Together they renewed our national street food with the same approach to values running in the veins of all their restaurants – top-notch quality of ingredients, minimal process and detailed preparation. Hoocut is their brainchild where they combined their cooking artistry with their need for fast – but not hasty – quality street food.
Originating from Chalkida, he was raised in Kolonos, Athens. Working many different posts in professional kitchens is what further boosted his belief that food and hospitality share an unbreakable bond. After many successful years working in the business world, he decided to focus solely on the hospitality sector. Along with his twin brother Vangelis Liakos, they decided in 2005, to create a restaurant based on their own philosophy. After all those years, “Basegrill” remains a temple for meat-lovers. The delicate, respectful treatment of the raw ingredients, the specialization and the warm hospitality are the core values of the restaurant and its philosophy. Due to his communication charisma he managed to create a restaurant for everyone “where social classes don’t apply” in a somewhat overlooked suburb of Athens. In 2011 he opened “Travolta” with his brother Vangelis, a restaurant dedicated to fish. In 2014 he co-founded Cookoovaya restaurant in the Hilton area along with 5 other chefs. This successful venture was followed by the creation of “Hoocut”, a fast-food restaurant founded by the same team of chefs. Together they also created “Gastone” in 2021, an urban Rotisserie dedicated to casual dining. As he often says: “ I came to this world to cook. At our restaurants we fulfill our own needs and desires to cook and be hospitable. My passion for cooking can only be described as a gambler’s passion for gambling”.
Tracing his roots will lead you to Chalkida, but he was raised in Kolonos, Athens. After almost 27 years in organizing and producing cultural festivals across Greece he made a pivotal turn towards his true love i.e. cooking. It was around the time he created “Basegrill ” along with his twin brother, a restaurant dedicated to meat. A few years later they created a restaurant dedicated to fish, under the name “Travolta”. Self-taught, with a deep knowledge of Greek Cuisine, Vangelis acts as a benchmark for a network of people who intercat and coexist daily. He firmly believes that the true culture of gastronomy can be found right at the point where knowledge is being shared and something new is born out of that sharing. In 2014 he co-founded “Cookoovaya” restaurant in the Hilton area, along with 5 other chefs. This successful venture was followed by the creation of “Hoocut”, a fast-food restaurant founded by the same team of chefs. Later on, in 2021 they created “Gastone”, a restaurant in downtown Athens, with an urban casual dining attitude. Quoting him “Cooking is the pot where you cook your own soul. If you don’t look after it, it will get stuck at the bottom”.
