Savvas Giannaris grew up in the Hellenic’s kitchen in East Marion. Now an integral part of Eleven Madison Park’s staff serving a tasting menu to nearly 200 people nightly, his cooking reflects years of discipline while his approach remains unpretentious and culinarily curious.
“I had the goal of coming to New York [City] and working for a few years and then hopefully working in this kitchen,” says Savvas. “By some string of luck, I managed to get in early.”
George Giannaris, Savvas’ father, owns the five-decade-old iconic restaurant, Hellenic. As a child, Savvas’ routine was school, homework, then head right to the restaurant to help. “It was never an obligation,” says Savvas of working in his family’s kitchen. “It was a choice.”
He graduated from Mattituck High School in 2019 and pursued a bachelor’s degree in statistics at Binghamton University in Binghamton, N.Y.
Despite wanting to pursue the culinary path, Savvas’ father pushed him to get a “credible degree,” but in his second year the impulse struck Savvas again, driving him to determine a course map allowing him to graduate from Binghamton a year early.
“My dad was like ‘You know that’s a big challenge but do it and then we can talk,’” says Savvas. “That set the gears in motion.”
In 2022, he returned to the North Fork serving as sous chef at Hellenic for a few months, then moved to Paris, France in December to study cuisine and pastry at the highly acclaimed culinary school, Le Cordon Bleu Paris.
The experience was extraordinary, Savvas says — ranging from the culinary education itself to being alone in another country for the first time, and immersing himself in spectacular products through the food market vendors lining the street where he lived.
“I would stop on the subway four stops early and I’d walk back to my apartment and gather everything that was fresh and cook,” says Savvas. “I did that almost seven nights a week for a year straight.”
At the end of the year-long accelerated program, Savvas applied to jobs in France and New York City.
He interviewed with several Michelin Star-rated restaurants. Eleven Madison Park boasted a hefty three, the most an establishment can receive as per the Michelin Guide, ranking restaurants for ingredient quality, harmony of flavors, mastery of culinary techniques, chef’s personality shining through cuisine and consistency over time.
“When I stepped into Eleven Madison Park, I just knew,” says Savvas. “In hindsight I can’t believe I said this to them, but I was like, ‘I really just want to get my ass kicked, I want to be in an intense environment and this is where I need to be and I can start tomorrow,’ and I didn’t even live in the city.”
Until moving to the city, Savas commuted three hours daily, working 80 hour weeks moving from the lowest level position in the kitchen to the cold line, the hot section and into a leadership role, managing the new kitchen staff.
From his earlier work at Hellenic, Savvas brought respect for the ingredients he uses, an understanding for how front-of-house and back-of-house work together and an appreciation for being in a kitchen, even for 16 hours a day.
Now, in celebration of Eleven Madison Park Chef Daniel Humm’s 20th anniversary, the restaurant is serving a retrospective menu that Savvas is working the duck roasting station to create.
“This is constant learning, it’s constant refinement and optimization and pushing to make things as good as they can be as fast as possible while cooking for 200 people,” says Savvas. “That’s something we take pride in a lot at the restaurant, that everyone is constantly learning. If you’re not learning, you’re not in the right place.”
If the North Fork is lucky, Savvas’ culinary talent may return home in coming years, he says.
“I definitely am very, very interested in showing the North Fork as a culinary destination,” says Savvas. “I think there are a few restaurants out there, but not enough that are actually showing the region for as special as it is.”
