How has your upbringing inspired your career as a chef?

I’ve spent my life travelling – my father was a chef from Tuscany, and he met my mother in Corfu. I was born in Corfu, and then we lived in Spain, Morocco, Egypt, Paris and Italy. I always wanted to follow in my father’s footsteps. When I finished university I worked in San Sebastian for three years, in three-Michelin-starred restaurants including alongside my friend Martín Berasategui, as well as Arzak. Then I returned to Corfu to open our family restaurant, Etrusco, with my father, in 1992, taking over from him in 2000. In 2011, I opened Botrini’s restaurant in Athens, which holds one Michelin star.

Tell us about the inspiration behind Ora?

Ora means “hour” or “time” in Greek, and “now” in Italian. It is inspired by a sense of nostalgia for the family meals of the past, and the passing of time. We want to create that sense of belonging through our food, of returning ‘home’ to the shared dishes of our childhood, reimagined through a contemporary lens.

How would you describe the dining experience at Ora?

Ora isn’t a gastronomic restaurant – it’s a comfort restaurant. We want to find the simplicity and the tradition in Mediterranean cuisine, but look at it from a new point of view. We have plates from all across the Mediterranean – I like to think of it as a lake, and our cuisine touches all of these shores, from Greece and Italy to Spain, Morocco and Egypt. We take classic dishes and make them lighter, working in a lot of vegetarian dishes and a lot of plates that are very simple but very powerful in the mouth, to really spotlight the ingredients.

How would you describe the ambience at Ora?

My most important mission is to make people feel comfortable. When people come to Ora, I want them to feel as if they are dining in the garden of my home. I feel like we have lost this aspect of hospitality, this sense of generosity via the act of sharing meals and food – this generosity of spirit is something we want to capture at Ora. We want to give people memories, to pass on our own food memories, and to bring people together around the table.

Meet Chef Ettore Botrini