Labrys Fine Cuisine Restaurant ~ Authentic Cuisine of Crete in Mississauga
Health-conscious diners and lovers of good food have something new to tempt their palates at Labrys Fine Cuisine Restaurant in Mississauga.
This fine dining restaurant is likely the only restaurant in the country with a menu based on the Cretan diet, a diet credited for its adherents living longer and healthier lives due to consuming olive oil and plant-based protein, fresh local produce in season and red wine in moderation, and only limited amounts of animal fats, such as red meat, butter, eggs and dairy and processed foods.
Mediterranean diet
That Crete is an island in the Mediterranean Sea gives rise to another name for this Cretan diet -- the Mediterranean diet. "Mediterranean is so broad a term now," says Tom Archondakis, the Crete-born owner of Labrys and Cretan diet enthusiast. "The 'Mediterranean diet' known for its health benefits that's been studied for 45 years is the Cretan diet."
Good for you, good tasting, too!
The long-term study set out in the early 1960s to try to find out why people from Crete had one of the highest life-expectancies in the world, with many living well into their 80s with fewer major illnesses. What the study found was that the Cretans traditional diet was based on organically grown fresh fruits and vegetables, olive oil, low to moderate amounts of fish, poultry, eggs, yogurt and cheese, natural sweeteners like honey and molasses and a daily glass (two for men) of red wine.
"These are authentic Cretan foods, the same dishes we ate in Crete, or growing up in Canada," says Archondakis, referring to the new menu. "If you were to go to Crete today, you'd find these foods in any restaurant. This diet is centuries old. It's very popular in Germany now, and a lot of trendy restaurants in California are serving this type of food, but as far as I know, we are the only ones in Canada."
Established family restaurant in Mississauga
For 10 years now, Labrys has operated as a family dining restaurant at the same location in Mississauga, on Lorne Park Road just north of Lakeshore Road West. But this focus on Cretan cuisine was only recently made possible by the arrival of Labrys new head chef, Dimitris Litsardakis, also from Crete. "I'm very happy to have found Dimitris to take care of the kitchen for this type of cuisine," Archondakis says.
Litsardakis, who operated a restaurant in Crete, also conducts seminars about Cretan foods for the local Greek community and general public, and writes a regular column for a Toronto-based Greek newspaper. Since the Cretan diet uses fresh produce in season, he says, "Labrys' menu will change seasonally four to six times a year."
Labrys menu matches Cretan diet plan
Labrys menu closely follows the tenets of the diet, Litsardakis says. "We don't use any butter. Even the garlic bread is made with olive oil, garlic and fresh herbs. I never use sugar. I make my own petimezi, a grape juice syrup that we use in Greece," he says. "The baklava is made with naturally sweet Cretan and Greek wines and olive oil. Cretan desserts are fruits and nuts, so we serve desserts like caramelised brandied peaches, wild apples and quince in a coulis with petimezi, or roasted almonds. We make our own ice cream, and top it with brandy, mulberry and raspberry coulis."
Litsardakis serves daily fish specials, and traditional dishes such as Octopus Estofada. "We prefer foods we can make ourselves, so we can control the quality and the ingredients. We grind our own sirloin, so we can control the fat content. And with snails, ours are not cooked in butter like other restaurants," he says. "I do them with wine, olive oil and fresh herbs. The herbs I use in my cooking are my trade secret, and every dish has a different taste. And because we don't use cream, we don't use a lot of garlic. Other, heavier cuisines use lots of garlic to balance the richness of cream sauces. Our cuisine is never spicy or 'hot'."
Desserts, starters, natural, too
"We make pressed yogurt to use for starters or desserts, like one dessert that's sweetened with thyme honey and sprinkled with walnut halves. It's nice and light," Archondakis continues. "I bring the thyme honey from Crete as well as the olive oil, which has almost no acidity. It's the first pressing, and not usually put on the market. You can taste the difference between our olive oil and mass market oils."
Another dish, a ratatouille-style dish called Briam, with eggplant, zucchini, tomatoes, herbs and cheese, can be eaten hot or cold. "We use less-common vegetables, like baby okra, fresh artichoke hearts, and our special lima beans -- big ones the size of a loonie," says Archondakis, noting he refuses to serve the old standby vegetables like broccoli and cauliflower. "We use herbs to enhance their natural flavour, not disguise it."
Labrys takes its name from history
Labrys -- the name of the two-bladed Minoan axe -- offers some four dozen vintage and consignment wines in premises newly decorated in Cretan-style blue and golden yellow, with hand-blown Minoan-style light fixtures, warm woods and a tiled fountain under a large skylight echoing the theme.
"We are drawing a lot of regular clientele from Toronto," says Archondakis. "They know we are the only restaurant serving authentic Cretan cuisine. Come in and try it for yourself. If you were to go to Crete, this is the food you would find in any restaurant."
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Labrys Fine Cuisine Restaurant, 1096 Lorne Park Road, Mississauga 905.278.2528
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