mansion-house rodialos - Crete

WHEN television producer Mary Frangaki gets an idea into her head, there's no stopping her. She'll methodically utilize all her organizational and artistic skills, as well as a good dose of her active imagination, to implement it in the most meticulous and attractive way possible. Always ahead of her time, she has been involved in several movements - leftist, feminist, ecological - before they became fashionable. Now she's drawing on her many experiences and pulling together various significant strands in her life -her Cretan background, a passion for organically grown food, a magnificent Minoan-style mansion, and her desire to both "perform" and "produce" - to offer courses in Cretan cooking, combined with a seven-day holiday on the island. "It will be a big fiesta," she says enthusiastically, "a hymn to Mediterranean nutrition and a dedication to ecology, because everything will be natural and healthy." The idea is, of course, a very timely one, following numerous international publications about the healthy Cretan cuisine, combined with recent concerns about toxins in conventionally produced foodstuffs. However, she realizes that nutritional habits are not easily changed. "It will take years for most people to become more health-conscious," she believes, "so initially, these seminars will be for just for a few very discerning people. I want to show that you can eat very well, in a simple, but chic and elegant way. For example, a salad with organically grown ingredients and extra virgin olive oil is the best food for someone who understands this and already has enough to eat." But cooking appeals to the creative urge in all of us, she maintains, so she hopes to attract a broad variety of interested people from Greece and abroad. "I believe that we all hide a very good cook inside us," she declares, "but the question is how to bring this out and promote it professionally." Mary has plenty of innovative ideas on this - backed by a small, but dedicated team - starting with the first seminar the week before Easter. "There are so many wonderful things to cook then," she says with obvious relish." Artichokes, snails, boiled vegetables, fish - then the cheese and the lamb. Of course, the seminars will be different for each of the four seasons of the year. For example, in winter, we may focus on pork; in autumn, we'll see how raki is made, in spring, we'll eat fresh green almonds with lamb, and in summer, fish and vegetables." Many of the ingredients will come from the family garden, planted and organically cultivated by Mary's son, Vassilis - an agricultural scientist.

"It's amazing how simple ecological farming is," observes Mary. "The only thing you have to do to protect the plants from insects is to grow strong-smelling herbs, like garlic or basil, beside them. We also spray the juice of a local weed on the plants." She is especially proud that they make their own wine, raki and olive oil - Crete's three principal products. Guests will be able to stay in the newly-built mansion -on the rocky north coast of the island - or in the village of Panormon. Named "Rodialos" (Pomegranate of the Sea), the house was built of natural, ecological materials and painted, in the ancient way, with natural colours. "We wanted it to be one with nature," Mary says. "All the windows look towards the sea, and in summer you can see the spectacular sunrises and sunsets over the water. In the center of the house is a patio, built like a theatre. On summer nights, we stage small performances there, around a pomegranate tree." To add to the holiday atmosphere, she has resisted the temptation to impose a strict programme on her guests. "I don't want it to be like a school," she says. "We'll decide at breakfast what we'll do and what time. There'll also be optional excursions to other parts of Crete to attend various festivities that have to do with religion, music, old customs, and so on." None of these held the slightest interest for Mary when she was growing up in the town of Rethymnon in the 1950s and early 60s. "I didn't like living there," she recalls. "It was a typical Cretan town by the sea, with Venetian castles and narrow, crooked streets. In my opinion, the people were very conservative, very 'stuck' in their ideas. Life was organized, with no surprises. There were very few tourists then. If we ever saw a man from abroad, it was something extraordinary. In winter, life was very closed, like a prison, but in summer, everything changed - it was a fiesta, with parties, sunshine and beaches." Blessed with unusually open-minded parents - both of whom were employed by the state telecommunications company - Mary and her two younger sisters were raised on the principle that education was the most important thing. Before going on to study economics at university, she took private lessons in ballet, English, French, guitar and piano. "As I child, I wanted to be involved in the arts," she says, "to be an actress or a writer. But because of all those conservative ideas around me, as a teenager, I decided to become a producer of the arts. I felt it would be easier for my environment to accept this." During her 4-year studies in Thessaloniki, she got married and had a child, travelling back and forth to Hania every weekend to be with her husband, Costas. After graduation, she began to organize various public and private services and, for a short time, worked as a journalist.

Meanwhile, she was one of the most "notorious" members of the women's liberation movement in Greece. She wrote, directed and acted in three feminist plays - with an all-female cast - that toured the country, while playing a very active role in a group against violence and rape. "We helped many women, especially tourists, to take cases to trial," she recalls. "We used the proceeds from the performances to pay for their airline tickets, and women lawyers would provide legal aid without pay." In 1986, she was hired by the state radio and television (ERT) to take charge of the daily 12-hour programme in Hania, and to produce her own radio talk shows. "I had a show called About Wind, Water and Plants," she says, "on which I would interview an agricultural scientist about ecology, the environment, and organically grown food." The discussions not only had an impact on the local community, but strongly influenced her son in his chosen career. Her daughter, born later, fulfilled Mary's other passion - the performing arts - by studying to become an actress. "Now we come to my third child." laughs Mary, "which is the 'house of our dreams' in Panormon, my father's village. We wanted it to be big and timeless, so we found a very good architect, who created the Minoan-style design. It was far too big for one family, so I began inviting special interest groups to stay there." In the meantime, the past 20 years had brought many changes to Crete - most of them unwelcome, she feels. "It became ugly and disharmonious," she declares. "Everything became fashionable, but not real. The destruction of the island by all its conquerors over the years - Turks, Venetians, Germans - was nothing compared to the destruction brought by tourists. That's when I realized how much I loved Crete." By this time, she had applied for a transfer to Athens, to work as a television producer - necessitating regular weekend trips to Hania to be with her family. About two years ago, on one of these trips, she bought a book on Cretan cuisine, to pass the time. "When I read it, I felt that it was all in the unconscious pan of my mind," she says. "It fined with my father's strong ideas about nutrition and with what I believe about food and cooking. It gave me the idea to start cooking for friends and for the groups staying at 'Rodialos.' "Before this, I was a very ordinary cook, but now I believe that cooking is an art, and I feel that I'm at the right age for me to become involved in this venture. If I have to turn a page in my life, I have to go back to my roots and make art through the Cretan cuisine, adapting the ancient recipes to a contemporary lifestyle."

Angelica Timms