A culinary journey through time in Larnaca

Desserts made from a handwritten recipe book dating from the 1920’s will be available for the public to try on Wednesday at the Sun Hall Hotel in Larnaca.

The book, found in the Phivos Stavrides Foundation Larnaca archives, was used to make desserts at the Βeau Rivage hotel, today’s Sun Hall on Larnaca’s beach front.

According to the foundation’s chief Iosif Hadjikyriakos, Beau Rivage began operating in 1906 with a members only “commercial club” in the ground floor known as “Fokas club” after the owner Foka Karmfilaki.

“It was a members club and its aim was to serve Larnaca’s upper classes,” he said.

Despite operating over 100 years ago, Hadjikyriakos said the recipes, which were inspired by European cuisine, particularly English, utilised modern equipment for the time such as ice cream machines and a gas oven.

The recipe book was found in a plastic envelope with a handwritten note by Phivos Stavrides saying “Mrs. Elviras Kyriallidou’s Cooking, Beau Rivage Manager.”

Kyriallidou was the hotel’s owner daughter working at the hotel prior 1929 until 1970 as a baker and later as manager.

Her father, after setting up the hotel hired a well known baker from Athens to work at the hotel for two years.

The handwritten recipe book has 37 pages, according to Hatjikyriakou with a number of pages missing.

“The writing is easy to ready while the language and wording present some interesting problems. The language is common Greek, local with several dialectal influences. The spelling is inconsistent and several times wrong.”

Most of the recipes are for desserts however there are two drinks and two savoury dishes with inconsistencies on the way ingredients should be weighed using cups, spoons, handfuls and other

The event ‘A culinary journey through time’, will be held at the Sun Hall Hotel in Larnaca at 6pm.