“You don’t have to cook fancy or complicated masterpieces — just good food from fresh ingredients,” explains Zopas. This is food that is relaxed and unpretentious, made to enjoy and have fun with — not to take too seriously. “The food I make comes from my soul and feelings. How it will taste depends very much on what I want to express. If I’m feeling passionate I’ll add a lot of spices or maybe I will cook it a little longer— it all depends on how I’m feeling,” he says simply.

That might mean freeing oneself from the idea of what a traditional dish should be by adding avocado to the tzatziki, or surprising those accustomed to the regional Greek palette with spicy muhammara, an iconic Syrian roasted red pepper and almond dip. The kitchen team’s culinary irreverence shows itself in upending the traditional Greek white bread basket with homemade pitta and tostadas. They combine Mediterranean seafood with vibrant fresh flavors, like giant clams with lime, papaya and coriander, not to mention adding lashings of Greek olive oil to recipes that lack regional roots. Dishes like these play with different cooking styles, straddle continents and borrow liberally from the global kitchen, with a curation of herbs and piquant spices that elevate fresh Mediterranean ingredients.