A farmer woman and mother of four from northern Greece has won the TikTok with her authentic recipes and videos. On the popular video platform 39-year-old Anastasia Kalalidou uses the nickname “H…MAM” – “The …MOM” – an idea she got from the daily question of her four children “what are we going to eat, mom?”
The…MOM ‘s fame has also reached the other side of the earth with her relatives and friends in Australia who share her recipes and have made her known to an even larger audience.
One of the recipes they love is also the mom’s most popular: donuts…but Greek donuts.
“Beach donuts loved by young and old can be delicious and very nutritious. I made them in my own way, it’s more Greek, with a little water, no milk, with yeast, a little sugar, oil, and of course the main ingredient in everything I do is love and patience,” Anastasia told state radio amna 109.4 FMin an exclusive interview.
The mom’s day begins early in the morning, before the sun begins to rise. The wood oven is lit and illuminates the yard of the house of Anastasia’s house in the village of Axos in the regional unit of Pella, Central Macedonia.
Her top priority in the early morning is traditional handmade bread. The dough is placed on the heated stone in the oven. When the baking process starts, the whole neighborhood is filled with the sweet smell.
The whole process, from setting the leaven to the ingredients, to the kneading and the result after baking, with the golden color on the loaf, is captured on video.
The short video recording is uploaded to TikTok, where The…MOM although a new entrant to the popular platform just two months ago, has managed to attract the attention of users, with the video of her spoon sweets to have more than 270,000 views.
“My day starts early in the morning. I go to the field, I gather the fruits and from production I pass to consumption. Through TikTok I present the recipe exactly as I do it for the family table and I want those who watch me to be able to cook it with simple pure ingredients” Anastasia explained.
She admired that she enjoys the video recording and the result, as her recipes travel, in this way, all over the world.
Her involvement with TikTok came from the neighbor who usually tries her dishes first. In addition, there were also the relatives and friends to whom she gave almost daily instructions on how to make her savory and sweet recipes and who urged her to find a way to make them known to the general public.
Her first TikTok recipe was baklava. She said that the fyllo with the syrup was deified, and she couldn’t believe how many people saw it through their screens and copied it.
Her followers on TikTok often ask her questions, asking for even more detailed information about her recipes, and she answers them all and shares her “secrets”.
For both her savory and sweet recipes, The Mom always focuses on the seasonality of the ingredients, since her basic philosophy is “from the field to the table”.
In the next period, the “TikToker-Mom” will move on to her next step: with her good friend, farmer and producer from Agioneri Kilkis Panagiotis Yiltidis, they will collect recipes from Cappadocia* and publish them in a cookbook.
The…MOM ‘s TikTok account is here.
*Cappadocia: in Asia Minor, home of many Greeks who were forced to leave their homeland during the Asia Minor Disaster of 1922.
