Another Abbotsford family is taking part in the Family Cook Off reality TV competition being broadcast on the Food Network.
The four participants are cousins Mike Vulgaris, Teli Kardakaris and Afroditi Moschonas with her mother Mahe Makris.
They chose their group name to be The Kourtessis Family – after the maiden name of Mahe and also Teli and Mike’s mothers.
“All of our moms are sisters and we really wanted to pay some respect to our grandparents,” said Moschonas.
She has been better known as “Diti,” a fixture at the Rendezvous Restaurant – owned by her parents Hercules and Mahe Makris, and locally renowned for traditional Greek cuisine.
The News reported in March that the Peters family of Abbotsford also appeared on an episode of Family Cook Off.
Moschonas explained that they entered the contest through an online casting call, and were quickly identified as participants.
The theme they chose for the competition was the olive, with a nod to their family’s roots in Corfu, Greece.
During the show, two family members prepare an entree, while the other two create a dessert. Both meals are judged by two celebrity chefs, and rated on a scale of 1 to 10. They compete against another family team.
The team with the most points by the second round is the winner, and receives a $1,000 grocery gift card.
The show is billed “Kourtessis vs Guzzo – Battle of the Food Empires.” It has already been aired, but The News is not revealing the winner, in case the episode is aired again.
The Kourtessis cousins prepared lamb chops and loukoumades, billed by the network “Greek meals of mythic proportions.”
The Guzzo family cooked lingcod and lemon squeezy with “Italian gusto.”
“I can truly say that being on the show with my cousins, and the support that we had the day of the show from our other family was something that I will never forget,” said Moschanas, adding that doing the show with her mother made it more special. “There is no other person I would have rather done this with.”
