Latest news with #Cassimatis
The Age
19-05-2025
- Business
- The Age
Is the ‘pure, unwavering hype' about this bustling new gyros spot deserved?
Behind the blue-and-white tiles fronting the stainless-steel kitchen, Timothy Cassimatis is locked in. Every step, every move in his career, has been deliberate, made to get him to this point: mastering butchery at Vic's Meat and Whole Beast Butchery, running the kitchen at Barzaari, launching a catering business during COVID, fine-tuning recipes and preparing feasts for friends and cousins. All this, along with his own research and the knowledge that comes from growing up in a family with Peloponnese roots, have been poured into his first restaurant. Line up for takeaway, order a gyros, and Cassimatis has interrogated every aspect of the stuffed bread. The pita, made on a sourdough starter, is rolled by hand and baked in the wood oven to order. The tzatziki incorporates some of the 60 to 70 litres of yoghurt Cassimatis makes each week, fermented for 16 hours with a culture brought from Greece, then hung until it's thick. Order pork, and it'll be a mix of shoulder and belly, brined, marinated in whey, onion and spice, then spun over coals for five hours. Pickles, rich in aniseed, are made in house. I've torn open fresh gyros on the street front. I've spread them on picnic rugs with friends. I've ferried them home to my neighbour. At their best, they're living proof that there's no reason takeaway food can't be given the same level of care as anything a fine-diner can offer. When they're good, they're very good. But then some days, the sauces have been applied too liberally, the pita (early on, at least) have been too flat, too biscuity. The fava and mushroom version? Inspired, but overly mushy.
Sydney Morning Herald
19-05-2025
- Business
- Sydney Morning Herald
Is the ‘pure, unwavering hype' about this bustling new gyros spot deserved?
Behind the blue-and-white tiles fronting the stainless-steel kitchen, Timothy Cassimatis is locked in. Every step, every move in his career, has been deliberate, made to get him to this point: mastering butchery at Vic's Meat and Whole Beast Butchery, running the kitchen at Barzaari, launching a catering business during COVID, fine-tuning recipes and preparing feasts for friends and cousins. All this, along with his own research and the knowledge that comes from growing up in a family with Peloponnese roots, have been poured into his first restaurant. Line up for takeaway, order a gyros, and Cassimatis has interrogated every aspect of the stuffed bread. The pita, made on a sourdough starter, is rolled by hand and baked in the wood oven to order. The tzatziki incorporates some of the 60 to 70 litres of yoghurt Cassimatis makes each week, fermented for 16 hours with a culture brought from Greece, then hung until it's thick. Order pork, and it'll be a mix of shoulder and belly, brined, marinated in whey, onion and spice, then spun over coals for five hours. Pickles, rich in aniseed, are made in house. I've torn open fresh gyros on the street front. I've spread them on picnic rugs with friends. I've ferried them home to my neighbour. At their best, they're living proof that there's no reason takeaway food can't be given the same level of care as anything a fine-diner can offer. When they're good, they're very good. But then some days, the sauces have been applied too liberally, the pita (early on, at least) have been too flat, too biscuity. The fava and mushroom version? Inspired, but overly mushy.
