The most efficient way to slice through the top layer of tourism is with an invitation into a local’s kitchen. When the late, great Anthony Bourdain came to Naxos to plunder its secrets to turbo-charged food flavours, he chose a woman named Giuliana – the warmest, most patient woman on the Cycladic isle – as his palate navigator. 

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We’re not all Bourdains with global contacts, but luckily Giuliana is the mother-in-law of the Naxian Collection’s owner Yiannis, and cooking with her is available to hotel guests like me as a special insider experience.

Naxos

The start of our adventure is a two-minute stroll from our two-storey villa – Giuliana’s nine-year-old granddaughter leads my two pre-schoolers to the organic garden. It’s a ‘Where the Wild Things Are’ style bed, hiding the kind of bounty that lured the pirates who once pillaged these coasts. 

“These are my tomatoes,” says gardener Zanos, holding two misshapen tomatoes like a proud father. “The beauty,” he says, “is on the inside.”

Naxians don’t buy plants. Most garden goods have been gifted by friends and family, explaining the eclectic cast of characters: there are needy baby zucchinis, a lone-ranger sunflower, introverted watermelons hiding beneath foliage, a hardy gang of 15 different types of tomatoes and, through the eggplants, I spy Giuliana and my daughters picking flavour-intense Naxian potatoes.

For our meal of gemista (stuffed vegetables), we pick tomatoes, zucchinis and eggplant. We also pause to sniff the lavender and peppermint before arriving to the sun-dappled outdoor kitchen. And this is where things become interesting. Giuliana speaks no English, and I no Greek, yet through charades we chop, laugh and swap wordless stories.

This immersive experience is an entree to our next on neighbouring Paros, a 45-minute ferry ride away.

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Paros

In raptures over the olive oil at the newly opened Taverna Agyra in Drios, the young owners allow us to buy a bottle. “Oh, and our uncle, the maker, is also offering cooking lessons.” That’s how we end up waiting by a tin-topped vegetable shack on the side of a road the next day.

Achilleas pulls up in a billowing cloud of dust and smiles to lead us to his house, which we never would’ve found on our own. We wind down a Minotaur’s labyrinth of unpaved lanes to their seaside home, a 4000-square-metre oasis. Cicadas sing and goats graze. Not only are Achilleas and wife Glikeria successful former restaurateurs, but they are sitting quietly on four gems, gorgeous little houses for rent named for their surrounds: Olive, Jasmine, Lavender and Dahlia.

Together, they’re known as Flora Apartments: possibly Paros’ best-kept secret, and previously only known by word of mouth (they now have a sleek website – floradrios.gr).

Lucky guests are so close to the Aegean that three beaches are within a fork’s toss and the property is wreathed in the aroma of herbs and sunbaked soil. Today, against this cinematic backdrop, we’re creating a dish which had their customers forming disorderly queues whenever it featured as a special; kleftico, or ‘hiding lambs’. This dish is a cultural anchor from their origins near Meteora. Lamb theft wasn’t uncommon, especially by lamb and goat-loving bandits who would then conceal the delicious odours of their nefarious gains by cooking underground.

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Achilleas’ twist is wrapping them in adorable individual baking-paper ‘nests’, a typical creative Achilleas touch. The best part of ‘hiding lambs’ is that it’s happy to do its own thing while you get on with more serious business – like snorkelling. After assembling the little nests with lamb leg morsels marinated in salt, garlic and lemon, with vegetables (zucchini and carrots), parsley, slices of xynomizithra (a local goat’s cheese) and sauce, tied with twine, we follow an olive tree-lined path to one of the most beautiful beaches on Paros (and there are many), Golden Beach.

Two hours later, we return to a Greek moment you won’t find in any tourist book. The patio table has been set as we sit for a 3pm lunch. On the horizon a sailboat drifts with empty sails, bees buzz industriously, and Achilleas unveils our little lamb packages, the meat so tender it falls apart. Accompanied by a salad dressed with his own olive oil and briny, buttery Amfissa olives, we clink glasses in our still-wet swimmers. For a stitch in time we’re Greek, a part of this lazy afternoon tapestry of sweet, simple life.

Santorini 

Of course these islands are much more than food, they’re spiced with ancient ruins, sprinkled with beaches boasting Tahitian hues and peppered with mountain villages made of marble and marinated in myths. Case in point: Santorini, the showgirl. The vista of dramatic caldera cliffs rearing from the Aegean and sugar-cube houses dribbling seawards like gravity-defying diamonds make the island the can-can kicker of the Cyclades. But Santorini hides a softer, sweet side.

As Lefteris of bespoke guiding company Blue Shades of Greece says, “Stay longer, dig a little deeper and discover far more than the famed sunset.” Stumble across Domaine Sigalas offering wines from a volcanic vineyard more than 3,200 years old; head to Lefkes in tiny Foinikia and gorge on island specialties like sun-dried cherry tomatoes, fava beans, capers, and white eggplant; sail the caldera with Renieris Sailing Centre and don’t miss Akrotiri, an archaeological site to rival Pompeii.

Mykonos 

Then there’s Mykonos: next-level beach clubs, chef-name restaurants and epic people watching. Kardashian favourite club Nammos gets our pick for the setting on Psarou Beach, or Skorpios for pure boho chic, before heading to a five-star sleep at the Belvedere Mykonos.

Milos

If you think you only want to visit Santorini and Mykonos, then you haven’t heard about Milos. A volcanic island two hours’ ferry ride from Santorini, it oozes charm instead of lava, and its popularity is rising. Once only known as the origin of the Louvre’s Venus de Milo statue, it’s now all about ethereal rock, thermal springs and more than 70 beaches. The geology has resulted in beaches like no other. The white, lunar rock landscape of Sarakiniko Beach, sandy Firiplaka Beach with aquamarine shallows and rock gouged Papafragas beach are all drawcards.

But as the name Cyclades suggests, all circles back to food, with friendship as the taste enhancer. As the Ancient Greek philosopher Epicurus already knew, “To eat and drink without a friend is to devour like the lion and the wolf.”

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Flip Byrnes travelled as a guest of Discover Greece and partners Blue Star Ferries and Aegean Airlines. For more information, head to discovergreece.com