PicoSync

By Chloé BraithwaiteFeatures correspondent

On windy Mykonos is an unexpected treasure: the oldest woodfire bakery in Greece, which once supplied bread to Napoleon's troops during the Napoleonic wars.

Blink and you'll miss it. That's how the location of Gioras Wood Medieval Mykonian Bakery was described to me by a local who had, indeed, blinked and missed it several times, despite being a regular. 

On the windswept island of Mykonos – where tourism is the main source of income and locals are often wildly outnumbered by visitors – there is little left that is authentically Mykonian. When the international jet set "discovered" the island in the 1960s, it brought much needed revenue to a poverty-stricken people. Rapid development followed to attract international tourist dollars, but despite the sudden influx of wealth, the Mykonian population started to fall because the cost of living became too expensive. Traditional fishing villages fell by the wayside and hotels popped up alongside tavernas designed not for locals but for foreigners.

Today, it can be hard to find anything from old Mykonos, despite the island's 3,000-plus-year history, but there are some holdouts from the past, like Gioras. Run today by husband-and-wife George Vamvakouris and Cloe Papaioannou, Gioras' woodfire ovens were lit for the first time in 1420, when Henry V still sat on the English throne and the Byzantines ruled Constantinople. It has the distinction of being the oldest woodfired bakery in Greece and has been in the Vamvakouris family since the Venetians left the island in 1718 and handed the business over to George's great-great-great grandfather. According to Maria Loi, an award-winning Greek chef and documentarian, it is known as "the Parthenon of all Greek woodfired bakeries". 

It was a specific bread upon which Gioras once built their culinary foundation. "Different regions of Greece have distinct culinary cultures that can be seen reflected in their local breads," said Loi. "They are influenced by local culture and the availability of ingredients in each region. The bread in Mykonos is typical of the Cyclades, called paximadia: hard rusks made of barley or wheat, twice baked and seasoned with local herbs, olive oil and anise."

Like the rest of the town of Mykonos, the walls on approach to the bakery are whitewashed by design and time. The bakery itself is down a steep flight of stone stairs. It's an airy, homely space filled with the delicate scent of sweet almond and cinnamon, caramelised sugar and freshly ground coffee beans. In Gioras' early years, some 600 years ago, the bakery was simply a big oven built into the side of a hill to keep the space somewhat cool while the fire burned throughout the day. 

"The bread they baked was known as 'sea bread' and sold to small ships," explained Loi, who recently visited Gioras while filming season two of her documentary series, The Life of Loi. The sea bread, a kind of paximadia, was intentionally long-lasting to endure days and months at sea. It could be preserved up to a year, making it perfect for long voyages.

"Sailors would take this bread with them on long trips, dipping it in the ocean [to rehydrate it], enjoying it with olive oil and sometimes with fresh seafood." This is the same bread that Gioras once supplied to Napoleon's troops during the Napoleonic wars in the early 19th Century, according to Papaioannou. "These humble Mykonian rusks played a crucial role even during the Napoleonic Wars, as they supplied the French armadas."

Glancing up at the bakery ceiling, you can still see the original smoke-stained ceiling put in place centuries ago – big wooden beams supporting smaller, twisted beams, preserved by heat and the dryness of the air. It's a space that's frozen in time, if you ignore the shiny new ovens tucked in the back corner. In summer, a slight breeze flows through the bakery's café space, in one entrance and out the other, and while plenty of light shines through the open windows, the shadows keep it protected from the harsh Mediterranean sun.

For the majority of the 300 years they've been running Gioras, the Vamvakouris family has been dedicated to making bread, which was baked every 15 days and divided up between various local villages. There was also a communal aspect to Gioras, as women across the island would come here to gather and socialise as they baked and roasted all sorts of foods in the woodfire oven. To make their bread, they would use Gioras' mother (pre-ferment or dough starter) as a base.

"For Greeks, food is a very social experience, and bakeries are still considered the heart of a community for this very reason," smiled Loi. Papaioannou agreed. "The elderly people, our seniors, would come in the morning to collect the bread. They would wait very patiently for the food to come out," she recalled. "Then, some years ago, we started to make coffee for more people, more locals. Then visitors started wanting the same." So, Gioras adapted. Coffee became a menu staple.

However, today, with an ageing population and a revolving door of tourists, things are changing: tourists don't buy bread; they buy sweets like pastries and biscotti. In summer, when the ovens are on, it's simply too hot for people to sit and enjoy their snacks. And many local Mykonians who grew up prior to – or in the early days of – the influx of tourism now choose to live elsewhere. They return only to work the high season before leaving again for bigger cities like Athens, taking their memories and traditions with them. So, five years ago, when Vamvakouris's father passed away, bread production stopped. They couldn't find anyone to help, and demand just wasn't that high.

Instead, Papaioannou and Vamvakouris work to keep the Mykonian tradition alive in other ways: all ingredients are sourced from their sister islands, from no further than 500km away. "That's the old way," Papaioannou said. Up until the '60s, there was no electricity or running water on the island. Imports were rare and expensive, and for the local population, often impossible.

"It's very important for me to support local production, whatever comes from the island, so we won't be obliged to get things from outside. We only go as far as our sister islands in the Cyclades," said Papaioannou.

Papaioannou is also dedicated to preserving their family's ancient recipes and traditions.

"We inherited a book of recipes full of biscotti, sweet pastries, cheese-making, even honey," she said. Her eyes lit up as she pulled up photos of the old tome on her phone. It's filled with loose sheets of paper covered in handwritten notes.

"It's falling apart now," she laughed, explaining that most of the old family recipes are tucked away safely at home. The book is digital now. She opened up Pinterest on her phone where the recipes are laid out on their own dedicated Pinterest board.

For now, breadmaking may continue back home at Papaioannou's villa, but it's not likely to be on the menu at Gioras again any time soon. Instead, what's on display in the glass window case is something much more important: the labour and the hope of a declining but cautiously optimistic community baked into a crispy burek (filled phyllo pastry) or crumbly pistachio shortbread.  

BBC.com's World's Table "smashes the kitchen ceiling" by changing the way the world thinks about food, through the past, present and future. 

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