Known as the TV face of Greek cookery Tonia Buxton was on the island recently to promote the cuisine. ZOE CHRISTODOULIDES finds a real woman behind the TV persona
I think the biggest shock came when I first took a look at Tonia Buxton’s website. Greeted by a series of beautiful portrait shots, I was prompted to choose a category to click on: ‘Athlete, Foodie, Presenter, Columnist and Author.’ Either Tonia is wonder woman or this is all just some clever marketing façade. Oh, I forgot to mention that the 43-year-old is also the loving mother of four kids. Can she really possibly live up to all this?
Most famous as the presenter of My Greek Kitchen that made it big on the Discovery Channel, I meet Tonia at the Archontiko Papadpoulou restaurant in the quant village of Kornos where she is joined by local chefs and the grannies of the village to cook up some local delights.
My first impression of the British born Cypriot is little different to what we’ve all seen on the TV: her skin is luminous, her make up perfect, her smile is fixed, and the big pink flower in her hair screams out for attention. But as soon as we’re given a moment alone, she starts to become a real woman. The airs and graces vanish, the perfect exterior becomes more human, and the screen image becomes exactly that; an image that has been pumped up to appeal to the average viewer zapping through the channels at home. So who exactly is Tonia Buxton? Let’s put it this way, she’s a bit like the rest of us. There are the ups, there are the downs, and it certainly hasn’t all been smooth sailing.
“I have off days just like everyone does,” she says with her dreamy green eyes still retaining a huge twinkle. “But you’ve just got to put your make-up on and be a professional.” It turns out that Tonia was struggling for a long while to get My Greek Kitchen commissioned. And when the OK finally came through, she had already fallen pregnant. Filming then began with a ten-week old child in her arms. “I was hormonal, I was depressed and I had to express milk in between shots. But I just had to do it.”
Explaining that you’ve sometimes got to have “nerves of steel” to work on TV, she speaks lovingly of her architect husband who has helped her out no end. After all, filming a series of My Greek Kitchen followed by the hugely successful My Cypriot Kitchen has meant getting up and leaving the London family home for a few weeks at a time while travelling to shoot on location. “I never let it go on for more than three weeks but I’m still torn with guilt when I leave the kids,” she sighs. But the bubbly persona would never show vulnerability on camera.
One’s got to wonder if she ever snuggles up with a cup of tea on the couch to see her own TV appearances. “I watch shows initially with a critical eye because I’m editing them,” she explains. “It’s a bit uncomfortable watching yourself on TV because its not real life, you have to be more ‘up’ than you are naturally. If I talked as I did normally I’d be more flat – you have to be larger than life on screen.”
With her eldest girl being 15 and the youngest boy now four, the presenter really appreciates spending quality time at home making sure they all sit down to family dinners. She also admits to working hard to have alone time with her husband, who she clearly adores. And more than that, Tonia confesses that she also wants to make sure she looks as best she can for him. “My husband didn’t marry a fat bird or ugly bird; he chose me and I want to look good.”
Not just keeping up appearances for the outside world, Tonia has always been a big believer in exercise and nutrition. “Nothing in life comes easily, whether it’s your career or your face, you have to work for it.” What many don’t know is that she was actually once extremely buff and pumped up, taking part in various competitions for triathlons and bodybuilding in her younger days, while she now writes regular articles on health and nutrition. With not a single line or unsightly mark on her face, Tonia is a walking testament of the benefits of looking after your looks.
“I eat well, I keep out of the sun, I only eat meat once a week.” But what does she rate above all the rest? “It has to be olive oil and avocados. Here in Cyprus people eat too much souvla with Coke. That simply has to be a recipe for ageing!” Intent on trying to exercise daily – although she does have her moments of weakness – she also jokes about her greedy sweet tooth. “Oh sometimes I just don’t know when to stop,” she exclaims as she stares back at the bowl of sugar coated loukoumia that sit before her after digging into three of the naughty treats.
Having finished the filming of My Cypriot Kitchen around the island last year (a series sponsored by the CTO which is going global this January), Tonia is now busy working on a follow up book filled with Greek and Cypriot recipes which should be ready by the spring of 2012. A little stressed about the new venture, she admits to having a rather fixed idea of what she wants the book to look like. And with all this talk of food, I wonder what she would rate as her all time favourite recipe. “I love revithia yiahni (chick peas in tomato sauce) with raw onion and lots of olive oil. My favourite sweet absolutely has to be well made baklava with my uncle’s rose water from Lythrondontas.”
And here comes another confession. “I never started off because I loved cooking. But my mum started working late and I had to cook. I then grew to love it but it really began out of necessity.” Her TV shows dedicated to Greece and Cyprus then spurred off because of her love for the culture and history of the place. But all of it came about in a very round-about manner as Tonia reels off a whole list of things that she did before reaching where she is now.
First she was a beauty therapist, then she studied classical history at university and – following a masters – she became a teacher. Then came a holistic pregnancy book which first got her on TV. Following various lifestyle shows, she finally dug her heels into high profile cooking programmes. But at the moment, Tonia is anything but settled. Maybe it’s just because her endless enthusiasm for health, food and life in itself keeps growing. Maybe it’s because she is making a good living out of something that she loves to do. What’s next after her upcoming book? Tonia would like to head a lifestyle show based in London linked to Greece and Cyprus. She may have described her first few times on TV as being “terrible, robotic and wooden,” but now that she has found her forte, Tonia is intent on really living it large.
