The Great American Recipe

A Q&A with Local Contestant Ted Pappas

by DANIEL HAUTZINGER

THE SECOND SEASON of The Great American Recipe is upon us, as nine home cooks from across the country share their recipes with a panel of expert judges and celebrate the cuisines that make American food so vibrant and unique. The contestants show us a wide diversity of cooking styles influenced by their varied backgrounds — from Guyanese to Greek, Libyan to Lithuanian, Caribbean to Native American, Midwestern to Traditional Hawaiian.

And from our own backyard, Ted Pappas - who grew up in Chicago’s Greek community and now lives in Western Springs - is one of them! A “semi-retired” architect, Ted truly began devoting his time to cooking for his family during the pandemic. We spoke to him about the experience of being on The Great American Recipe, why he wanted to share his recipes, and what he learned.

The Guide: How was filming the show?

Ted Pappas: It was a blast. The other home cooks made it just that much better because there was such camaraderie. Everybody’s so different from each other, but when you hear their stories about what food means to them, what cooking means to them, it was all eerily familiar – which is really kind of cool.

The Guide: What does food mean to you? How did you learn to cook?

Pappas: I’m just a dad who loves to cook for his family: my wife and two daughters. [I] love sharing some of the history of recipes that were passed down in my family, because my mom was the cook in our house. She is a second-generation Greek immigrant. My dad came over in the late ’60s as an adult. For me, cooking was something that my mom learned from her grandmother, or recipes that my dad’s mom had given to my mom.

I grew up in Edison Park. My father was a laborer, worked in factories. My mom was a secretary. We didn’t eat out. My mom always made food. Even when she went back to work as we got a little bit older, she always made dinner. I wanted to share with my kids what my mom cooked and what she did for my family and me.

On my mom’s side, we ran a few restaurants in the Chicagoland area over the years – most of it before I was born. I think I was five or six when we sold the last restaurant, a breakfast/lunch place in Edison Park. My grandfather’s philosophy was all about entertaining and taking care of people. He would take care of other Greek immigrants coming over, and would help them out.

The Guide: Do you cook mainly Greek food?

Pappas: That’s a big part of what I cook. My mom cooked primarily Greek dishes, but she would try different things. In the past year and a half, I’ve expanded to more than just Greek or Mediterranean cooking. I like to try different recipes. I love trying to replicate recipes from restaurants where we dine and make them myself.

One of the things I really enjoyed about being on the show and meeting the other home cooks was hearing about their recipes and discovering how similar a lot of these dishes are. Yes, you can have different spices and unusual flavors, but a lot of it is very familiar, which makes it fun to try new dishes.

The Guide: Do you have a family specialty or your own specialty?

Pappas: I’ve got a couple of Greek dishes that I’ll pull out. For an everyday meal, Greek kebabs. Certain other dishes are more of a Sunday dinner-type thing: a pastitsio, which incorporates a savory meat sauce and béchamel sauce in a casserole dish. Every time I make them, I take notes for my recipes: I did this a little bit different, or the heat was a little bit lower this time. It’s fun to see how that makes them better over time.

The Guide: Did you learn any new techniques or anything from being on the show?

Pappas: I definitely learned how to up my flavor profile. I’ve never had any professional training. So being on the show really helped me look at how I was flavoring food to make sure that I got the best end product, when it came to salting correctly, or making sure that I did things in the proper order. Since the show, I’ve expanded on that. And it’s been a ton of fun to see how my dishes have evolved since I first started posting on social media back in late 2020.

The Guide: What was it like to cook under pressure?

Pappas: My daughters call it “nerve-cited” – nervous and excited. Your stove isn’t exactly the kind you’re used to, the placement of your utensils is not in the exact spot. But it was also exciting because, as you and everybody else are finishing these dishes, you’re like, “Boy, this is awesome! I just created this!”

Even now at home, since the show, when I cook whatever I cook, I say, “I can cook that in 60 minutes or 90 minutes or whatever.” I use that as a baseline to guide me now.

The Guide: Did you enjoy spend- ing time with the other contestants?

Pappas: I don’t generally hang out with people who are just cooking. So it was fun to be able to talk about what we do at home with our families and how we cook. Talking about food with other foodies, people who love to cook and people who have experimented and grown their own home cooking techniques through what was passed down and what they’ve tried as amateur home cooks totally helped me change up my cooking game.

We have our group text chat, and we share stuff about our families and what’s going on in our lives and little successes that we’re having. It’s so fun to have that new extended family.

This interview has been condensed and edited for clarity.

The Great American Recipe airs on Mondays at 8:00 pm on WTTW and is streaming on the PBS app. The finale, revealing the winner, premieres on August 7.