The essence of Istanbul’s cuisine lies in its Ottoman past. We say “Oh that is very Ottoman" when we spoon a delicious eggplant purée and braised lamb.

We refer to the food as “very Ottoman“ because it is an Ottoman classic. At the empire’s most flourishing days, the sultans employed some 1300 cooks in the ceramic –domed kitchens of Topkapi Palace, each assigned for his entire career to cooking a single type of dish.

Today, Istanbul’s cooking combines the best of the Mediterranean and the Middle East. It relies heavily on the freshest vegetables, fragrant olive oil, grilling and the flavours of many ingredients. Combined to this Mediterranean sensibility are Middle Eastern notes–lamb, rice, dried fruits, grape leaves and yogurt. The spicing of Istanbul food too is Middle Eastern: cinnamon and saffron appear in savoury dishes, mildly spicy Urfa and Maras peppers are set out on tables as salt and pepper are abroad. Our cuisine also relies on seafood from a simple grilled Blue fish to rice-stuffed musells and spicy octopus salad.

Turkish food is not complicated cooking, it is about getting simple cooking absolutely right. We delight in every detail of the preparation, in every stage of its development.

With its magical minarets and bazaars, traffic and grit, and glitzy Eurasian high life, Istanbul is a hallucinatory experience. The richness of its cuisine contributes to the thrill. While there is no shortage of transnational dining, its worth seeking out traditional Turkish cuisine at the establishements we will suggest to you. Istanbul with literally a restaurant at every turn is a real culinary treat and a snackers paradise. Once in Istanbul we will also suggest you the best restaurants as well as the typical ones where you can eat mezes and drink raki...

Istanbul… An almighty city for which wars were made and millions of lives were lost through thousands of years… A huge metropolis connecting continents, different cultures and religions; being home to eleven million people and one of the greatest business and cultural center of the region…

Istanbul is both the nearest European city to Asia and the nearest Asian city to Europe. It has been a merciful shelter to people since 3000 B.C. and the great capital of Byzantium and Ottoman Empires. An irresistible beauty with its precious Bosphorus, unique historical inheritances adorning its silhouette, and of course its hospitable people…

No corner of Istanbul is like any other. Even districts that stand right next to one another are very different, from their houses to their shops, and their streets to their traders. You can find everything in the world that you might be looking for and more in Istanbul, where people from all walks of life live together in a tremendous hustle and bustle: The mystery of the East and the practicality of the West. In local markets one can find a wide range of peppers, honey, varieties of local cheeses, dried spiced beef, sausages, braised beef, an astonishing variety of medicinal herbs, different teas, and even herbs and charms to ward off the evil eye which are to be found in every Turkish home. The city of Istanbul itself is one great big bazaar!

Food in the Harem -Leyla Saz

The allowances given by the sultans to their wives came in small silk bags which contained small leather purses. The allowances of the head kalfas (servants) was sent in purses of a white fabric known as “hasse,” and these were inside their own jeweled boxes. Young girls entrusted their money to “kesedars,” the old retired kalfas without a master, who lived in a building alongside the harem set aside for them. These allowances were placed in small pouches bearing the names of their owners, and stored in silver inlaid, jeweled wooden barrel-shaped boxes. The palace concubines used their saved allowances to buy State (or Treasury) bonds.

The harem received a monthly allowance of sugar, roasted and ground coffee, candles, soap, salt and pepper. The allowances for the members of the Sultan’s family went to each of them individually. In addition, the young princesses each received white bread, simit, pide, white cheese made especially for the palace and kaymak (clotted cream) every morning. The kaymak was brought in a silver pan, the bread and other foods in leather chests, on the locked lid of which her name was worked in silver or inlay. This food, prepared especially for the palace, was of a quality impossible to find outside its bounds. For this reason, former servants who had married and left the palace but still lived in the city and knew the flavor of this food, received baskets of food sent by the princesses or their servants. In return for this gift, they generally sent foods which were not on the Palace’s food lists, which they had prepared, such as stuffed mussels and fish, and olive oil dishes. Before breakfast they were sent snacks and sweets such as preserves, cheese, olives, pastırma, steamed meat, caviar and green salad, set on large trays lined with leather and with a copper cover, with silver around the edge, the whole thing covered with white felt. In the evenings, on separate trays, came the fruits of the season, set in dishes expressly for this purpose.

