From Cordon Bleu to Alaturka

A couple of blocks from the longtime seat of the Ottoman Empire, Topkapı Palace, where court recipes were refined and preserved in log books, a contemporary restaurant called Cooking Alaturka features daily cooking classes with menus that mix home cooking and regional dishes with Ottoman classics. "Many of the recipes are simple but they have a lot of flavor," says Eveline Zoutendijk, Cooking Alaturka’s owner and chef.

Since March, Zoutendijk has been teaching a 5-course class in an old world locale that she has painted lime green and deep purple. Using spices that people new to Turkey can find here and abroad, she says she tries to keep classes and cooking fun and often sees people connecting with one another. "Single travelers meet people and sometimes make dinner plans," she said.

Ottoman food suits international mingling. With so many foreign women in the sultan’s harem, the environment was rich with culinary traditions and ideas, Zoutendijk said. "So you see Sultan’s Delight with the roasted eggplant puree mixed with Béchamel sauce and grated cheese. The Ottoman court blends the smoky flavor from nomadic open fire cooking with a classic French sauce."

A certain infatuation
Zoutendijk fell head over heels in love when she came to Istanbul after leaving a career as an hotelier at the St. Regis Hotel in New York and the Four Seasons in Paris. Her love affair though was with the city, its ups and downs, the Turkish people and flow of life here. "It’s fair to say I have a certain infatuation with the city," she said.

Listen to her describe the texture of Istanbul and living the nightlife at full tilt, she comes across with the ease of a love struck foreigner. But this Dutchwoman single handedly ran a small hotel in Istanbul’s old quarter Sultanahmet for five years while turning a popular trade giving cooking classes in the hotel’s large kitchen. Moving in a not-so-new direction last year, the Cordon Bleu-trained chef left the hotel business and opened her own restaurant and cooking school.

Istanbul is a hot item right now on the world market, Zoutendijk said. "Sometimes the quality doesn’t match the value, but this is a cosmopolitan place so it’s expensive," she said. The 2001 economic crisis happened during her first year as a resident of Istanbul. "I noticed people weren’t quite as happy as they had been when I’d visited before… Once you start working here, you see people’s warmth even as they struggle to survive."

Recipes that tell tales
No stranger to the restaurant business, 22 years ago in Holland she was the lone female working with 16 men in a kitchen of a French cuisine restaurant. Zoutendijk made the decision to stick with Turkish cuisine and her employee at the hotel Turkish chef, Feyzi Yıldırım, to help run her business. "Because I started the classes for tourists, I focus on Turkish food," she said. It’s best to work with local seasonal ingredients and the Ottoman and regional traditions offer their own tales from history, she added.

Having generated a following among tourists and some good press in the New York Times, Food and Wine Magazine and on Dutch television, the move has enabled her to focus on interacting with visitors. "It’s great being around people who love to cook," she said. Corporate teambuilding cooking classes are also offered. Recently she hosted a group of 18 executives from KLM.

Classes are offered daily in the mornings and afternoons at Cooking Alaturka just off the Hippodrome behind the Blue Mosque. Dinners are served evenings except Sunday. Email Chef Zoutendijk to make arrangements.


Akbiyik Caddesi No. 72a, Sultanahmet

www.cookingalaturka.com info@cookingalaturka.com

+90 (212) 458 5919

+90 (536) 338 0896