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Elli Nikolaou and Manolis (Manos for short) Passoulas are the creators of the unique Greek Flavor Bursts that are the pride of the Elli & Manos line. They had an unlikely start to their new chapter in life: Elli was a corporate occupational psychologist and Manos was a mathematician/IT specialist. But their love of cooking and creating meant they were always playing around with the recipes of their youth. Food was their passion and they finally decided to make it their career, leaving the corporate world to establish their own company outside of Athens in 2011.
Their kitchen became their testing ground, as Elli & Manos invited family and friends to taste their creations. In today’s Greece, crisis or no crisis, food is still a central part of everyday life, and everyone was happy to oblige, coming to taste and give advice (also a Greek tradition!). But the real torture test was the Greek mother and grandmother, and when Elli & Manos got their special seal of approval, they knew they were in business.
The next step proved to be the hardest. Taking a homemade recipe from the kitchen to a production line is no small task, especially as Elli & Manos insisted on only using only their usual natural ingredients, with no additives, no preservatives, no colorants. After much trial and error, they pulled it off. The Elli & Manos line of Greek Flavor Bursts gives you an intense punch of authentic Greek flavor, without shipping you big jars full of water, thanks to a high ingredient concentration you just can’t find in other products. Elli & Manos want the culinary experience of their products to start with the twist of the lid, that first smell, the thick texture, and finally the taste. They believe in intense flavors that make every bite thrilling, tantalizing every one of your taste buds.
Elli & Manos’ unique Greek Flavor Bursts give you incredible versatility to use them any way you like. Have a hankering for a bruschetta with an extra punch of flavor? Try Elli & Manos’ tomato-based bursts on your favorite crusty bread. Want to give a bit more zest to your fish, chicken, or pasta recipes? Then Elli & Manos’ vegetable-based bursts are for you.
Elli & Manos is ISO 22000 certified as meeting international food safety management standards.
SPAROZA was started in 2014 by Efi Ekmetzoglou, an Athenian whose family originated from Anatolia.She left a 20-year career as a publisher to translate her passion for herbs and spices into a new career. Seeking the finest raw materials and making her own lemon and orange zest, Efi captured the blends she had always used in her own cooking and began selling them around her Athens neighborhood of Exarcheia. Soon she opened up her small production facility for shoppers and tourists, showing a more productive, positive side of her community than what was often portrayed on the news during the area’s demonstrations over Greece’s debt crisis.
Efi selects the raw materials for SPAROZA with strict criteria: rosemary and thyme are picked when in blossom, she makes her very own top quality citrus zest using fresh Greek lemons and oranges, every ingredient is ground to a different degree so as to best preserve its culinary and nutritional value. Importantly for us, SPAROZA products do not contain preservatives, additives, artificial flavors nor colorants.
SPAROZA continues to innovate, first launching blends of Greek mountain tea and herbs, and more recently the first Greek wine jellies, building on Efi’s expertise in bold combinations. She worked with renown chef Dimitri Chomatas to blend herbs and spices with quality Greek wines, like Malagouzia and Agiorgitiko. The result is a trio of gorgeous, full-bodied flavors that are ideal for cheese and charcuterie boards.
SPAROZA’S products are manufactured in facilities that meet ISO/HACCP food safety regulation standards.
Today’s Agrozimi is the result of three generations of hard work and commitment to quality. In 1969 Yiorgos Martavaltzoglou, a refugee from Asia Minor, started a bakery in his village of Aravissós, in the Greek province of Macedonia. His children, wanting to guarantee the quality of the flour they used, started a mill in 1974 and gradually expanded it to produce traditional pasta, like hilopítes and trahaná. By 2010, the third generation of the Martavaltzoglou family moved the business to a modern new production facility, continuing to produce the traditional flavors while adding new ones, like spelt, farro and squid ink.
We met brothers Kostas and Yiorgos in the spring of 2018, when they invited us to visit their site (read more about that visit in our blog). There, they proudly pointed out the Italian-imported machinery, the pasteurized fresh eggs and milk (not powdered!) that they insisted on still using, as their father had…and we marveled at the spotlessly clean production lines and offices, while we basked in the scent of freshly made kritharáki. It was truly impressive that in Greece’s difficult economic climate, this family-run business has managed to thrive well into a third generation.
The reason for that clearly lies in the quality of their products. An Agrozimi pack is not your typical mass-produced pasta, and has a unique flavor and texture that is a testament to the Martavaltzoglou family’s commitment to quality. Kostas and Yiorgos continue to use Arávissos’ famous water and still buy grain from producers with whom their family has nurtured 40-year relationships. They have intentionally built their facility with high ceilings and plenty of open space to allow for natural drying chambers, avoiding high-speed drying ovens.
Agrozimi is HACCP & ISO 22000 certified as meeting international food safety management standards.
Connecting You to the World Through Food.
Serious Foodie explores the regional cuisines of the world to learn how people connect through food. We then bring this experience to your home kitchen with quick, easy, healthy sauces, spice rubs, recipes, and more.