Comedian & Cook Book Author, Gus Constantellis, His Mon Died, So He Wrote a Cookbook

Gus Constantellis lost his mother, Julia, and four days later he posted a video making the first thing she ever taught him to cook. That video is the reason a cookbook exists.Industry Night is Heartcast Media's DC food podcast, hosted by Washington DC restaurant insider Nycci Nellis, and once in a while the guest isn't a chef at all. Gus Constantellis, the Greek Mom cookbook comedian, is the Greek American stand up comic and writer behind the viral videos where he becomes his mother on camera with more love than most tributes manage. His new book, My Greek Mom's Recipes, carries the tagline she died, I wrote this cookbook, and it reads as much like a memoir as a collection of recipes.Nycci talks with Gus about the pandemic video that made Greek Mom go viral, the forty years his mother spent in America without learning English, and the meatball recipe that became the first page of a book he never planned to write alone. This hospitality industry podcast conversation is really about food as the language that outlasts the person who spoke it.Key TakeawaysGus Constantellis built the viral Greek Mom character on TikTok, Instagram, and YouTube by impersonating his mother, Julia, and the videos took off during the pandemic in April 2020.Julia never learned English in forty years in America, and cooking became her way of communicating what words could not.Four days after his mother died, Gus posted a video making her meatball recipe, and that video is what led him to write My Greek Mom's Recipes.The cookbook is built around Greek Easter traditions and regional flavors heavy on cinnamon, cloves, and cumin, with recipes gathered from his aunt, his mother's own recipe books, and his brother.Gus says the easiest recipes for a beginner are the meatballs, the fasolakia green beans, and the lazy cheese pie.QuotesGus Constantellis said, "It was the only thing that was keeping me going, because I felt really lost."Gus Constantellis said, "When I die, you are all going to starve."Timestamps00:00 Nycci opens from her home office, no restaurant today00:41 Meet Gus Constantellis and the viral Greek Mom videos02:20 Fresh off ten days in Greece with his boyfriend04:10 How Gus got into stand up comedy05:38 Julia was the original material07:05 The pandemic video that made Greek Mom go viral09:04 The unfiltered, off camera side of Julia12:38 Forty years in America without learning English16:09 Growing up in the kitchen with his mom20:21 The cookbook that grief made him write23:17 The recipes that had to make the book25:03 The regional flavors behind Greek Mom's cooking28:07 Building the Easter chapter30:40 Easy recipes for a weeknight31:50 What Julia would say about the finished bookConnect with Gus ConstantellisInstagram: https://www.instagram.com/constantlygus/Website: https://www.constantlygus.com/