The extremely varied cuisine was naturally of another league. The pans in which the food was placed were arranged on wooden trays, and over the top was a cotton cover with ties threaded through holes in the edge. In this way the dishes remained hot as they were taken to the Palace, even during the winter months. The covers for the trays were of difference colors according to whom they were gong to; those going to the princesses were of brown or dark navy blue felt, while the kalfas’ were navy blue and those of the concubines were white.

The tray bearers (tablakar) carried the trays into a special entrance of the Palace and passed through the wards of the harem guardsmen. After leaving them on long tables placed in the marble hall of the Harem apartments, the aghas of the harem called the concubines, and immediately left in order that they would be able to enter.

Rather than an apron, the concubines wore large cotton panels tied at the front which were embroidered in gold thread on both ends. The procession of young, delicate girls on high wooden clogs called nalın1, proceeded in an orderly manner through the hall of the Harem.

When the trays were brought, those for the princes and princesses were taken by the çeşnibaşı and handed to the kalfa who would be in attendance during her master’s meal. The trays for the kalfas and girls were distributed by pantry girls charged with this duty.

The palace meals always included a lamb dish, in addition to which there was usually a dish of some sort of fowl as well, böreks with meat or cheese, various vegetable dishes with onions and cubed meat, and traditional pilaf. Pasta was extremely uncommon. The evening meal also included tall pitchers of compote prepared from fresh fruits. As the fruits and preserves were already present in the Harem, they were brought separately.

Prior to the ascent of Sultan Abdülaziz to the throne in 1860, the meals of the princes and princesses were prepared in their own rooms.

In order to prevent crumbs from being scattered around, a floor covering2 embroidered with gold/silver and sequins was laid out over the carpets in one corner of the room. In the center of this floor covering, a low table with six silver legs attached in the middle and extending out towards the edges was set. Over this low table, a covering similar to the first , and on this, a wide silver tray called a sini. Floor pillows called minder were placed around this table.

The sini was laid out with small round condiment plats containing fruits and pickles, a three-sectioned salt cellar containing salt, pepper and cinnamon, and a small pitcher with freshly squeezed lemon juice.

Two spoons set on fine muslin napkins indicated where the diners would sit. One of these spoons, with coral handles inlaid with precious stones and a mother of pearl or ivory bowl, was for soup or pilaf, and the other, with a bowl of tortoiseshell and a handle of ivory of pearl, was for the compote. There were no water glasses/pitchers on the sini, as water was generally not drunk during the meal. Sliced bread and hand napkins for wiping the mouth were also laid out in particular places. There were no plates on the sini.

Before the meal, a kalfa would come with a pitcher and basin, and pour water over the prince or princess’s hands. The person whose hands were being washed would be seated on the abovementioned pillows. The Saxony porcelain or silver serving platters were set on trivets, which were of silver if in the palace, or copper/brass if in a mansion. The food was eaten only the thumb, forefinger and second finger of the right hand, with the help of a piece of bread.

It must be noted here that the manner in which people picked up their food was an indication of their breeding and delicacy. This was sometimes performed with such skill that food never even touched the fingertips. It was considered impolite to confuse what food on the serving platter belonged to oneself and to one’s neighbors, put large bites of food into the mouth, or make noise while eating.

After the meal, the pitcher and basin were brought once again and hands were carefully washed with soap. In some mansions, a marble fountain was built into one wall of the dining room. This made it easy for both the servers and the diners to wash their hands before and after the meal.

The very young princes and princesses ate with their mothers at their tables, sometimes joined by the head servant.

