Nikos Ligidakis

Nationally recognized chef, Nikos Ligidakis is a native of Greece. He gained national acclaim for combining the full tantalizing flavors of the Mediterranean region with imaginative presentation. Nikos’s success is credited to the fact that he has created a cuisine that is once both exotic and familiar.

Nikos’s love affair with cooking began at an early age. His grandparents owned a taverna in Kiaton, Greece, which was later passed on to his parents. He spent much of his childhood watching his parents and cultivating his imagination for cooking and fanciful uses for ingredients. Nikos has become a legend locally both for his selfless charitable involvement and his idiosyncratic style of cooking. He prides himself on his culinary creativity, use of quality ingredients, freshness, consistency, and the fact that he prepares everything from scratch.

Nikos has been lauded in virtually every print publication in the greater Phoenix area, and in many national ones as well. He has been profiled numerous times on all of the valley’s television stations and has received awards for both his cooking and charity work. Most notable of these was the 1990 Golden Rule Award and the 1995Humanitarian award from the city of Phoenix.

5024 E. McDowell, Phoenix, Arizona is the location where Nikos’s original restaurant was located. It was there where everything began; a little legendary place where hundreds of recipes were created and endless heartwarming stories originated.

Nikos’s story is told frequently; a story about a man with simplistic views of life, yet holding the complexity of the thoughts running through his mind. Evidence of this you will find in every page of this book, with his approach of using simplicity to create complex results, never compromising on taste. Food experts praised him throughout the decades, but for Nikos, what is most important, are the people and their children who have formed a following that resembles a cult.

In this unique story-cookbook, one will find over 500 original recipes, each one of them created by this one-of-a-kind chef. The book also contains the story of a man who refuses to give up or compromise his art. Nikos’s personal failures and accomplishments are an inspiration to others who think that their dreams are unattainable.

In his work, Nikos refuses to follow some of the old, tired cooking methods; methods that insist there is only one way to prepare a dish. Finding a simple way to express his art became his challenge.