You\u2019ve probably eaten loukoumades, the Greek doughnuts that seem to be at every market in Melbourne. Ditto for galaktoboureko, the syrupy cake available at various Greek bakeries. Bougatsa, though? It\u2019s basically unknown outside the Greek community.<\/p>\n
Kosta Kostidis and his mum, Martha Oplopiadis, want to change that with Bougatsaki. At 11am today, Saturday September 19, they\u2019ll open what we feel confident calling Australia\u2019s first shop dedicated to bougatsa, a flaky filo-based pie filled with sweet semolina-vanilla custard.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt\u2019s like a Greek vanilla slice,\u201d Kostidis says. \u201cIn Greece you see it at every corner shop. Every corner shop is its own little bougatsa shop. I wanted to bring something like that down here. My goal is to have anyone and everyone eating my product.\u201d<\/p>\n
Kostidis started baking bougatsa (\u201cboo-GAH-tsa\u201d) at home, using a recipe from his pappous, after a back injury put him out of work as a plumber. \u201cMy grandpa was a baker his whole life when he was in Greece. He\u2019s from Serres, up north, where bougatsa actually originates from,\u201d he says.<\/p>\n
From that came a pop-up at Northcote Festival 12 months ago, which sold out in five hours. Kostidis says the brand has been booked almost every week since to appear at soccer games, markets and festivals, but it couldn\u2019t grow much as a mobile business.<\/p>\n
Enter a cousin who married into the famous Melbourne fruiterer family, LaManna. Specifically, the branch that runs the gargantuan LaManna Essendon Fields and an associated food factory in Footscray. They got him a tiny corner tenancy inside Italiano\u2019s Fresh Produce on Sydney Road, formerly a LaManna fruit shop. And the bougatsas are now being made at scale at the Footscray factory using filo imported from Greece, ready for Kostidis to collect and bake on-site.<\/p>\n
Get it the traditional way, dusted with icing sugar and cinnamon, or with Kostidis\u2019s own spins of Nutella, Biscoff, or honey and walnut. He\u2019s also selling a savoury, gozleme-like version with spinach and cheese. All of it makes his pappous happy.<\/p>\n
\u201cHe\u2019s over the moon,\u201d Kostidis says. \u201cHe kind of lives through me now. The biggest thing is that I put a smile on his face.\u201d<\/p>\n