hen she worked in banking, Irini Tzortzoglou’s idea of cooking was to pick up a ready meal from Marks & Spencer at Waterloo station on her way home, and put it in the oven. But now, since winning the BBC cooking competitionin 2019 at the age of 60, with menus inspired by her Greek heritage, food has become her life and new career.
She had not been overly interested in cooking, she says with a laugh, though as a child, food was an important part of her life. Tzortzoglou, 64, was born in Crete, where her grandparents’ house was always open – her grandfather was a priest – and her grandmother would often be cooking for dozens of people. Tzortzoglou would help out: “I loved the smells, I loved the processes.
But she stopped cooking when her husband complained he was putting on too much weight and she started her career – she worked in finance for 30 years, eventually becoming an executive at Piraeus Bank, one of Greece’s biggest financial services companies. “As my career progressed, I found that I had less and less time for cooking,” she says. In 2000, she married her second husband, John, who was often away on business. Then, she says, “I really didn’t cook.
Tzortzoglou was a reasonably good cook, who loved entertaining and could put together a decent dinner party menu, but competing on the show demanded a whole new skill level. “I didn’t want to embarrass myself by leaving in round one, so I trained myself for a year,” she says. She put in time, effort and money . “I went to Athens, I ate at Michelin-star restaurants,” she says. “I wanted to see what was happening with Greek food today.
“I don’t have free time, but I love it,” she says. “I feel like a child let loose in a sweetshop.” She has also become a public speaker, determined to inspire others in later life to start again. “Seeing how alive I feel and how much energy I have, the alternative is unthinkable – to think that, at 60, you go, ‘Oh, now I sit in a corner and read books, and one day I die.
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