A recipe book based on fasting? It shouldn’t work but it does – and OFM readers voted it their favourite addition to their bookshelf
Georgina Hayden was at a family wedding on the Greek island of Lefkada when she heard that Nistisima had been voted Best New Cookbook at this year’s OFM Awards. To say she was surprised would be an understatement, despite the enthusiastic reception for the book when it was published in March. “When I pitched the idea, I thought it shouldn’t work on so many levels,” she says. “Orthodox Christianity. Religion. A cookbook on fasting [nistisima means “fasting food” in Greek]. Would people get it? It is quite niche, but I am chuffed that they let me write it.”
Nistisima refers to all foods eaten during the cycles of fasting that punctuate the Orthodox Christian calendar. Up to 200 days of each year are spent doing this, including every Wednesday and Friday, the 50 days before Easter, and 50 days before Christmas. Meat, dairy and eggs are excluded, some believers eschew oil, but honey and seafood are allowed. For ease, Hayden, who has Greek-Cypriot roots, does not use seafood. “I want people who are not Orthodox to read Nistisima,” says Hayden, who grew up above her paternal grandparents’ restaurant in north London and whose grandmother still fasts. “I want people to understand the idea, but if they just wanted inspiration for lovely recipes, then the book could work for that, too.”
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