"It’s hard to know where to start in describing the experience we had with Maria. To put it simply this was the highlight of our entire trip. If you are the type of traveler who likes to learn something about the people, history, and culture of the place where you are vacationing, and someone who loves food, I cannot recommend this experience more.  What really struck me immediately about Maria was her passion for food and not just for the act of cooking, but for the ingredients, the history and culture, the medicinal properties of certain herbs she incorporated, etc. This woman knows food, and the way she explained everything to us in detail made the food (which was mind-blowingly delicious) much more special. The feeling we had when Maria dropped us off that evening was something like that feeling you get when you’ve just discovered this amazing secret that you know most others will never know about or have the opportunity to experience, and you’re just so thankful that you were lucky enough to somehow be let in on the secret. If you're in Syros, please do yourself a favor and go spend some time with Maria and Nikos. We can only hope we will someday be lucky enough to find ourselves back in their company. It was truly a once in a lifetime experience."

"Because we are entering the new culinary season and our eyes will see many new things and many our palates will taste, I am sitting and 'koutalometro' (counting using a teaspoon), as my grandmother would say, the emerging summer memories. The sweetest and strongest was that of the chef at the restaurant MAZI in Syros. I’ve been noticing her for two full days. I felt her temperate walking as she was carrying the shopping alone for her everyday cooking. After I tasted her food, it was meaningful, substantive, and soaked with the scents of the Cyclades. Many dishes acrobat on a dangerous balance in putting together strange materials, but while swallowing the last bite, you know that the finale is magically completely successful. Note her name, she is called MARIA KRINA and whatever she touches reflects the enthralling, scintillating energy of the person who feeds people with a distinctive passion for food and not with one’s ego. As we embark on a new culinary season, I am writing this to highlight the significant risk of savoring food again that focuses on the chef's ego! While this may have been thrilling in the past, it no longer represents the essence of our current era."

"Meeting Maria was one of the best experiences of my trip. I am a chef in Australia and teach cooking classes myself, but spending time with Maria really opened my eyes to a lot of new ideas about food I’d never thought about before. She has great knowledge about edible weeds in Syros and their uses, the class and meal were so interesting it flew by. I would strongly recommend going to see Maria if you have time. I went to Syros exclusively to take a class with her and I’m so happy I did."

"We had a wonderful experience! Maria was extremely knowledgeable about her craft, and she spent lots of time ensuring that we walked away with new knowledge about herbs, flavors, and ingredients native to Syros. She is passionate about cooking and teaching others. The food was absolutely delicious--even the meat eaters in our family thoroughly enjoyed the vegetarian meal. Overall this was a great learning experience with great conversation. We would highly recommend this experience to anyone visiting Syros who is interested in learning about the local produce and traditional dishes."