RIPON – Ella Mangelos-Velthoen knows her way around a kitchen.She knows how to serve up some calamari amandine and is keenly aware of how capers can give even the simplest dish the Mediterranean kick that it needs.And like any good chef or cook her knowledge comes from a mish-mash of places – passed down from female relatives, picked up from other culinary masters nice enough to share their secrets and observed in kitchens of small, family-owned restaurants around the world when traveling with her brother John.Fortunately you don’t need to have the large extended Greek family or the full passport to learn how to turn a meal into something extraordinary. Both she and her brother have already done the work in the pair of cookbooks – The Greek Gourmets and Culinary Adventures of The Greek Gourmets. They’ll be promoting the books at the upcoming free Great Valley Bookfest on Saturday, Oct. 27, in Manteca from 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. at the Bass Pro Shops/Orchard Valley complex on Union Road at the 120 Bypass.“We have these wine dinners here at the restaurant where we pair different courses with different wines and we always had people coming up and asking for recipes,” Mangelos-Velthoen said.