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A typical Maria Loi moment— caught in a snapshot from a passerby on her iPhone carrying a copy of her new book, The Greek Diet, scheduled for release on October 7 by Harper Collins. Maria never stops multi-tasking. If she’s not responding to a fan about how much sugar to use in a particular recipe, she’s posting or sharing a positive thought or message on her Facebook page, or running to her next meeting for a new project.
Maria Loi is the personification of the American dream and although her journey didn’t involve a long boat trip or transit through Ellis Island like many other Greek immigrants before her, it could be said that it was just as difficult.
Already a success in her native Greece when she arrived in the United States a few years ago, Maria entered the “rat race” known as New York City’s food and media scene that millions strive to break into as an unknown. Where millions don’t succeed, Maria’s personality, persistence and charisma won the day.
She opened Loi, a popular Upper West Side eatery that fed hundreds of people daily— including some of the nation’s top celebrities, foodies and media folk, offering every time, her own dose of Greek hospitality and her own personal “Kalosorisma” or welcome to every single guest that entered the establishment.
Loi Restaurant, named after the chef herself, opened to much fanfare in 2011 when the chef, dubbed the “Martha Stewart of Greece” relocated from her native Nafpaktos, in Greece. Loi Restaurant became an immediate “main course” on the New York dining scene.
She appeared often on local and national news outlets promoting the Greek diet and her baklava— her butterless baklava— which brought her international attention at the White House after President Barack Obama commented how delicious her “Greek baklava” was after she cooked for him and the First Lady in April of 2012.
Mikasa China company put her iconic baklava on the front cover of their 6 million-circulation holiday catalogue in 2013— in a martini glass.
Loi told The Pappas Post in an interview about her new book that she doesn’t see it as a personal success. “No way,” she said. This isn’t Maria Loi’s success, this is a Greek success. It’s a success for everything healthy and wholesome that the Greek diet represents.”
It’s no small feat to arrive in America and three years later have one of the biggest publishers in the world publish your book. But Maria Loi accomplished just that, becoming the first Greek-born chef to achieve such super-star culinary status in such a short amount of time in America.
Featuring 100 mouthwatering recipes, The Greek Diet is structured around the 12 food pillars of the traditional Greek diet, which include olive oil, nuts, yogurt, coffee, and yes, even wine, and offers readers a chance to learn about the health benefits of Mediterranean food.
