We were lucky to catch up with Maria Kalomenidou recently and have shared our conversation below.
Maria, appreciate you joining us today. What’s the backstory behind how you came up with the idea for your business?
Zelos was born from my zēlos (zeal) to showcase the flavors and drive that are modern Greece. It all started in 2017, when I began thinking about doing something different in my 50s, moving on from my visual design work and into something that would bring me closer to Greece, where I was born & raised. I had a great love of food & cooking and had just finished authoring a book for Cincinnati’s Contemporary Art Center (CAC) called Cuisine-Art-Cocktails. It made me realize that there is a lot of creative thinking in food, and I started paying more attention to new producers, flavors, packaging, especially when I’d go back to Greece. At the same time, I could never seem to find the same high-quality Greek products here in the States, where people often get a cliched view of Greek food. I wanted to change all that, offering the clean, natural flavors that I saw thriving in contemporary Greek cuisine. I also wanted to help the amazing entrepreneurs I had been meeting, truly authentic Greek Artisans. Some were new entrepreneurs, like me, others were carrying on family businesses into a challenging third generation. I knew that together we could take Greek cuisine in the States to a new level, beyond the cliches, and at the same time help them grow and prosper as Artisans. It’s been a rewarding way of giving back to Greece.
Great, appreciate you sharing that with us. Before we ask you to share more of your insights, can you take a moment to introduce yourself and how you got to where you are today to our readers.
My story spans three continents, several cultures, a few different careers, but the beauty of art & design and my love for my homeland were always a constant. I left Greece in my early 20s, first for Belgium, where I started working for the European Union and where I met my husband, who was from the Greek island of Chios (Chios is a very special place for me and my family, as our Zelos community knows!). While in Brussels I worked at the Press Service and took a break when my husband was offered a job in Venezuela. That was a wonderful experience, deepening my love of Latin culture, and when we later moved to Cincinnati, I immediately gravitated to a special circle of Latin American women, with whom I’m still friends to this day.
Cincinnati became another special place for me, as it was the place where I started a new career as a visual designer and further developed my love of art with my work at the CAC. I raised three children there yet felt the need to take them back to Greece every summer so they wouldn’t lose touch with their roots, so they could experience the love of grandparents and family, even though we lived so far away. That’s when I started realizing that Greek cuisine was moving forward, was becoming so much more innovative while still grounded in its healthy roots, but that wasn’t making it to the American Midwest! So I started ZelosGreekArtisan.com, with the help of my friend Pauline Manos. She is a Greek-American living in Brussels, and an experienced marketer and branding strategist. We were pretty determined and persistent (some would say stubborn!) and we quickly brought in a team of similarly passionate people to help us.
Entrepreneurship has been a wild ride, especially during the pandemic, where our online food business exploded. That adrenalin, the satisfaction from seeing your numbers grow, yet the truly heartwarming stories people shared of the difference our products made in their lives all keep me motivated more than five years after I first started Zelos Greek Artisan. I just love hearing how a gift box can remind someone of their grandmother’s cooking or a honeymoon in Greece. We’ve had It really is the people you meet that make running a small business so rewarding.
How’d you build such a strong reputation within your market?
The one thing I believe has helped us the most to build our reputation in the specialty food market has been our authenticity in every thing we do, starting from our name. Zelos Authentic Greek Artisan reflects every element of who we are, starting with “zelos”, the Greek word for zeal, that great energy & enthusiasm that characterize our homeland and that I found in the amazing artisans working in this space, despite being in the depths of an economic downturn and global pandemic.
“Authentic Greek” has a very clear meaning for me, different from the stereotype of Greek food. I have tried hard to go beyond the cliches, beyond the typical blue & white island stereotypes (especially since I’m from the very lush, northern part of Greece!), to showcase the clean, natural flavors that characterize contemporary Greek cuisine. Our website also reflects the bright, clean design that you find today in modern Greece and our Artisans have drawn inspiration from these trends for their own packaging, too.
Finally, “Artisan” was a very conscious choice on my part to focus on small, often third-generation family-fun businesses, that produce authentic small-batch, either organic or all-natural, products. It was also a conscious choice to work with just a few carefully selected Artisans and help them in a long-term, meaningful way. They share our zeal and craft truly authentic products of outstanding quality and flavor. I want our Artisans to become the protagonists of their own stories, for its their work allows us to experience the authentic tastes of modern Greece from afar.
I know this authenticity in all we do has been instrumental to our success these past five years. Our customers, from individuals to corporate clients to small specialty food stores that buy wholesale from us, all of them have responded so well to our authentic identity as a purveyor of contemporary Greek artisanal food and I’m sure that’s what keeps them coming back.
How about pivoting – can you share the story of a time you’ve had to pivot?
To be honest, I think my whole life has been a series of pivots! I grew up in Greece but moved to Belgium after school and began a career in communications. I paused that for a couple of years when my husband was offered a job in Venezuela, and where I discovered the wonderful culture of Latin America, parts of which reminded me of my childhood in Greece.
Once we were back in Brussels, I resumed my career, juggling it while raising three kids and managing all the work-life balance issues so many people face. Then another twist of fate led us to the American Midwest, and I admit, that was a challenging transition. But I forced myself to look for something new, reminding myself how important it is for me to constantly be learning and experiencing new things, even as you think of what you’ve left behind, that’s what helped me pivot with success. I went back to school, and then opened my own business as a visual designer.
Like many women entering their 50s and that “empty nest” phase of life, I had to pivot again and was looking for a new challenge. I had a lifelong love of food and cooking, but could never find the high-quality Greek food & ingredients that I’d want to spread my own “love through food”. I’d get so frustrated at all the mass-produced products on the market, most of which had no flavor or fragrance. So I decided to do something about it!
I also felt the urge to do something at this stage of my life where I could give back to Greece, and helping to elevate the image of Greek food, taking it beyond the cliches to a more contemporary version that is still grounded in the clean, natural flavors of my childhood, spoke to me. As a very visual person, I knew I wanted to keep working in a creative space, so putting all that together, I made my latest pivot to start-up ecommerce entrepreneur…and five years later, I’m still at it!
Contact Info:
- Website: https://zelosgreekartisan.com
- Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/zelosgreekartisan
- Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/zelosgreekartisan
- Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/company/zelos-greek-artisan/
- Twitter: https://twitter.com/zelosgrartisan
- Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/@zelosgreekartisan
- Other: Pinterest – https://www.pinterest.com/zelosgreekartisan TikTok – https://www.tiktok.com/@zelosgreekartisan
Image Credits
All photos belong to Zelos Greek Artisan.