Diane Kochilas

Diane Kochilas is one of the foremost authorities on Greek cuisine in the world. She is the author of 17 books on Greek cuisine, including the forthcoming "Country Cooking of Greece" (Chronicle, 2012) and "Glorious Foods of Greece," which won an IACP award.

Diane appears regularly on American television, including "Throwdown with Bobby Flay," "Bizarre Foods," "Food(ography)," "PBS News Hour," and "Anderson Cooper 360," and her writings appear in major international media outlets, including the Washington Post, Dow Jones wire, Food & Wine, Gourmet Live, and zesterdaily.com.

Diane is on the forefront of bringing healthy, delicious Greek cuisine to a wide mainstream American audience. She works with Harvard, Yale, and UMass Amherst dining services, developing healthy options for the universities’ dining halls and retail outlets. She is also consulting chef at Boukiés and Pylos restaurants in New York City, as well as at other restaurants around the country, including Axia (NJ) and Avli (Chicago). She developed the menu for Volos, Toronto’s premier Greek restaurant, and consulted for the Hellenic Gourmet shop at the Athens airport. Currently, she is hosting a TV Cooking Show of her own called "Mom, What’s For Dinner Tonight" (in Greek) for Sigma, Cyprus’s largest TV station.

Diane is founder of GreekFoodTV, a webTV venture, and of the Glorious Greek Kitchen cooking school on her native Greek island, Ikaria, which is one of the world’s Blue Zones. Her deep knowledge of Greek food, combined with her infectious passion for teaching Americans how to cook this simple, delicious, healthful cuisine at home – and in the process “catch” the Greek love of life – make her an ideal speaker for groups large and small.