Wounded Istanbul, delicious Istanbul

The explosion of the car bomb at the nearby Vodafone Arena made the walls of our hotel shake too, but only a few hours earlier we had experienced another blast wave. In this case it was a good and fertile one, in this Istanbul partly lost, partly tenacious, and surely always dynamic and with a strong desire to start over, because this is exactly what we observed in the city where we spent the last few days. The wave was that of the “New Turkish Cuisine”, a movement still lacking a definition, so we call it thus for convenience and by analogy with similar processes one may find elsewhere in the world: it wants to start from the surrounding economic growth so as to give value to a culinary offer that, in the past, didn’t pay too much attention to the quality of the great raw materials this region can offer in abundance (which means, first of all: working with producers, selecting excellences and rarities, safeguarding biodiversity, networking) and then give it a new impulse, a new image. Make it contemporary. «We want to get rid of the image according to which Turkish cooks only make kebaps», they said.

These are the basic topics covered at Gastromasa, second edition of the International Conference of Gastronomy that ended recently in the metropolis between Europe and Asia. The event communicated one thing above all: Turkey wants to be part of the global fine dining network, in that sort of global-local vision that applies concepts shared by all so as to gradually find a different, specific representation of the local territory. After all, the Anatolian country starts from a privileged point: it can be considered the direct heir of the Ottoman tradition told by Stéphane Yerasimos in A tavola con il sultano, preface by Corrado Assenza, about which we wrote here. In other words: it doesn’t have to go in search of its roots, it can claim these not just for historical reasons, but also thanks to the current social, economic and political preponderance that make Ankara a potential dominant of the Middle East.

These are useful foundations if you want to bet on the future because «innovation is mainstream in Istanbul. We want to promote Turkish food tourism all around the world. It’s in our agenda» says the representative of the Ministry of Tourism and Culture. This is the right moment to bet on these themes because – they think in Ankara – there’s a tourism potential, the standard of living is improving, while less and less women are no longer cooking housewives but have jobs. In other words, they want to exploit an opportunity given by these times.

The main obstacle is freeing Turkish cuisine from the “dictatorship of kebap”, as we mentioned. Explaining – also and mostly abroad – how the past and present offer is rich in nuances and styles, just as contemporary as the future will be, which today is represented by chefs working in Turkey – such as Mehmet Gürs of Mikla or Maksut Aşkar of Neolokal – and others abroad.

For instance, there’s Serkan Güzelçoban, one of the three Turkish chefs to receive a Michelin star (in 2015 and for two years), and the first and only excellent restaurant to hire only disabled people. It’s called Handicap and it’s in Künzelsau, 45 minutes from Stuttgart. The chef was born in Germany to Turkish parents: his father worked in a beer factory, his mother was a housewife. «I wanted to cook, but at first it was hard to find a job: as soon as they knew I was Turkish, they thought I could only make kebap. So I started to travel, study, invest in my training». In 2013 Handicap was born: «nobody likes the name, but it was our challenge. At first we presented French cuisine, we had very few clients. Then we chose to respect our origins», and it was a success. In 2014 the star arrived, next year the restaurant will double, «we’ll open a second place», he announces.

We move to Australia to tell the story of Somer Sivrioğlu, born in Istanbul but a «terrible student», he says (hardly so: he graduated from the Management Department of the Bilkent University) and this is why he emigrated to Australia in search for fortune. Which he found: he opened his first restaurant, Efendy, in Sydney, «and it was the clients themselves who asked me to cook with a more personal style inspired by the Turkish school». The success allowed him to open a second establishment, Anason. Sivrioğlu has written many books on Turkish gastronomy, he introduced its excellence in Australia, adapting recipes based on the ingredients available in Australia, «I’m looking for original similes», which Nicole Kidman, just to give a name, also appreciates.

The most innovative of the three young chefs, however, is Fatih Tutak, who became passionate about food at 8 «watching my mother cook onions. I was struck by that aroma». Today he offers Turkish cuisine in Thailand, at the House on Sathorn in Bangkok, after working in Beijing, Tokyo (Nihonryori Ryugin, 3 stars), Singapore, Denmark (Noma) and Hong Kong. He says: «I’m going back to my roots more and more, but not with nostalgia. I don’t want to take traditional recipes and make them pretty, more captivating in terms of aesthetics, but without any substantial change. I rather use our great products to create new dishes». This is the Turkey looking ahead with optimism, despite everything.