Boroume (meaning “We Can”) is a charity focused on feeding those left homeless and poor in crisis-stricken Greece. It has held charity events in an effort to generate as many as 22 meals from every one-euro donation — an amazing accomplishment in its own right. The charity, the brainchild of Xenia Papastavrou, a former Greek Food Bank 201 volunteer, was founded in 2011 to tackle food waste and hunger. Since then, she has secured the involvement of many groups that willingly donate food to the charity instead of throwing it away. Another source of funding came earlier in 2016, with the release of a book, titled “A Taste of Greece,” co-authored by Tatiana Blatnik, wife of Nikolaos from the ex-royal family of Greece, along with Greek-American food and travel writer Diana Farr Louis.
In total, the book includes contributions by 41 celebrities, chefs and food writers, all of them connected with Greece in different ways. Contributors are arranged alphabetically, but the list includes celebrities such as Arianna Huffington, Jim Gianopulos of 20th Century Fox, writers Margaret Atwood, Victoria Hislop and Sofka Zinovieff, conductor Zubin Mehta, broadcasters Bob Costas and Nikos Aliagas, photographer Robert McCabe, actresses Rita Wilson and Olympia Dukakis; design and food entrepreneurs such as Carole Bamford, Dan and Dean Caten, Tatiana Casiraghi; chefs Michel Roux, Nobu Matsuhisa, Cat Cora and Nikos Ntanos who worked on recipes for several other contributors; food writers Diana Farr Louis (who edited the book), Diane Kochilas, Laurie Constantino, Rachel and Andrew Dalby, Peter Minaki. Among the contributors are several members of the ousted Greek royal family now once again living in Greece: Queen Anne-Marie, her sister-in-law Princess Irene, her son ex-Prince Nikolaos and his wife Blatnik who coordinated the project. Before Blatnik married, she had worked for Diane von Furstenberg, who is a contributor to the book alongside other contacts from the fashion world, Mary Katrantzou, Valentino and Giancarlo Giammetti, as noted by Sharon Edelson writing in WWD.
The high-quality book is tantalizing to the eyes thanks to a great layout and design that one would expect from the wife of an ousted Greek royal and travel writer extraordinaire. Best of all, the proceeds go to a good cause.
The book is already available in French and German translation, and will be published in Greek just in time for Christmas 2016.
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