Deputy Dean of Istanbul Gelişim University (IGU), Faculty of Fine Arts (FFA) and academic member of the Department of Gastronomy and Culinary Arts Assoc. Prof. Dr. Murat Doğan's article was published in Hotel Restaurant & Hi-Tech Magazine. The article appeared in the April issue of the magazine with the title "Istanbul Cuisine: A Cuisine Where Ancient Cultures Meet". The text of the relevant article is given below.
Dear readers, I have been working on Istanbul cuisine for a long time. As I deepened my research, I witnessed that Istanbul cuisine was nourished by many ancient civilizations, as I mentioned in the title. For us, the date when Istanbul cuisine started to flourish is the date when Fatih conquered Istanbul. Fatih brought to Istanbul a cuisine that was a synthesis of the nomadic culinary culture of Central Asia, the Seljuk culinary culture and the Anatolian culinary culture.
By the way, I would like to talk about a well-known saying of Fatih. Addressing the rulers after the conquest of Istanbul, Fatih said the following. “From now on, I am the new Eastern Roman emperor.” As can be understood from Fatih's words, Fatih took over many ancient institutions of Byzantium. I can say that one of these institutions is Byzantine culinary culture.
As a result, many components of Byzantine culinary traditions were transferred to Istanbul cuisine throughout the historical process. I'm thinking of mentioning a few of these. Let's say this first. The Ottomans changed and transformed many of the products and techniques they received from Byzantium and appropriated them. On this occasion, I will also touch upon a few topics discussed. The most important of these are baklava and chicken breast dessert.
Yes, let me join the baklava debate. That world-famous dessert with sherbet, baklava, which the Greeks call ours and we (Turks) call ours. Before I start telling you my opinions, it would be useful to say the following. I examined Arab, Byzantine and Ottoman sources on this subject in detail, respectively. First of all, when we compare historical and today's baklava; In its original form, today's crispy and delicious version is nothing like each other. In my opinion, the geography where baklava first flourished is the geography that includes Syria and Iraq today. There is written and factual evidence on this issue. The factual evidence is my personal interest. Arabs were the first to cultivate sugar, or sugar cane, professionally. In this context, they used sugar and sugar syrup abundantly in their cuisine.
Dear readers, I do not want to bore you too much with scientific data. If you want, let's talk a little bit about the story of the subject. Arabs were making a syrupy dessert similar to today's baklava. Their neighbors in Byzantium started making this dessert, which they saw from them. In fact, when Fatih brought his cooks to Istanbul, they also knew what baklava was. Now it's time for the story of how the Ottomans transformed baklava into today's most delicious dessert. This is where the Central Asian nomadic culinary tradition, one of the most important of your ancient traditions, comes into play.
The kitchens of the nomadic and nomadic Turkish communities had to be portable and practical. I will give just one example. A nomadic Turkish family always carried with them the sheet pan apparatus that we all know very well. The family mixes flour and water and makes dough where they stay. The phyllo dough he rolls out is cooked on a sheet metal. Then, the hollow part of the sheet is turned and the food is cooked in that part. The most important tip for baklava is dough rolling, which is a Turkish bread making technique. Cooks in the Ottoman palace rolled out thin layers of dough using the phyllo rolling technique, which is an ancient tradition, and today's crispy and delicious baklava emerged.
Another topic of discussion is chicken breast dessert. It is claimed that there was a similar dessert in Byzantine cuisine and that a pudding similar to "blancmange-blonmonji" was made in the Ancient Roman cookbook called Apicius. However, when we examine the relevant book, it becomes clear that this recipe does not exist. However, I can easily say this for the chicken breast dessert. This dessert emerged as a dessert in the pudding category of Arabic cuisine. It was first produced as a Chicken Göğsü dessert in Istanbul cuisine. Later, this dessert turned into Kazandibi. There are also several urban legends told about this transformation. One of them is as follows. The bazaar shopkeepers who made the chicken breast dessert enjoyed the chicken breast dessert left at the bottom of the cauldron, as they and their friends consumed it at first. Later, they turned it into an innovative new product, Kazandibi dessert. According to another narrative, the palace cooks discovered this dessert by chance while making chicken breast in the Helvahane.
As a result, Istanbul Cuisine and culture has survived to this day, nourished by many fountains of civilization in the Ottoman capital. Due to the depth of the subject, I plan to continue with Istanbul cuisine in my next article.
Stay well…
Assoc. Prof. Dr. Murat Doğan
