Managing Director of AVLI

Katerina G. Xekalou was born in Rethymno, Crete. She studied Political Science at the Athens Law School. She worked in Strasbourg at the European Parliament and in Brussels at the European Commission, as a scientific associate of the Greek MEP Georgios E. Saridakis. She speaks English and French.

She lives permanently in Rethymno. She mainly deals with culture, the revival of traditional Cretan cuisine, its practical application in high-end places, and the use of tested ingredients in new imaginative recipes. She is married to the architect Kostas Iliakis and they have a daughter.

During her student years, she restores a complex of preserved 15th-century mansions in the historic center of the city of Rethymno and creates AVLI, which hosts a boutique hotel and a member of the Historic Hotels of Europe, a fine dining restaurant of Cretan cuisine and a delicatessen shop with quality Greek products. The wine bar OINOTHIKI and the casual Greek cuisine restaurant 1600 RBR complete the portfolio of services.

Over the years, AVLI has won important distinctions in the field of gastronomy, hospitality, and tourism, both in Greece and abroad.

Topic: Olive oil: Sharing our local identity with visitors