But Durmay Batur, owner of what is probably the only restaurant in the world, the imperial Ottoman cuisine was the challenge, inviting.
"Since my childhood, eating the only topic around the dinner table that we had never talked about politics, sports, music, movies, -. But we like to explore something related to food, "said Durmay.'s Restaurant in Istanbul Asitane takes its replica of the lavish celebration of the 16th Century. Diners have included kings and ministers.
He began with two books: the first cookbook the imperial palace of Topkapi from 1469 that listed nearly 45 dishes served in the Ottoman court, and a book in which the royal festivities of 1539 celebrating the circumcision of Suleiman the Magnificent son Cihangir and Beyazit. Said "This text has served us with the names of 100 different dishes at the ceremony of circumcision, but we do not have recipes, ingredients, or" Durmay.
The team scoured the archives would be tickled to Topkapi Palace and the National Library, research documents, books and parchments, which, like the cooks managed to note sultan palace. A role for culinary detective: with Istanbul as the ultimate goal of the silk and spice routes - where all the goods have been imposed before sending to the west - the official documents gave the approximate port of spices, produce and food in the Ottoman capital.
Sign up to the amount, origin and date of purchase of any food that came in the imperial kitchens helped to narrow the search. And was finally ready to find the right measures and the proper way to court a matter of trial and error.
Asitane created 400 different recipes again. Combined with elements of contemporary cuisine, dishes range from Imperial Century served from 15 to 19.
Most customers are foreign tourists. "Many Turks are very conservative when it comes to food," said Durmay. Turks and relationship with their Ottoman past is problematic. "At school we are taught that the Ottoman sultans cowards and traitors who have sold our country to the British." Time is seen as backward and decadent.
"It is difficult for experts from the Ottoman Turkish language, decode help us find the Ottoman texts. I am now working with scientists at a university in Berlin, "said Durmay.
But back at the last moment of the Ottoman period in popularity in popular culture. Asitane offers catering for all Muhteşem Yüzyil (Century Magnificent), a television brilliant and successful, enjoying the life of Suleyman the Magnificent and outrage among conservatives in Turkey for the purpose of the Sultan of alcohol and the company of women.
"A lot of restaurants that serve only themselves Ottoman actually a traditional Turkish cuisine," said Durmay. "But the Ottoman cuisine combines the flavors of the Middle East, the Balkans, the Caucasus and Central Anatolia. It is much more skewers."
0 comments:
Post a Comment