• last month
Moving to Scotland was a fresh start for Evangelia Tagari, who decided to take the leap to start her new Greek takeaway business, YiaYias little kitchen.
Transcript
00:00I had a very tiny kitchen in Germany and I thought, like, that's literally food that
00:06my yaya's are making.
00:08My parents had a Greek restaurant in Germany for over 25 years, where I was working literally
00:15like from the age of 14, proper family business.
00:19I then decided to not do hospitality and I studied economics and law, but I always, like,
00:27loved, like, kitchen and cooking.
00:30And when I had, like, my first big corporate job, that was, like, 2019 and 2020, obviously
00:36COVID had, so we were all furloughed and I had a lot of time.
00:40So I thought, like, what can I do that brings me a little bit of joy?
00:44So I started, like, a food Instagram where I was sharing all my Greek recipes from my
00:48yaya.
00:49Okay.
00:50So this is how, basically, the name yaya's little kitchen was created.
00:55And it was never, like, enough to just, like, you know, cook and then take a photo and then
01:01nobody really is tasting it except, like, your friends and your family.
01:05And we moved to Scotland, you know, because it was just, like, a fresh start to everything.
01:09I thought, like, now is the time to be, like, brave and, like, maybe start something that
01:14I really want to do.
01:17I couldn't find a proper location for a restaurant.
01:20I was looking, like, for over a year in the city center, I couldn't wait anymore.
01:24So then the idea came up, like, to do a takeaway place in, like, a dark kitchen.
01:28So I was asking around if somebody has a kitchen to rent out.
01:32And the people from Rakemore said, yes, you can have our kitchen.
01:36And that's how it started.
01:38On the first night, we had, like, almost 100 orders.
01:42I was just here by myself, losing my head because, like, everything was, like, getting
01:49out of stock because, obviously, like, I didn't prepare for that many people.
01:54When friends were coming around to get some food, I was, like, come in here, you need
01:57to help me now.
01:59And they basically did deliveries.
02:00I got somebody to cut, like, cucumbers and, like, it was pure chaos.
02:04But, I mean, after the night was over, I had a little cry because I was so overwhelmed.
02:11But afterwards, I thought, like, oh, my God, like, how cool is that?
02:15I didn't do any advertisement apart, like, from posting on Facebook.
02:19And so many people ordered my food.
02:21Like, that was just mind-blowing for me.
02:24I thought, like, in the beginning, maybe the people from Inverness will be, like, oh, what
02:28is that?
02:29You know, like, because they don't know the dishes, maybe.
02:34But no, like, so many people know gyro pizza, they know moussaka, you know, like, all the
02:39stuff that you get when you're on holiday.
02:41So yeah, I don't know how many gyro pizza I do a night, but a lot.
02:47I think that's probably the starter dish for everybody when they first come to Yaya's.
02:51Yeah, and it's, like, people that thought, like, in the beginning, oh, I don't know about
02:55that dish or that dish, and, you know, when they come, they say, come on, try something
02:58else this week.
02:59And they trust me now.
03:01And they always say, like, oh, yes, you were right, that tastes, like, really good.
03:04So yeah, you just need to be brave and, like, try out different things and not stick, like,
03:11to always the same.
03:12But yeah, it's just been a process of getting the trust of Indonesian people, I guess.