Three generations of pastry chefs and an “apprenticeship” in an old pastry shop in Mytilini, which had bought the recipe from a pastry workshop in Istanbul, is what lies behind the famous Easter brioche of Gounaris in Mytilini.

Along with, of course, the polite recipe itself, which includes mahlepi for fragrance, and, of course, local pure agricultural products. “These are the big secrets of the tsoureki we produce at ‘Zacharoplastis’,” says Mr. Parris Gounaris. He continues: “The island produces incredible quality agricultural products and their derivatives. These give the island’s cuisine and therefore its sweets a special, flavourful character. Without these products, no matter how talented you are, no brioche or any other local sweet would be the same,” he notes.

For the record, the Gounaris family’s brioche is fibrous. “It is due, says the third of the family, 18-year-old Kyriakos Gounaris, who was born and raised in a pastry shop, to the fact that the brioche is ‘caught’ from the evening with sourdough and is well-formed. So long and so well that it does not have the characteristics of bread, that is, it does not break but is fibrous.”

The first of the family, Kyriakos Gounaris, was initiated into the secrets of good polite tsoureki by working in the large historical confectionery of Mytilene “tou Yarlou”. Its owner had bought the recipe from a Polish pastry workshop. When Mr. Kyriakos opened his own pastry shop in Alkaiou Street, which is even depicted in the famous painting of the same name by Tsarouchis, the whole area smelled of fresh brioche.

His son Paris chose to study at the controlled Economics of the Athens School of Law, from which he graduated, but became a pastry maker.

He opened “the Zacharoplastis”, his workshop and shop at the same time, in Koulbara in the historic centre of Mytilene. A shop on the corner of Mitropoleos and Vernardaki, where in the early 20th century the photography studio of the great photographer Simos Houtzaios was housed.

Kyriakos, 18, who will finish the Music Lyceum of Mytilene in two months, also works in the pastry shop. In the upstairs of the pastry workshop, he plays the piano during his breaks from working with sweets. Maybe in the breaks from playing the piano, she makes sweets.

We ask him if he is a pastry chef or a musician. He smiles. “He’ll show…” he says. He adds. “But the brioche is a work of art. Happy Resurrection.”