Shannon's Sifnos

"Chef Christos Peskias says to me a lot: 'Greeks only need five things in their lives - salt, olives, wheat, milk and grapes. From that we can make anything.' And he's right. Sifnos is the island that believes that too. Think Mamma Mia - you're thinking Italian in Greece. Yes, and yes. This island genuinely has that feel: whitewashed villages tumbling down hillsides, courtyards thick with bougainvillea, old women in black still baking in wood-fired ovens because that's simply how it's done. But scratch the surface and it's pure Cyclades, pure Greek island, and prouder of its food culture than almost anywhere else I've been in the country. The real story of Sifnos is summed up by the chickpea. How can something this delicious be made from nothing more than soaked chickpeas grown on the island? Have you ever tried growing chickpeas? It's bloody hard. Each pod holds only two or three peas, protected by a thorny husk that pierces your skin like a hot knife through butter. Once you've felt that, you look at the humble pulse with a whole new level of respect - it's not humble at all, it's earned. Combine those chickpeas with the sweetest red onions, a Madeira-style local wine, loads of olive oil, a touch of water and the most incredible hand-thrown clay pots, then cook it low and slow overnight in a wood-fired oven - every Saturday, ready for Sunday's meal - and you've summed up the island in one dish. It's the most delicious thing I've ever eaten. The reason for the ritual is as generous as the dish: it gives the house cook, mama, a full day off on Sundays, because everything she needs to feed the family is already sitting in that pot, cooking itself while she rests. Four stories of Sifnos. The first is Nikolaos Tselementes, one of the most influential figures in modern Greek cuisine and a native of Sifnos. After time in Europe learning from the disciples of Escoffier, he returned bringing French technique - bechamel among it - and a more structured, disciplined approach Greek kitchens hadn't really seen. His influence changed Greek cuisine forever, including the modern moussaka, and his book The Greek Cooking Guide is still in print and on the shelf of pretty much every serious Greek kitchen. Not bad for a boy from a small Cycladic island. The second is the island itself: being taken around by the Mayor gave us a unique insight into Sifnos - its people, its politics, its food culture, and how deliberately protective the islanders are of it. The restaurants, the producers, the pottery workshops, the traditions - none of it is accidental or for show. The third is the connection between pottery and food, right at the heart of Sifnos: ceramics have been made here for thousands of years, and the clay pots aren't a tourist trinket - they're still the vessel every serious cook reaches for to make revithada or mastelo properly. The fourth is Kastro, the old capital and a must-visit - continuously inhabited since the third millennium BC, referenced by Herodotus, and today a medieval fortress town of houses built wall-to-wall in two defensive rings, marble from the island's own quarries built into the old acropolis walls. Wander the alleys for Roman sarcophagi, 16th and 17th century chapels, a tiny archaeological museum and more cats than you can count. Go for sunset. The two dishes that define it. Revithada - chickpeas, sweet red onions, thyme, salt and a Madeira-style local wine, in a clay pot with a generous glug of olive oil and a little water, sealed and cooked in a wood-fired oven for close to 24 hours; traditionally started Saturday evening for Sunday's family meal. Mastelo - grapevine cuttings line the base of the pot, then salted lamb or goat, onions, thyme and a local rose-style wine, sealed and slow-cooked for 15-16 hours; the vine cuttings perfume the meat as it steams in its own juices, astonishingly tender and falling off the bone. Beaches, trails and an island still on its own terms. Sifnos quietly has some of the best beaches in the Cyclades - Vathy at the head of a deep sheltered bay, Platys Gialos for a proper lazy day, Chrisopigi with its monastery on the rocks, Cheronissos up north where the fishing boats still outnumber the tourists. The hiking is some of the best in the Cyclades and criminally underrated - an old network of stone paths connecting village to village and monastery to monastery that predates the road, the trail to Pelicanos among them. What makes it all hit differently is that Sifnos hasn't been touched by major tourism the way Mykonos or Santorini have. Tourism here is being made to fit the local way of life, not the other way around. Visitors are welcome, but they're guests in someone else's story - which is rare in Greece now, and exactly why it's worth going soon. My advice: bring a car, the island is spread out, and give yourself time for Kastro, Vathy and a beach or two."

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