Andreas Pourounas

Mr. Andreas Pourounas – A Cypriot National Treasure

Many of us would be sitting back looking into this picture and be asking ourselves “who is this man”

This is the face of a culinary genius and author of one of the worlds most expensive and sought after cook book

Top 10 MOST EXPENSIVE COOK BOOKS EVER SOLD

His name is Andreas Pourounas aged 72 years old, and he was born in a little village called Astromeritis, Cyprus. From a very young age, he had great interest in food, creating it,...and eating it! From the age of 12 years old he dreamed of owning his own restaurant and instead of doing his homework he was writing menus. He spent much of his childhood in the kitchen helping his mother and my aunt, looking and learning what they were doing. Andreas said “Sometimes I tried to suggest something different, but they always threw me out of the kitchen, because they stuck to their old ways. Nevertheless, I learnt quite a bit from them”.

In 1960 Andreas went to London, England as a youngster, and started working in various restaurants. In 1972 he managed to make his dream into reality and open his dream restaurant and that was the Othello, 616 Fulham Road, London SW6. It was a success which followed into a chain of restaurants. Andreas cooking was renowned and was pressured by his customers to write down his recipes so in 1976 he wrote a cook book called "The Aphrodite's Cookbook". Originally he wanted to call it "Eat your food!", which was his catchphrase. When he was serving Meze to his customers, Andreas says his customers would often say to him "Andreas, please stop, we cannot eat anything more", then I used to joke with them, "come on, eat your food"!

The book expressed the best of Cypriot & Greek cuisine which has now become one of worlds famous and the most sought after cook book in the world.

The publisher was Neville Spearman (Jersey) Limited, Jersey, Channel Islands. They suggested the cookbook to be called "Aphrodite's Cookbook".

So what’s so special about this man and his cook book, well, it has become one of the top 10 most expensive cook books in the world

Top 10 Most Expensive Cook Book –

1. 1746 - La Cuisiniere Bourgeoise - Menon £889.00 GBP
   
2. 19th century - The Practice of Cookery Pastry and Confectionary
   Mrs. Frazer - £30.00 GBP
3. 1828 = Modern Domestic Cookery and Useful Receipt Book -
   Elizabeth Hammond £304.00 GBP
4. 1976 - Aphrodite's cookbook by Andreas Pourounas ; compiled and edited by Helene Grosveno - £300.00 GBP
   
5. 1854 - Soyer's Cookery - Alexis Soyer -£297.00 GBP
   
6. 1958 - French Country Cooking - Elizabeth David - £229.00 GBP
   
7. 1954 - The Alice B. Toklas Cookbook - Alice B. Toklas - £226.00 GBP
   
8. 1747 - The Art of Cookery Made Plain and Easy – Hannah Glasse - £201.00 GN
   
9. 19th Century - Rebecca's Cookbook - Rebecca West - £177.00 GBP
   
10. 1036 - Cooking and Dining in Imperial Rome Apicius (translated by Joseph Dommers Vehling) - £152.00 GBP

Andreas Pourounas is not only famous for his incredible cook book but also makes him the most expensive author ever to come out of Cyprus. No Cypriot or Greek has sold any book at this price level making Andreas Pourounas a National Cypriot Treasure

Andreas aged 72 years old has made Cypriot & Greek cuisine world famous, with a desire and drive to bring his culinary expressions which comes from the heart and soul, a passion for life and food which he will be expressing within his second book which he looks forward to releasing his best work yet.

I have had the pleasure and privilege of eating in the top 10 restaurants in the world. Experiencing Andreas culinary creations had awakened a desire for real no nonsense food within me, and if Andreas was not retired I would without hesitation place him as No. 01 in the world.

Andreas is a culinary genius, the father of all chefs.

For culinary advise contact Andreas on geniuschef@hotmail.co.uk

By. Dr. Thomas Constantine

It is with great sadness I have to report the death of Andreas on the 26 June 2012. I have known Andreas for over 10 years and he always had a story to tell, he would never go into great detail about his life in the restaurant business and to be honest I was never really sure if he was telling a story or if it was in fact all true, Well I now know that he was telling the truth. I can say hand on heart that it was a pleasure to know Andreas and my only regret was not knowing this page existed until after his death. The two things I will miss most are his big smile and hearing him say in his accent “ Gary fix my car please” Rest in peace my friend.