His lemon pie has made him a star in France (and was rated second at the 2007 Palmarès). Arnaud Larher was crowned the official “patissier” of Grande Bretagne earlier this year, and visits the capital once a week to weave his memorable magic. What is it that make your pastries so famous around the world? To explain, I will take...
Read moreWorld-famous concert pianist Alain Lefèvre invites Insider’s Amanda Dardanis into his new Athenian home to discuss his latest Philhellenic album; why he moved to Greece - and a few of his pet hates. As muses go, the epic Athens Riviera panorama which greets you the moment you enter Alain Lefèvre’s coolly-elegant penthouse in V...
Read moreSifnos. The Summer of 1972. An off-radar Greek island with goat trails for roads and no ferry dock. Enter a budding young artist on a quest of self-discovery. In his book, The Greek House, Christian Brechneff presents a funny and moving narrative about his relationship to Sifnos, its unforgettable residents, and the house he bought in a h...
Read moreNational Museum of Contemporary Art director Katerina Koskina talks exclusively to Insider’s Stella Sevastopoulos about Greece’s valiant artistic community, the well-documented struggles facing EMST - and that media furore over Jan Fabre. Katerina Koskina is dedicated to the progress of contemporary art in Greece. She is also...
Read moreApproaching the final year of his Athens posting, the British Ambassador to Greece, Mr. John Kittmer, grants Insider’s Amanda Dardanis an exclusive audience. It’s a preternaturally fine Autumn day. The British Ambassador for Greece, John Kittmer, poses in the garden courtyard of the Residence, which once housed Eleftherios Ven...
Read moreAmanda Dardanis catches up with Greece’s favourite stand-up comedian Katerina Vrana ahead of her raunchy new show. Following on from her smash sell-out debut “Feta With the Queen”, the wickedly funny Katerina Vrana – she of the crazy exploding volcano hair - is back on stage with a saucy new routine called “About Sex”. The En...
Read moreHellenic history and art tells us that wine was a fundamental cultural pillar of Ancient Greece. But many fine varieties have been lost to the ages. Amanda Dardanis meets Kostas Bakasietas, the man who is raising extinct Greek varieties from the Dead. Greeks, it is said, were the first to produce wine. Certainly, we gave th...
Read moreArianna Huffington might be the media power-house, but her twitter account describes her as a mother, sister, sleep evangelist and flat shoe advocate. Add digital-detox campaigner, motivational public-speaker and woman you’d most like to emulate to the list. In conversation with Sudha Nair-Iliades. About Arianna: What are your ...
Read moreStephanie Bailey meets Gilbert and George, the prolific British duo flying the flag for art that rises from the multicultural streets of East London.“Art is boring if it doesn’t speak,” says Gilbert Prousch. “We try to make images so powerful people will remember them”. “Our art has always been about death, life, sex, fear, mo...
Read moreAthens Insider’s Christina Michele Rios sits down with Nobusan to understand the man behind the global restaurant empire. Global entrepreneur with restaurants in over 22 locations worldwide and now a hotelier, Nobu is no stranger to hard work and international travel. Here is a man, at age 65, who wakes up at 4 am to workout. ...
Read moreDiane von Furstenberg creates product ranges from swimwear to accessories to home furnishings, yet her name will always be synonymous with a certain wraparound frock. Cordelia Madden-Kanellopoulou meets the iconic designer. “For me, it’s important to give real design, real quality, at a price that is not too wild, and maybe it’s because o...
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