let the bread cool on a cutting board for at least 3 minutes.

9. Repeat with the remaining dough balls.

10. To serve, quarter each man’oushe with a pizza wheel or chef’s knife or fold it in half and wrap it in wax paper to eat on the go.

_____________________________

NOTES:

In a sealable plastic storage bag, store the manakeesh in the refrigerator for up to 2 days or frozen for up to 3 months. To reheat, thaw if frozen and warm in a 250°F (120°C) oven for 10 minutes.
Tip: Enjoy this man’oushe with cool, creamy labneh and fresh mint for one of the finest flavor and texture pairings you can imagine.
Variation: For equally traditional za’atar cheese manakeesh, use a quarter of the topping from the recipe for Cheese Manakeesh (page 226) for each man’oushe, adding it halfway through baking.

MANAKEESH DOUGH RECIPE

Manakeesh anchor the Lebanese breakfast experience and elevate appetizers and snacking to a new level of greatness. You can enjoy a man’oushe with any of the toppings listed in the following recipes, cut in slices or wrapped in a piece of paper, on the run. It tastes chewy and soft, often with charred edges from a traditional wood-fired oven, an effect you can achieve with a baking stone or steel in a standard oven at high temperatures.

YIELD: Makes dough for 4 Flatbreads

PREP TIME: 15 minutes
REST TIME: 1 hour 30 minutes
TOTAL TIME: 1 hour 45 minutes

INGREDIENTS

248 grams (2 cups plus 1 tablespoon) bread flour, plus more as needed
5 grams (1½ teaspoons) instant yeast
4 grams (1 teaspoon) granulated white sugar
12 grams (2 teaspoons) fine sea salt
170 grams (¾ cup) water, warm (105–110°F, 40–43°C)
4 grams (1 teaspoon) extra virgin olive oil

INSTRUCTIONS

1. In the large bowl of a stand mixer, add the flour, yeast, sugar, and salt and stir to combine with a wooden spoon or the dough hook (not attached). Slowly add the water and mix until a shaggy dough forms, 1 minute.

2. Attach the dough hook, set the mixer speed to medium-high, and knead the dough until smooth and slightly sticky, 3 minutes.

3. Coat a medium mixing bowl with the oil. Ball the dough, transfer it to the prepared bowl, and flip the dough to coat it completely with oil. Cover the bowl with plastic wrap and lay a kitchen towel over that. Let the dough rise until it almost doubles in size, 45 minutes.

4. Quarter the dough and ball the quarters (as pictured on page 219).

5. On the counter, place the balls 3 inches (7.5 cm) apart, cover them with plastic wrap, and lay a kitchen towel over that. Let them rise again until they almost double in size, 45 more minutes.

6. Use where indicated in the recipes that follow.

_________________________

NOTE:

To store the dough, wrap the balls individually in plastic wrap and refrigerate them for up to 8 hours or freeze them for up to 1 month. When ready to use, thaw them for about 4 hours in the refrigerator, bring them to room temperature, and use as indicated.

Excerpted from Lebanese Baking: More Than 100 Recipes for Sweet and Savory Baked Goods. Copyright © 2025 by Maureen Abood. Photography © Kristin Tei. Used with permission of the publisher, The Countryman Press, a division of W. W. Norton & Company, Inc. All rights reserved.