This woman was Greece's first and most famous TV cook (when Greece eventually joined the genre in the 1990s). She started her TV career when she was in her mid-50s. She instantly became famous because her recipes and her way of hosting TV shows was done so simply and friendly, like having a beloved aunty, or granny, or even neighbor or friend come over and show you how to cook that recipe she had served you a few days before and you asked her for the recipe. All the Greeks that grew up in the 1990s and the 2000s remember her as a trademark of their childhood. But she was a powerhouse in her own right.
She eventually became a successful businesswoman. Her business, Vefa's House, was selling kitchen items that she used in her own TV appearances.
She's the only Greek TV cook who cooked next to Martha Stewart.
When she started to appear in morning TV shows as a cook (that's how she became famous), she was doing it for free. Cooking was probably so under-appreciated by the media 'moguls' of the day that they didn't pay her, they didn't even pay the food she was cooking with, and when she demanded her payment (because she did help increase their ratings) - guess what happened? They refused to pay her, and she quit on her own accord (later on went on to have a separate cooking show of her own. She's perhaps the first cook in Greece - male or female - to achieve that)
She's famous for the simple way she wrote and presented her recipes. She really made it easy for people to learn how to cook! Plus, in the early-to-mid 2000s, she published an entire section of cookbooks with special plastic paper, because plastic was more durable than 'regular' paper in the kitchen and it could be easily cleaned up if dirty!
She's also credited with rescuing traditional Greek cooking. Not an exaggeration. She wrote tons upon tons of cookbooks about the traditional recipes of various parts of Greece and she recorded all of them in writing. Ilias Mamalakis (another famous Greek TV chef and everyone's favourite 'uncle') also did that, but he's more famous for the TV show he used to host where he travelled all over Greece and gathered local recipes.
I saw people on X/Twitter who had met her say that, even if they met her abroad - diaspora Greeks - and they complained about how her recipes were turning out badly because they couldn't find the right (Greek) products she advised on using, she told them precisely which other products to use in that foreign country and also where to find them. That's passion!
She outlived BOTH of her daughters and she ended up raising her grandchildren. Yet she was criticized for still showing up in public with her famous blue eye shadow because, apparently, a woman who's outlived both children and had grandkids to raise had to stay home all day and sink into depression *rolls eyes*
Towards the end of her life, she became outspoken politically and she participated in rallies that supported that Macedonia was Greek. Mikis Theodorakis had taken part in these marches also, but he was criticized less than Vefa Alexiadou - apparently, because his wife and both his children were still alive.
She always showed up with a smile on her face and nicely dressed. Even towards the end, she was still perfectly coiffed and bejeweled, and still the kind person we've always known her to be.
In her funeral, no one from the famous Greek cooks - except for Ilias Mamalakis - showed up. Not Argyro Barbarigou, not Andreas Lagos, not even Akis Petertzikis. Greek TV now is filled with cooking TV shows in her format (literally the "she walked so that they could run" meme), she also supported young Greek cooks by including them in her shows or cookbooks, and not one of these people showed up to honour her.
Vefa Alexiadou was so beloved by an entire generation of Greeks and losing her feels like losing a grandma or a beloved aunty to most of us who grew up with her. We may have turned out horrible cooks (sorry, Mrs. Vefa!) but at least we still remember her fondly and we can still turn to her recipes if we want something simple yet tasty. But she was also an amazing enterpreneur and a person who refused to give up on living, no matter the hardships that'd come her way.
