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Two women, two centuries, 200 recipes AYLİN ÖNEY TAN

Two women, two centuries, 200 recipes

In Türkiye, we seldom get cookery books that are based on family recipes and never that goes back to almost two centuries. Now we have a cookbook that tells the story of a Levantine family from İzmir that gathers recipes from the recipe notebooks of two incredible women who were born, lived, and died in their beloved city, Marguerite Marie Josephine Aliotti Pagy (1875-1919) and her daughter Wanda Marguerite Pagy Arcas (1910-1993). The book “From Mother to Daughter” is compiled from their recipes written originally in French, with informative reminder kitchen notes, intended to pass recipes to the next generations. The book is also translated into English and recently was awarded the first prize in the “The Best Family Cookbook” category and the second prize in the “The Best Women Cookbook” category at the Gourmand World Cookbook Awards 2023, where thousands of books from 71 countries competed.

December 24 2023
Şeb-i Arus: The Wedding Night AYLİN ÖNEY TAN

Şeb-i Arus: The Wedding Night

Dec. 17 was the 750th anniversary of the death of Sufi poet Rumi, Mevlana Jalaluddin-i Rûmî. Attributed to his name, the Mevlevi order is an ascetic Sufi order founded in 1273 in Konya, from where it gradually spread throughout the Ottoman Empire. Since then, every night of Dec. 17 has been celebrated as “Şeb-i Arus,” literally the wedding night. “Düğün” in Turkish, the term “wedding” here stands for the realization of the devotion and commitment to God. In Sufi belief, death is not considered an end, but a reunion of the soul with God. So, yesterday was the night of the ultimate reunion, the wedding, the unification with the ultimate creator.

December 18 2023
Machine power for Turkish coffee AYLİN ÖNEY TAN

Machine power for Turkish coffee

Tomorrow, Dec. 5, is declared as the "World Turkish Coffee Day." Exactly 10 years ago, in 2013, Turkish coffee was included in the UNESCO Intangible Cultural Heritage List on Dec. 5, and the date of its inclusion was celebrated as “World Turkish Coffee Day.” A decade later, it is becoming more and more popular with the introduction of a variety of new machines that make Turkish coffee more accessible to consumers worldwide. The first ever Turkish coffee machine in the market appeared two decades ago in 2003, up to that date, Turkish coffee was thought to be impossible to be made automatically by machine. The belief was it could only be brewed manually, as one needed to watch over the exact moment when it starts to rise, building that desirable foam, otherwise the coffee would spill over, and the frothy bit would be lost. But innovation in Turkish coffee is the latest example to join the mechanization bandwagon.

December 04 2023
Tasting Italy: From Alpine Mountains to the midst of Mediterranean AYLİN ÖNEY TAN

Tasting Italy: From Alpine Mountains to the midst of Mediterranean

This year I had the chance to travel across the countries around the Mediterranean, attending conferences, symposiums and events, from Crete to Sicily, from various corners of Spain to Italy and France, but two travels made me think more about the unique charm of Italy, how its far corners are different yet similar in terms of their concerns about tourism, and how they can put their unique gastronomic values to promote their regions. Thanks to organizer couple Manuela Fissore Barker and Thomas Barker, the foremost communication agency, collaborating with Paolo Vizzari, renowned food writer who describes himself as a gastronomic narrator, I had the chance to attend “Ein Prosit” event in Udine at the northeastern tip of Italy and then visited Siracusa, down in Sicily, discussing Mediterranean cuisine and gastronomy tourism.

November 27 2023
Tradition and innovation AYLİN ÖNEY TAN

Tradition and innovation!

