Geçmişten Günümüze İstanbul Lezzetleri [Delicacies of Istanbul from Past to Present]

Editor: Merin Sever

Published in 2021

Istanbul Metropolitan Municipality Publications

Pages: 520

Istanbul has hosted – and continues to host – numerous civilisations throughout history. Unsurprisingly, such a city, which has accommodated and nourished a wide range of cultural diversity, also has a multicultural cuisine.

Nowadays, Istanbul’s cuisine offers a wider variety with the newly introduced dishes joining to the older ones. Along with the contributions of Greek, Jewish, and Armenian cuisines, dishes well-known to Istanbulites from the Black Sea, Antep, Aegean, Bosnian, Balkan, Caucasian, Thracian, Mardin, Antioch, and Diyarbakır regions also find themselves a place on the table.

Geçmişten Günümüze İstanbul Lezzetleri delves deep into the history of Istanbul cuisine with interviews and texts about the Ancient Greek, Byzantian, Ottoman, traditional, and contemporary dishes, along with the newly welcomed dishes from other geographies, which we get to learn about from culinary experts.

Whether you are interested in the history of Istanbul’s desserts or the history of Istanbul’s street foods, there’s room for everyone on this large table.

Yeni Yemek Kitabı [The New Cookbook]

Ohan Aşçıyan

Transliteration: Arsen Kocaoğlu

Published in 2018 (2nd edition 2021)

Publisher: Aras Publishing

Pages: 144

Written in Turkish with Armenian script, The New Cookbook by cook and publisher Ohan Aşçıyan was one of the most popular books of the time back when it was initially published in 1907 in Istanbul. One can find very practical recipes from soups to different rice, fried to steamed dishes, desserts to jellies in the book subtitled ‘Ottoman and European Styles’. The New Cookbook is a milestone for our culinary history as the ingredients, cooking methods, and tips provided by Aşçıyan attest to the creative and unique food culture we had a century ago.

Takuhi Tovmasyan’s additional notes enrichen and update the original text by Aşçıyan. To allow the modern reader to relate to the book, Tovmasyan gives tips to adapt the recipes to our day, offers substitutes to ingredients that cannot be found anymore, and even converses colloquially with the reader by relating a memory that a recipe has reminded her of. Illustrated by Hulusi Nusih Tütüncü’s vivacious design, The New Cookbook is a kitchen essential.

İstanbullu Rum Bir Ailenin Mutfak Serüveni: Tarifler, Hikâyeler, Anılar [The Culinary Adventure of an Istanbulite Ottoman-Greek Family: Recipes, Stories, Memories]

Marianna Yerasimos

Published in 2019 (4th edition 2020)

Yapı Kredi Publications

Pages: 304

‘If I had to summarise this book, I’d define it as the intersection of gustatory memories, and the taste of memories. The protagonists of the story are my family, and the plot is the dishes cooked by three generations in our kitchen.’

Inspired by the notion of food culture as an outcome of cultural memory and belonging, Marianna Yerasimos offers us tasty segments from the life of an Istanbulite Ottoman-Greek family.

Tasty recipes such as leek and potato soup, silverfish omelette, mussel rice, chicken Milanese, and galaktoboureko; the root of the kitchen Kayseri; family members like a great-great-grandfather of an Italian descent who had a rooster slaughtered because of jealousy, as the rooster crowed after seeing the yaya (grandmother) and her husband; Büyükada’s fishes and melon ice cream; memories of the city such as the ‘Artemis’ grocery, ‘Ermis’ canned foods, and Melba-Golden chocolates; trips to the Fish Market; songs that used to enliven summer nights, and political disputes that find their way into the kitchen… Long story short, İstanbullu Rum Bir Ailenin Mutfak Serüveni tells the story of a long-gone culture that belongs in the 19th and 20th centuries.

Dina’nın Mutfağı [Dina’s Kitchen]

Deniz Alphan

Published in 2012

Boyut Publishing Group

Pages: 143

Deniz Alphan’s Dina’nın Mutfağı seeks to trace the culture of Turkish Jews in the delicious Sephardic Jewish recipes.

A good cook herself, Deniz Alphan shares the most unique dishes of the Jewish cuisine she learnt from her mother, Dina. Alphan makes the book more memorable by involving the story of her mother and her family. The book consists of various vegetable dishes, pastries, stuffed vegetable dishes (dolmas), fish, and desserts. The original photographs of Dina and her family members allow the readers to envision the period covered in the text.

The 143-page book does not only consist of snippets from Dina’s life or recipes; it also includes stories from the Passover or the traditional Shabbat Friday dinners. Even if you do not try the recipes, Dina’nın Mutfağı is full of interesting notes about the life and culture of Turkish Jews.

Amida’nın Sofrası: Yemekli Diyarbakır Tarihi [Amida’s Table: A History of Diyarbakır in Food]

Silva Özyerli

Published in 2019 (4th edition 2021)

Publisher: Aras Publishing

Pages: 272

‘Amida’ or ‘Dikranagerd’ in Armenian, and ‘Amed’ in Kurdish, the city Diyarbakır’s cuisine is a common value that different civilizations brought up together. Born in Diyarbakır, Silva Özyerli currently lives in Istanbul, but she carries her hometown deep in her heart. Amida’nın Sofrası is a result of years of research, discovery, trial, and production, which makes it one of the most unique culinary books. Using knowledge from her own memories, from her interviews with the elderly inhabitants of Diyarbakır, or written sources, she unravels almost forgotten or transformed recipes. The bittersweet narrative style employed by the author gives the book a literary quality. Özyerli’s well-crafted narrative also offers an alternative gaze at the last 100 years of the Diyarbakır region and is worthy of its title, A History of Diyarbakır in Food. Enriched by Erkin Ön’s photography, Amida’nın Sofrası is a cultural treasure.

Kürt Mutfağında Ne Pişiyor? [What’s Cooking in the Kurdish Kitchen?]

Ayşe Kudat

Published in 2010

Doğan Publishing

Pages: 288

Kürt Mutfağında Ne Pişiyor? is a documentary-like book that considers the kitchen an inseparable part of life and culture. Ayşe Kudat shares the findings of her long-term research about the lives and struggles of people who live in the eastern and south-eastern cities of Turkey, offers Kurdish recipes and stories from Kurdish everyday life accompanied by photographs, displaying the very essence of life in a way.