NEW YORK – Noted chef and cookbook writer Mina Stone knows Greek food and she knows how to elevate it way beyond traditional fare, the restaurant named for her in a former schoolhouse at MoMA PS1, a contemporary art museum in Queens, N.Y. dishing it.
Don’t look for museum food here, said Interview magazine about what she serves, and she talked about what she does with comedian and fellow Greek-American Amy Sedaris, sister of writer David Sedaris.
Stone’s mother was a Leftist who rebelled against the Greek military junta in the 1970’s so the homeland connection runs deep, as do her recipes in her books such as Lemon, Love & Olive Oil.
At Mina’s, diners can feast on Mediterranean small plates like fenugreek and sumac-dusted bread studded with golden raisins paired with a sharp, savory beet tzatziki in a setting that looks like eating in a whitewashed Cycladic seaside spot.
Stone and Sedaris even talked about feta – Sedaris saying she prefers Dodoni to one from Arachova near Delphi that Stone uses. Sedaris noted her mother wasn’t Greek but learned to cook Greek food from women in their North Carolina Greek church.