On January 30, chef Roel Alcudia of Millbrook’s House of Stefas heads to Manhattan for a one-night dinner at Platform by the James Beard Foundation, the foundation’s showcase space at Pier 57. Titled Athenian Supper Club, the event pairs Alcudia with Greek cooking authority Diane Kochilas, author of Athens: Food, Stories, Love, for a collaborative menu rooted in Greek tradition but shaped by contemporary technique and sensibility. Tickets range in price from $195-$250.
Platform dinners are designed as immersive, chef-driven experiences—multi-course meals that function as both performance and conversation. Guests begin with a standing reception, move into a seated dinner, and close the evening with a moderated discussion that gives insight into the food on the table and the ideas behind it. For Alcudia, it’s a natural extension of the approach he’s taken at House of Stefas since the restaurant opened last year.
House of Stefas marked a noticeable shift in how Greek food shows up in the Hudson Valley. Rather than leaning on the familiar rhythms of casual taverna dining, the Millbrook restaurant set out to explore something more stylized and expressive—what its owners describe as “freestyle Greek.” The room nods to the glamour of mid-century Athens, while the menu balances regional Greek flavors with broader Mediterranean and global influences, anchored by strong sourcing and a clear point of view.
Alcudia’s cooking reflects that tension between reverence and restlessness. Greek staples are present, but rarely left untouched. Sauces are sharpened, textures rethought, and presentations refined without becoming precious. At Stefas, that sensibility shows up in dishes that feel both grounded and exploratory—food that understands its lineage but isn’t interested in reenactment.
The Athenian Supper Club dinner brings that same mindset to a New York audience. The menu unfolds as a sequence of shared plates and composed courses, beginning with passed bites and dips before moving into more substantial fare. Highlights include a trahana soup enriched with dried figs, spreads that riff on tzatziki and taramasalata, and a main course of grilled saddle of lamb with chestnut-mushroom stifado—a dish that speaks to winter cooking and slow, layered flavors. Wines are paired throughout the meal, reinforcing the communal, table-centered spirit of the evening.
Kochilas, whose work has long focused on documenting and preserving regional Greek cooking, brings historical and cultural context to the collaboration, grounding the meal in tradition while allowing space for interpretation. The post-dinner Q&A offers a window into that dialogue—how Greek food continues to evolve, and how chefs working outside Greece negotiate authenticity, creativity, and place.
For Alcudia, the Platform dinner is both a milestone and a continuation: a chance to represent a young Hudson Valley restaurant on a national stage, and to extend House of Stefas’s conversation about what Greek cooking can look like right now.
