Bon Bon Fait Maison at Kythira


It is with sweet joy that I present today my latest discovery “Bon Bon Fait Maison”!

Bon Bon Fait Maison is an innovative concept of fast gourmet food on a Greek island, where the Ionian, Aegean and Cretan seas meet under the Greek sunlight.

The story begins a few years ago when some friends from Paris got together in Kythira. The island’s strange energy, the flavours, the aromas and the authenticity of the place made their hearts beat loudly. This intense love for the island evoked their need for creation. This is how BON BON Fait Maison (homemade) was designed, shaking things up gastronomically on the island. The soul of the endeavour is Chef Kriton Minas Poulis. Straight from Paris, he is the man who envisioned the gastronomic philosophy behind BON BON Fait Maison. The interesting menu includes homemade ice creams and sorbets that smell like Greece, French galettes and crepes from Brittany with black buckwheat flour, fresh juices of unique combinations and a strict selection of Greek traditional products.

Kriton Minas Poulis became aware, very early on, for his love of gastronomy, working alongside Lefteris Lazarou, the first Greek chef to be awarded the Michelin star. In 2003 he decided to move to Paris and expand his gastronomic horizons. He collaborated with Alain Passard and later worked alongside Alain Senderens. In 2005 he went to London to work with French chef Pierre Gagnaire. Following that, his strict and creative spirit was perfected while collaborating with the leading French confectioner Pierre Hermé and they worked together in his pastry shops in Europe and Asia for ten years.

In 2013, Kriton felt the need to return for a while and travel around Greece for about a year looking for the best products produced by each region. In October 2014, he opened a store named KILIKIO in Paris, a deli-grocery, with six hundred products from one hundred Greek producers!

The concept

In 2016 he made the decision to create a place for his favourite Greek island, Kythira. His need and goal was to bring Greece and France together in his own way. Homemade ice creams and authentic crêpes, made from pure fresh ingredients without preservatives. Perhaps the only place in Greece that offers Brittany’s original salty crêpes, the “galettes” which get their dark color from the black coloured buckwheat flour, pop (gluten-free) which is used. The crêpes can be combined with authentic smoked pork meat “apaki” from the Sfakia region of Crete, “graviera” cheese from the island of Naxos, anchovies, caramelized onions, eggs, capers and spices from various parts of Greece. The high-quality homemade ice creams feature an unexpected selection, including original Madagascar vanilla, authentic coffee ice cream and an impressive black chocolate. The flavours are not lacking in French references to violet or black currant and flavours which honour the island of Kythira, such as fig leaves. All of the products offered are prepared daily by the BONBON team with heart and soul and flawless technique, in the transparent workshop space of the store.

The Interior Design Laboratorium, was asked from the beginning to conceive of a design identity which could travel to other Greek islands as well as major European cities. The first BON BON Fait Maison is located in the town of Kythira, in a traditional two storey building from the 1860s, which was refurbished with the invaluable help of the local architectural firm m3kythira.  They undertook the construction according to the design study and direction of the Interior Design Laboratorium. The design is inspired by Greece, the Greek summer and the life of the people living on the Greek islands. The intention of the design study was to create a space that would subconsciously awaken to the visitor memories of their childhood summer innocence; much like the warm feeling of the summerhouse that keeps you coming back…

All photos by Giorgos Sfakianakis

 


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