Giorgos Hatzigiannakis
The Don Quixote of Santorini
Giorgos Hatzigiannakis, owner of Selene restaurant, has so many ways to cook split peas
that make you wonder when his inspiration will stop! For 20 years he has been fighting the
“dragons”, by cooking traditional Santorinian recipes, in times that dishes like fillet minion
was a must taste in restaurants. Foreseeing the importance of gastronomic tourism, he remained
true follower of the Santorinian recipes. Even foreign press has dealt with his restaurant.
He is also the establisher of Slow Food movement in Greece and he organizes cooking
lessons with local recipes. His best Santorinian products are the tomatoes and the tomato
puree, the split peas, the white aubergine and the round zucchini. (Fira, tel. 22860-22249)
Dimitris Tsitouras
Collector, owner of Tsitouras Collection
Garlands are his trademark. They indicate
eternal friendship and are the symbols of life
cycle, of reward, of love and of the beauty of
life. He visited Santorini in 1968 and fell in
love with it. “But the true Santorini I fell so
much in love with, now exists only in my fantasies”,
he says. Nevertheless, he believes
that Santorini, which influenced him so much
in his job, still is a unique place. It offered
him internal equilibrium and became for him
something like an Idée fixe. It is like when
you deeply fall in love with something and
this love leads you to self-knowledge.
One of his greatest projects is Tsitoura
Museum, which will be constructed
at Kontochori squares, designed by architect
Michalis Fotiadis. The museum will extend
over 1.200 m2 and will include some
of his best personal historic collections.
Franco Colombo
The establisher of the legendary Franco's
Exactly as Colombo discovered America,
Franco Colombo, also known as Franco,
was looking for the lost Atlantis until he reached
Santorini for the first time in 1967. As
he explains, in 1967 Santorini was an undeveloped
island with wild natural environment.
Franco fell in love with Santorini and
so in 1978 he decided to built Franco’s bar
(also after encouragement of his good
friend and clothes designer Nikos Apostolopoulos),
a lounge bar where you could sit on
a sun chair and enjoy the view of Caldera, listening
to classical music. His visitors were
all famous Greek and foreign personalities,
as it was the best place in Fira. Since last
year, the authentic Franco’s bar has changed
location and now lies in Pyrgos, from
where Franco is now able to view his beloved
island. The Hotel Owners Association
awarded Franco for his valuable services to
the tourist development of Santorini for the
last three decades.
Giannis Paraskevopoulos
A pioneer winemaker
Giannis Paraskevopoulos is a winemaker, an associate professor of winery and a doctor at
Bordeaux University. He was one of the pioneers who managed to recreate the Santorinian
wine, by establishing new technologies and processing new generation wines. He believes
that Santorinian wines are unique! He mentions that “in such inhospitable environment and
under such rough conditions, there is no doubt that grapes growing in Santorini are special.
Consider also the fact that wine yards here are age long”. He also says that Santorini has
a very powerful name in winery as proved by the high grades given from the American
Robert Parker (out of the 19 Greek wines that received high grades, 14 came from
Santorini). According to Mr. Paraskevopoulos, vinsanto is a very rare wine, but should come
out in the market only if it has aged for more then two-three years. “These rare wines need
their time and space to ‘express themselves’ and mature”. Apart from the classic wines Thalassitis
and Thalassitis oak fermented, Mr. Paraskevopoulos also created a new wine from
assyrtiko wine grapes, of special fermentation and in limited bottle number.
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