Vasili's Garden
Vasili’s Garden is a fresh and thoroughly entertaining gardening program. Each week, Vasili Kanidiadis visits the private world of backyard gardeners to discover passionate characters willing to share their knowledge about their plants and produce.
Throughout the series Vasili’s mother, Eleni Kanidiadis, introduces audiences to the authentic cooking of her home town back in Greece where she learnt all her cooking tricks and tips. With every dish she prepares, Eleni trials new herbs, spices and techniques, always attempting to improve and explore the recipe, to go where no dish has gone before.
Vasili’s Garden began on Greek radio 3XY in Melbourne around the turn of the millennium and it wasn’t long before it found it’s way to community television on C31 in Melbourne, where it became a firm fixture of the Friday night schedule. After nearly 200 episodes, many of which have also been shown on other community TV channels around Australia, Vasili found a new home at SBS.
Vasili Kanidiadis
Vasili Kanidiadis was born in Coburg in Melbourne’s north, and he’s never left home as the house where he grew up is now a part of the Munro Street Nursery that he owns and operates. After studying as a structural engineer and then as a classical pianist Vasili studied horticulture. None of that hard work has gone to waste as Vasili now combines all three of these skills professionally and on screen.
Eleni Kanidiadis
Eleni Kanidiadis was born in Thessaloniki where, as a teenager, she fell in love with Vasili’s father Ilia. They married and migrated to Australia and now they both work with Vasili in the Munro Street Nursery.
Featured Recipes
- Penne with prosciutto, peas and mint
- Green chilli and coriander steamed mussels
- Asparagus and green tea noodle salad with Thai prawns
- Zucchini flower fritters with feta and basil
- Corn chowder
- Corn fritters
- Udon soup with roast duck, broccoli and coriander
- Creamy pasta sauce with smoked chicken and broccoli
- Upside-down pineapple cake
- Pineapple relish

Hot Tips
Side dishes
Koreans use a shallow spoon for rice and soup and a set of silver or stainless steel chopsticks for serving from the shared dishes. Side dishes or banchan vary in number depending on the occasion, but at least 3 to 5 would be a minimum at home, with many more for special guests or in restaurants.
Glossary
Genoise
A classic, fine-crumbed French sponge cake. It is made by beating warm whole eggs with sugar until the mixture more than triples in volume, then folding in flour and sometimes melted butter.


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