Once again, food and science met in Spain. The fourth Science & Cooking World Congress (SCWC) was held in Barcelona for three days from Nov. 13 to 15, where the connection between food and science was discussed by eminent scientists, food researchers, cultural heritage experts and chefs. The theme of the congress this year was “Tradition & Innovation” aimed at scrutinizing traditional cooking techniques and food preparation methods as an inspiration for the future, also presenting brand new techniques and inventions. Presenters and congress delegates discussed what can be learned from the past food traditions of the World holding round-table discussions to create a network of communication across the globe from Amazonia to the Galapagos Islands, from Brazil to Japan, and from Mexico to Türkiye.

November 20 2023
Stars gleaming green AYLİN ÖNEY TAN

Stars gleaming green

“İzmir’in dağlarında çiçekler açar!” / “Flowers bloom on the mountains of İzmir!” These words of the much-popular Izmir anthem were ringing in my ears as I left the celebration after the Michelin Guide ceremony in Istanbul. The second edition of the highly anticipated results for Türkiye was announced on Nov. 9. This time, the scope of the list was expanded to include Izmir, Urla, Alaçatı and Bodrum in addition to Istanbul. A total of 111 restaurants are recommended, including 15 in İzmir and 19 in Bodrum. Supported by the TGA-Türkiye Tourism Promotion and Development Agency, the Michelin Guide will be an important step to put the Aegean region on the world gastronomy map. Urla, a lovely district of Izmir, was indisputably the one who brought these beautiful words of the Izmir anthem to life, with places gleaming with Green Stars, just like the blooming flowers of Izmir mountains, giving hope for the future in terms of sustainability as well as gastronomy tourism.  

November 13 2023
Centenary celebration: Remembering food in times of war and peace AYLİN ÖNEY TAN

Centenary celebration: Remembering food in times of war and peace

Food in war times is a hard topic to deal with. As we celebrate the centenary of the Turkish Republic, every single celebration dinner or ball was centered around the favorite flavors of Atatürk, the founder of Türkiye, and how elegant his table was. No doubt that Atatürk was a bon-vivant, always impeccably dressed, knew fine dining, enjoyed his drink, but he was also a courageous soldier, who knew about scarcity and poverty and how to survive in hard times. One thing he could not bear was being deprived of freedom, and his quest for liberty created the Turkish nation today. His highly acclaimed tables were not set to show richness, it was like a manifestation of a free Republic built on the ashes of the stagnating Ottoman Empire.

October 30 2023
Astonishing Antalya AYLİN ÖNEY TAN

Astonishing Antalya

More than a decade ago when I was involved as a curator in creating a gastronomy museum in Antalya, everybody was more than skeptical. Though being the hub of international tourism, the city was not renowned for its culinary merits. I remember people uttering sheer astonishment when I started talking about gastronomy in Antalya. The two words did not match in minds, people could only think about a few dishes, namely “şiş köfte” that is skewered meatballs, “tahinli piyaz” the famed accompanying bean salad with tahini sauce, and they would simply add, “They also put tahini on pumpkin desert, no?” That was all. And there were oranges of course, the symbol of the city.

October 23 2023
Future Forward: 25 years of gastronomy and architecture in Basque country AYLİN ÖNEY TAN

Future Forward: 25 years of gastronomy and architecture in Basque country

Landing in Bilbao airport stirs mixed feelings in me. Looking out of the plane window Calatrava greets me with an almost cynical sharky smile, or so I think, as if saying you are here for food, but I’ll haunt you with architecture. Sometimes the airport building by Spanish architect/engineer Santiago Calatrava is likened to a hawk bird, rather than the peaceful popular nickname of “The Dove” or a mini-Concorde ready to take off. The small airport in the countryside has bigger impact than expected, hints to expect the unexpected in the Basque Country. And when I say mixed feelings, I’m here for the 25th anniversary of the Gastronomika conference, so I’m supposed to focus on gastronomy, but my inner-architect self keeps shifting the focus to buildings, both old and new. With too many distractions, starting from Frank Gehry’s iconic titanium-cladded Guggenheim building to the Kursaal Congress Center by Spanish architect Rafael Muneo, where Gastronomika is taking place, it is hard to focus on the conference only.

October 15 2023