Recipes for success: Chef Ilias Kokoroskos of Dubai’s Mythos restaurant offers advice and a tasty lamb pilafi recipe 

Recipes for success: Chef Ilias Kokoroskos of Dubai’s Mythos restaurant offers advice and a tasty lamb pilafi recipe 

DUBAI: In 2010, during the Greek debt crisis, Chef Ilias Kokoroskos was asked a random question after service by his mentor that would forever change his culinary career: Would he want to go to Dubai? The stint was supposed to last for six months, but there was a change in plans and heart. “I ended up being here 13 years,” Kokoroskos tells Arab News.

Raised between the Greek island of Crete and Athens, the cheerful chef’s passion for cooking began at around 15 years old. He went to cooking school and worked briefly as a chef de partie in Belgium. “I was falling in love with the process of how you treat the food, from taking it from the producer to making the end product,” he says.

In Dubai, he is currently head chef of six restaurants, including Mythos, a popular, award-winning Greek eatery. The venue’s warm and earthy tones, verdant terraces, and traditional chairs, large pots, and flooring (all imported from Greece) transport diners to the Mediterranean country, creating a relaxing and authentic atmosphere.

“I’m very proud about Greek food in Dubai,” Kokoroskos says. “It kind of restores Greek pride because, back in the day, in other countries, Greek food wasn’t so