The article explores the rise of female chefs in Istanbul’s culinary scene, highlighting their contributions to the city’s gastronomic diversity and challenging traditional gender roles in the restaurant industry. It discusses the personal journeys and culinary innovations of several female chefs who have gained recognition for their creativity and talent, ultimately reshaping Istanbul’s culinary landscape.
Anya von Bremzen / The New York Times
No bigger than chickpeas and blanketed with tangy yogurt and sizzling spiced butter, the manti were so good they could be inhaled by the dozen. My partner, Barry, and I devoured these lamb-filled Turkish dumplings, shaped into cute tufted shells, at Hatice Anne Ev Yemekleri, a homey spot in Istanbul’s Kuzguncuk neighborhood.
“There are so many unsung female cooks in this city,” said Benoit Hanquet as we saluted Merve Ataoglu, the restaurant’s kerchiefed manti maker. Mr. Hanquet, our guide for a Culinary Backstreets food tour of Istanbul, would later lead us on to Gule Kafe (fried doughnuts and crumbly sesame cookies) and Gunesin Sofrasi (a tasty mosaic of meze) — two more establishments serving delicious treats and overseen by women.
Exploring a city through its diverse restaurants is always rewarding. But inspired by Mr. Hanquet’s tour, I decided on a subsequent Istanbul visit to focus just on kitchens run by talented women. For all its glamour and rising international fame, Istanbul’s food world has until recently remained patriarchal — all dude celebrity chefs and swaggering ustas (masters) presiding over traditional specialties like baklava or kebab.
“Men ran professional kitchens, women were expected to cook at home for their families,” the local food media star and cookbook author Refika Birgul told me. “But with the rise of modern fine dining culture in Istanbul, that dynamic is finally changing.”
Indeed. In the decade and a half that I’ve spent time in this city, I’ve seen a generation of female chefs emerge, quietly defining Istanbul’s sophisticated style of cuisine — an idiom that often involves creative takes on Anatolian ingredients such as yogurt, tahini and pomegranate. And so, revisiting old favorites and checking out newcomers, I crossed the city in routes lit by female culinary star power.
Giritli
Istanbul’s historical peninsula, the city’s old Byzantine-Ottoman core of imperial mosques and bazaars, dominated by the magnificence of the Hagia Sophia, is tourist central. Locals, however, barely come here, unless it’s to buy wedding gold at the Grand Bazaar — or to dine at Giritli. This modern meyhane (tavern) still feels like a delicious discovery, even after nearly two decades in business. Occupying a 19th-century Ottoman mansion and idyllic garden, Giritli is owned by the pioneering chef and restaurateur Ayse Sensilay, whose roots are in Crete (Giritli means Cretan in Turkish). Drawing on Hellenic family recipes and Istanbul’s multicultural heritage, Ms. Sensilay constantly updates familiar flavors: Black eye peas, a traditional Aegean ingredient, come unexpectedly laced with tangy dried apricot slivers; cacik, a classic yogurt dip, is packed with juicy purslane and green almonds instead of the usual cucumbers.
Giritli’s prix-fixe dinner involves a constellation of meze and mains. For lunch one can go à la carte, as we did, eating a pile of crisp fried zucchini followed by a bowl of seafood-studded orzo pilaf — and then a grilled local bluefish called lufer. As we finished our dessert of caramelized quince, Ms. Sensilay swept in, an arty grande dame in stylish red glasses.
“When I started in the restaurant business, it was so hard for women,” she said.
“The new generation is luckier. They can now get exceptional professional training,” she continued. “Plus modern food styles offer more creativity — appealing to women because we are innovators and reformists by nature.”
You can read the full article here.