Following the meal, coffee was served with a slightly complex utensil. A small silver basin called a stil,carried with three long chains attached at the edges and uniting at the center was filled with hot coals and a few pieces of fresh charcoal. The silver cezve in which the coffee was boiled was placed on this stil in order to stay hot. The stil was brought in by one concubine, who took care that it did not touch the floor. Another concubine brought small coffee cups, which were in silver inlaid or jeweled holders, on a tray covered with a silver-embroidered silk or velvet cloth. A third concubine filled the cups, placed them in their holders and then, holding them from below with the thumb and forefinger, presented them in an elegant manner. The lower part of the holder rested on the end of the forefinger, while the thumb held the upper edge to provide balance.

This was a difficult service to master, requiring considerable skill to avoid knocking over the extremely fragile cups, and make the coffee with no spills or overflows.

Contrary to the belief in the west, the ladies, princess or others in the harem never smoked cigarettes, pipes or nargiles (water pipes). In later times, some of the older kalfas began smoking cigarettes, but in moderation, and took care to do it only in private. Only the head kalfas drank coffee, the concubines did not.

The kalfas, or head servants, received their food presented in the same way as to the princesses. However the kalfas ate all together at a single sini, in one of their rooms. The cloth covers they used were of embroidered silk; the sini was simple. Their silver-edged low table had legs of wood and their platters were of local white porcelain with flower patterns. The kalfas used silver spoons. Every kalfa had a silver bowl containing a delicate hand cloth, a little water and a small piece of soap. They washed their hands in this bowl, changing the water several times. The kalfas were served by new concubines who were assigned to them for training. The concubine’s meals were served in a similar way, but in a hall located on the floor below their masters’ apartments. Every concubine brought her own spoon and towel, and washed her own hands after the meal. The spoons were kept in small pouches to keep them from becoming dusty.

Forks³ came into use in the palace only in 1860; it gradually became a habit and spread to other areas. Today in the palace and other places as well, meals have long been eaten as in other countries, if less ostentatiously.

In the palace, breakfasts sometimes included cold meat (kavurma) and eggs, and always honey, kaymak, cheese and preserves. Lunch was eaten before noon, and in winter at 10:00.

The dinner was brought out two hours before sunset. As they ate so early, there was no regular meal in the evening; instead, they served either fresh fruit according to season, or dried fruit.

(Leyla Saz, Memoires-The Palace Harem in the 19th Century. Istanbul, 2000, pp. 101-10)

¹ Nalın is a wooden clog with two extensions under the ball and heel of the foot from 10-12 cm in height. They include a slipper-like portion on the front into which the foot is inserted, made from leather and sometimes adorned with silver. Nalıns may be worn over a bare foot or with another slipper; and worn in the garden, hamam or anywhere necessary. While walking in them is very difficult, awkward and dangerous for those who are not accustomed to them, those who are used to them can run in them without losing them. Because of the simplicity of their construction and the low price, nalın are still in use. Even today examples made of precious wood with mother of pearl and metal inlay, used by the wealthy, are to be found. For the palace, all-silver nalın were even made, but as they are not efficient, they are no longer much seen.

² The chief reason for laying a cloth over the carpets was cleanliness. A second reason was that it was considered a sin to allow staple foods such as bread and rice to fall to the floor and be crushed underfoot.

³ Among middle class families, the use of forks and individual plates was learned and spread chiefly in boarding and military schools. Young people studying for many years in boarding schools adopted the manners they learned there and brought them home with them. In this way the boarding schools were a helpful influence in changing old Turkish habits to the extent possible. Young people attending boarding schools gradually began to adopt western-style clothing as well. These young people were also influential in adoption of post beds, stools and benches.

With Turkish Flavours you will learn see and feel Istanbul!

As nomads, the Turks were limited by what the land offered and by what could be prepared over a crude open fire, so it's not a stretch to understand how kebaps and köfte became the centerpieces of Turkish cooking. Turkish food today concentrates on simple combinations, few ingredients, and fresh produce.

EXPRESSIONS