Recently, I was invited to a presentation at Hyatt Regency Hotel Ataköy. Prepare the menu of the festival before the Ottoman Food Festival, which will take place at the hotel between 17-26 March, and we met with the famous chef Yunus Emre Akkor. He not only made us taste some of the dishes he would prepare at this festival, but also told very interesting stories of these dishes.. Frankly, all of the dishes have destroyed my taste barriers.. I can’t describe the carnival in my mouth. However, I think even more interesting was the Yunus Emre Akkor chef’s words about both Ottoman cuisine and himself.
Yunus Emre Akkor is a head chef specializing in Ottoman cuisine.. But what specialization! His books on this subject have received serious awards.. Known as the “Nobel of cookbooks“, at the Gourmand Cookbooks Awards, she won 3 awards, including the best cookbook award, together with her twin brother Ömür Akkor managed to get. Ottoman cuisine almost devoured its history. He gives so much interesting information about the history of food that I compared him to İlber Ortaylı.. I think it wouldn’t be wrong if I call him İlber Ortaylı of Ottoman Cuisine.
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Who is Yunus Emre Akkor?
Yunus Emre Chief is a very interesting person who wears many different hats together today, just like İlber Hoca.. When you sit across from him, he saturates you with both his food and his knowledge.
Yunus Emre Akkor, whose first job is as a cook, receives invitations to make programs on TV when his books are awarded.. When he didn’t like his performance on TV at that time, he went and studied theater for a year and a half.. That’s not enough, He is accepted to an 18-month training at a school in Los Angeles, where Al Pacino graduated. Before going to this training, he starts taking English lessons to strengthen his infrastructure.. When she falls in love with her teacher and decides to marry him, she puts this project on the shelf for now. He will hold the first gastronomic wedding of Turkey in Gaziantep with his future wife on April 29 this year.
Yunus Emre Akkor, 3 on Ottoman cuisine have the book. Both books are on the way.. Also, accredited chef of the Ministry of Culture, THY Skylife writer, one of the chefs who prepared the gala dinner on THY’s first flights to big cities, Lecturer at Maltepe University, a good traveler. In addition to all this, Özsüt is in charge of the kitchen, and the entire menu of the group is under his control.. Among all these hats, he defines himself as a particularly delicious chef.. Yunus Emre, who enjoys cooking, personally enters the kitchen and cooks all the dishes with his own hands.. One of his specialties is that he always serves his meals on tiles specially designed by Tile Master Adil Can.
THY’s Mauritius They brought 1220 handmade tiles for the presentation of the dishes at the gala dinner held at the opening of the expedition.
Yunus Emre Akkor, who has been a cook for 20 years, after working for 20 more years in this way, only 3 dishes were made at the age of 65. wants to continue his life as a craftsman in a shop. But there’s still time to retire. It has very ambitious goals before. The closest of these goals is to open a restaurant in Berlin and have a Michelin star.. The reason for choosing Berlin is that it is not possible to get a Michelin star from Turkey.. He is quite sure that he will get this star.
Interesting Facts About Ottoman Cuisine
The famous chef’s story about Ottoman cuisine is as interesting as his own.. For example, I did not know that the Ottoman Empire had a very developed fish culture and cuisine.. (Perhaps my ignorance) While much more fish were eaten in the Ottoman Empire than today, much more cooking techniques were used.. While fish are cooked with 5-6 cooking methods today, 39 different methods were used in the Ottoman period.. Here are some other interesting information he shared about Ottoman cuisine
- For 400 years in the Ottoman Empire, only 2 meals were eaten in the palace.. (You see, Karatay Hodja doesn’t say for nothing that 2 meals a day for 2 meals :))
- Palace cooks were generally made up of Nevşehir residents until the Janissary quarry was abolished.. When the Janissary corps was abolished, they were also dismissed and replaced by chefs from Bolu.. It is thought that nearly 4,000 recipes and recipes were lost with their sudden departure.
- After a meal at the Ottoman Palace, Lady Mary, the wife of Edward Wortley Montagu, who was appointed as an ambassador to Istanbul by England in the 1700s, said, “I felt myself in heaven. I felt. I was fascinated by what I saw.”. Meanwhile, the fact that no sound is heard also affects him.
Dessert Culture in the Ottoman Empire
Another interesting piece of information I learned from the famous chef was that Turks did not eat sweets until they became Muslims.. Yunus Emre Akkor, who referenced Ibn Battuta’s book on this subject, said that Turks make a grimace when they see sweets, and that they accept punishment rather than eating sweets.. With the Turks’ conversion to Islam, sweet Turks enter their lives. He connected this with the story of honey syrup.. You can find the short story of honey sherbet in the video below.
Along with honey sherbet, it became a part of Ottoman cuisine in time.. In fact, they called the sherbets that went to Europe in ice molds from the Ottoman Empire as sorbetto in Italy.. Sorbetto became sorbet over time. It turns out that the famous Italian sorbet also came from Ottoman sherbet.. In fact, when a 93-year-old ice cream shop in Italy asked how he made this ice cream so naturally, he said, go back to your country and look at the Ottoman history.. Afterwards, he publishes the 300-year history of Ottoman ice cream in a book.. After these researches, he realizes that Italian ice cream and sorbet came from the Ottoman Empire.
The Story of Swedish Meatballs
Yunus Emre Chef surprised us more and more at this meal.. He also based the foundations of the famous Swedish meatballs and syrup on the Ottoman Empire.. The King of Sweden, a country that the Ottomans constantly supported, is captured in the Russian War. The Ottomans intervene so that the Tsar does not kill him.. The Tsar does not kill him in return for 150,000 gold and 5 years of exile in the Ottoman Empire.. The Ottomans pay this money and the King lives in Galata with his nature for five years.. During this time, he borrowed heavily from tradesmen.
After five years, he took 32 Ottoman families with him to Sweden to pay off this debt.. He can only pay his debt to them in seven years. Turkish tradesmen, who saved their debts in seven years, are returning to Istanbul.. In the kitchen notes written 10 years after their return, it is seen that meatballs, dolma, jam and syrup were made for the first time in Swedish cuisine.. For this reason, it seems that there is a high probability of learning Swedish meatballs and syrup from the Ottomans.
Ottoman Food Festival
Yunus Emre Chef, at the Hyatt Regency Ataköy on March 17-26. He will not only prepare Ottoman dishes personally, but also tell the history and stories of these dishes.. Adil Can Usta, who prepared the tiles on which these dishes will be served, will also open a tile exhibition during this event.. In addition to these, participants will have the chance to learn Ottoman recipes at the cookery workshops to be opened on March 21 and 23.
Some of the Dishes to Be on the Menu
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Soups
Fihi ma fih soup, almond milk soup or lebeniye soup
Appetizers : Mastabe, muhammara, mastabe, Appetizers such as spinach root with almonds, meat with quince and onions, olive groats, wheat cacık
Hot Desserts: Temperatures such as Şeyhülmahşi, eggplant with tulum cheese, stuffed melons
Main Dishes: Firik with meat, stew with quince and onions, fried chicken kebab, fried chicken, fried rice with garlic, bulgur with turmeric sauce, herise
Desserts:Heaven mud Desserts and sherbets such as halva-i hakani, apple baklava with honey and molasses, sahine, basil sherbet
