Finding Windsor's only Greek bakery
When Efi Vasilodimitrakis' mother died a year ago, she felt a strong desire to continue on the traditions and culture her mother had passed on to her. Food was a major part of that.
"There are no Greek bakeries in Windsor [even though] there's a large Greek community in Windsor," says Vasilodimitrakis. "We don't have anything to represent the culture like that. We thought, 'Detroit has Greektown, Toronto has Greektown. Why not Windsor?'"
That's why Vasilodimitrakis and her husband, Jon Brooks, started The Good Greek Bakery last May, selling Greek cookies and pastries such as baklava.
While the Good Greek Bakery may be the only one of its kind in Windsor, you can't pay it a visit just yet. They don't actually have a physical storefront. For now, the Good Greek Bakery is run out of their home and through commercial kitchens. Sales happen online, over the phone, at local farmers' markets and other trade shows.
It's truly a family operation. Everybody plays a part. Efi is the head baker. Jon is in charge of logistics, including things like buying all the ingredients and finding commercial kitchens to use. He says they try to use as many local ingredients as possible, such as local honey and Windsor salt.
Their two daughters, Elizabeth and Isabel, are involved, too. Despite the fact that they're only in elementary school, the girls do an incredible job in the sales department, handing out free samples of baklava at farmers' markets, for example.
What is baklava?
At its most basic level, baklava is a sweet dessert made with layers of thin filo pastry, filled with nuts and drenched in a type of syrup. It's made in many countries in the Mediterranean and the Middle East.
However, everybody makes it differently. Some bakeries use honey, while others use rose water, for example. When it comes to nuts, some use pistachio, while others use walnuts, almonds or a combination of nuts. Windsor is home to a lot of good baklava — but it's not all the same. Some of it is made here, and some of it of it is imported from other cities.
The Good Greek Bakery's baklava is, naturally, made in a Greek style. A walnut-based filling is used, and cloves are the signature ingredient that, according to Vasilodimitrakis, makes hers particularly distinctive.
Unlike some offerings, the Good Greek's baklava is not overly soggy and syrupy. "It's all in the technique," explains Vasilodimitrakis. "When I take [the baklava] out of the oven, I only let it cool down for a couple of minutes. The syrup is still warm when I pour it on ... you hear a crackle when it pours onto the hot filo. It's almost as though [the baklava] sucks in all of the syrup ... it doesn't allow the syrup to come out. It creates a crispy filo with a soft centre."
