Restaurant consulting:

The Glorious Greek Kitchen / Diane Kochilas’ consulting activities in the realm of restaurants include:

• Menu development and writing
• Menu translations
• Special events organization

Current restaurant relationships are with:

• Pylos restaurant, New York City
• Axia Restaurant, Teaneck, New Jersey
• The Waterworks, Philadelphia

Past clients have included:

• Milos Restaurant, New York City (olive oil tastings; fish soup competition)
• Gus’ Place, New York City (menu development)
• Eros, New York City (menu development)
• Diatiritaio, Athens, Greece (menu development)
• Papagus, Chicago (menu development)

Current Restaurant Profiles & Relationships:

Pylos, New York City. (www.pylosrestaurant.com)

Diane Kochilas is consulting chef at Pylos, a restaurant serving rustic but elegant Greek cuisine in New York’s East Village. The restaurant was recently lauded by Frank Bruni in the New York Times, and has received stellar reviews in the Zagat Guide, The Village Voice, New York Magazine and other mainstream national and local news media.

As consulting chef, I work in the restaurant four times a year, working on new dishes, seasonal specialties, holiday menus and special events, such as a Greek Thanksgiving, summer yogurt festival, spring artichoke tasting menu, and more.

The cuisine at Pylos is rustic, elegant home cooking.

Axia

The word in Greek has a double meaning, depending on how it is pronounced: worthy or value. Axia is located in Bergen County, just across the George Washington Bridge. Together with chef Alex Gorant, we created a menu of contemporary Greek classics with cues taken from the country’s regional cuisine but updated to meet the demands of a modern kitchen and modern tastes.

The Waterworks at Freemont Park, Philadelphia

The Waterworks, a new restaurant project slated to open in the Spring of 2006 at the historic Philadelphia waterworks, situated right on the riverfront, is an American restaurant with a Greek soul, as owner Michael Karloutsos likes to describe it.

My role in its evolution has been strictly on the menu side, as the Greek voice, lending a foundation and culinary point of reference to a mainstream, modern American restaurant. With over 200 seats, full catering capacity, and bar and terrace small-plate dining, the project is challenging and exciting.

I work with executive chef Ed Doherty, have toured with him in Greece as a way to introduce him to Greek flavors and culinary trends, and work with him in the Philadelphia kitchen to develop a menu that pays homage to the owners’ Greek roots yet is a modern American restaurant that makes full use of the exhilarating farm products available from the Pennsylvania and the mid-Atlantic.