FANtastic Aglaia

This is how I will remember my friend, Aglaia Kremezi. Sadly, Aglaia’s husband Costas Moraitis wrote me that she is now gone – she died in Athens this morning after a battle with cancer.

For those of you who know Aglaia, you can just hear her saying FANtastic, which is what she always said when she tasted something she loved, or visited a place worth visiting, or discovered a product that was perfect.

It’s how I describe her. FANtastic.

In addition to being a friend, Aglaia had an outsized influence on Oldways. Working with Greg Drescher and Dun Gifford, she created the first Oldways Overseas Symposium in 1991, bringing over 100 journalists, chefs, cookbook authors and food experts to Porto Carras, Greece, not too far from Thessaloniki. I didn’t join Oldways until the next year, but I heard so many stories that the event was over the top special-- with special ovens being brought in, local cooks participating and amazing meals and wine experiences. I wasn’t surprised.

After Porto Carras, Aglaia was, of course, a part of every overseas Symposium in the Mediterranean – Spain, Turkey, Italy, Morocco, Tunisia, and of course, Greece. With Aglaia’s help, we organized scientific and media symposia in Crete (1997) and Chios (1999), and later Culinarias in Thessaloniki and Athens (2016), Crete (2018), Cyprus (2019) and most recently, the Peloponnese and Athens (2024). To say Aglaia has had an impact on Oldways’ Culinarias is perhaps not saying enough.

In each place, I have an Aglaia memory that is…of course…FANtastic.

• On a crisp, sunny Sunday morning in January 1997, we had a wine tasting at a Boutaris experimental winery in Crete, high up on a hill overlooking a field of wild mustards. It was then that I started using the phrase, “a pinch-me day,” a day that you feel so lucky to be in the place where you are. Aglaia arranged it all.

• In Athens, in 1997, Aglaia fell in love with her soon-to-be husband Costas, and despite her formerly buttoned up image, let her hair go wild and even ventured out to nightclubs late into the night. I think chefs Rick Moonen and Jim Botsacas had the same nightclub experience!

• Oldways founder Dun Gifford and I made many trips to Chios with Aglaia in order to organize the Chios-Lesbos symposium in 1999. With memories too many to recall, I think of Aglaia, Dun and my daughter Casey and I working in the garden and staying at Perleas, an agrotourism mansion in the Kampos district, surrounded by citrus trees. We all remember Daphne, a tiny little kitten we all fell in love with and that Dun housed in his shirt pocket as we worked away on the program.

• We brought the entire Culinaria group to Aglaia and Costas’ cooking school on the island of Kea in 2016. Aglaia was certain that it would rain, and said so more times than I could count, but of course, the day was a perfect blue sky day, and Aglaia’s and Chef Ana Sortun’s cooking demo was everything we hoped for.

• Creating a Culinaria or Symposium program requires lots of planning and in-person visits. Traveling with Aglaia and Costas was always an experience and sitting in the literal back seat was a wild experience. Aglaia is perhaps the worst back seat driver ever. After a week driving around Cyprus, Costas looked at Aglaia and said…..I have 2 GPSs….and one is named Aglaia!

• Aglaia always found the most interesting places to visit. In the Peloponnese, we visited the Gaia winery in Nemea, followed by a perfect late lunch experience at Sofos Restaurant. As we planned, Aglaia was very specific – everyone should learn to make dolmas. And, naturally, we did.

As I wrote Costas this morning, she may be gone, but she will live on in so many ways – through her many cookbooks, through her school, Kea Artisanal and through the impacts she has had on many people, including Jose Andres, who has relied on Aglaia at Zaytinya. As he wrote in his book, Zaytinya, it is “a friendship that has had the most profound effect on Zaytinya, on the dishes we serve and the stories we tell.”

Thank you – efkaristo – Aglaia. FANtastic. I will miss you.

Sara Baer-Sinnott

May 18, 2026