An interview was held with our new graduate student, Simay Yılmaz, from Istanbul Gelişim University (IGU), Faculty of Fine Arts (FFA), Department of Gastronomy and Culinary Arts.
Hello Simay, can you briefly tell us about yourself? You graduated from the Department of Gastronomy and Culinary Arts in 2020. First of all, what kind of student experience did you have?
Hello, first of all, it is very pleasant for me to have an interview with the university from which I graduated, thank you very much for giving me this opportunity. I am Simay Yılmaz, I was born on June 5, 1997, in Istanbul. I am the first child of a civil servant family. I went to primary school, secondary school, and high school in Adana, where my family works, and I am originally from Adana. After graduating from high school, I received a full scholarship to Istanbul Gelişim University, Department of Gastronomy and Culinary Arts in 2016. I am one of the first students in our department. Since the day I started university, I have found opportunities to make serious differences in my career with the support of our university and my professors. I can say that I tried to use the opportunities that our university provides to every student correctly and appropriately. My university life was intense and fun. The Department of Gastronomy and Culinary Arts is one of the most creative departments of the Faculty of Fine Arts. I took courses in many fields, from basic art training to culinary training, and graduated as a qualified individual trained by our university and started my working life. Nowadays, I continue my working life as a Food Stylist, Chef, and Food Content Creator.
During your student years, you participated in Erasmus Mobility and visited many countries. Can you tell us about the Erasmus process? What advice can you give to our students who want to do Erasmus?
Erasmus Mobility was a program that I discovered when I was a freshman at university and said I should join it. First of all, I researched in detail how I could participate in this mobility without taking the school exam. Grade point average, exam passing score, grant policy, and document processes; I researched all of these in detail and planned what path I should follow. I have been careful to keep my GPA high since the first year. Your total Erasmus exam score is created by taking 50% of your grade point average and 50% of your Erasmus exam score. In the second semester of my sophomore year, I increased my GPA to 3.40 without taking the Erasmus exam. In this way, I increased my self-confidence in the department and took the Erasmus exam with high self-confidence. I passed the Erasmus exam as the top student in the main list. The entire Erasmus process starts with passing the exam. After I won, I started looking for a university in Europe where I could study under comfortable conditions. I started an e-mail process with Lublin Life Sciences University in Lublin, Poland. Later, our Erasmus office signed an Erasmus mobility agreement with the university in Poland and I found my school. I easily matched the credits of my courses in the semester I would be attending with the credits of the university in Poland. Both universities had similar policies regarding credit. Even if the schools you have an agreement with or the schools you will agree with do not have similar policies, you can already complete that credit by taking extra courses. Don't worry, you have reached the end of the process, rest assured that you will pass the courses easily. I just had a little difficulty in the documentation process, which is a process that every Erasmus student has difficulty with. There is an e-mail process between countries, you may have difficulty in this part because the visa and education process of each country may differ. I can also say that it is a process that you can easily handle if you proceed in coordination with our Erasmus office. After completing the document process and passport visa procedures, I bought my tickets, prepared my suitcase, and started moving. In 2019, in the second semester of my third year, I went to Poland with Erasmus Mobility. The professors and Erasmus coordinators of the university I attended were very helpful and hospitable. They both introduced us to their culture and gave us many opportunities to explore while studying. I took Food Engineering Nutrition and Dietetics courses at Lublin Life Sciences University. These courses were very important in making a difference for a student in my department. I went through a different and useful education process in the field of gastronomy. I gained a lot of knowledge and experience not only in cooking and trying new tastes but also in the processes of food in the human body, nutritional regulations, and production and storage conditions of food.
I visited nearly 20 countries during Erasmus's study mobility. Including the country where I went to mobility; I went to Poland, Germany, Ukraine, Czech Republic, Netherlands, Luxembourg, Belgium, Italy, France, Switzerland, Austria, Malta, Slovakia, Hungary, Croatia, Romania, Slovenia, Norway, Portugal and Spain. I met dozens of people here and made many memories. I visited many historical places and had the opportunity to see live the places I had seen on the internet and whose stories I had heard about. I experienced a lot of interesting dishes and different tastes. After completing the spring semester mobility, I returned to my country. Before graduating in 2020, I took the Erasmus exam again and this time, I was ranked first in the school and was entitled to participate in the mobility. Erasmus+ in 2021; In other words, I did an internship at the Michelin Star Mesa de Lemos in Viseu, Portugal, with the Erasmus internship mobility. Students who will participate in Erasmus Mobility will understand that this is not just an educational process; At the same time, I want them to experience life in a different country and know that they will start life 1, maybe 2-0 ahead of their peers. It is a great opportunity to improve your foreign language and human relations. I am sure that for the development of your vision, seeing the difference of living according to the dynamics and rules in another country will broaden the horizons of every student who will participate in the mobility.
What did you do after graduation? You do an interesting job as a food stylist. Can you tell us a little about your working life?
I graduated from Istanbul Gelişim University, Department of Gastronomy and Culinary Arts in 2020 as an Honor Student. After studying for four years, I decided that my goal and desire was to advance at this point by working in the field of fine dining and molecular gastronomy. And I thought the best place to experience this would be to work in a Michelin Star restaurant. At that time, 3 years ago, there was no Michelin Guide in our country yet. To work in a Michelin-starred restaurant, I had to go abroad for an internship. Before graduating, I took the Erasmus exam again in the last semester of my senior year. I passed the exam and was eligible to participate in the mobility. However, it coincided with the Corona epidemic period that we all experienced, and the borders were closed. For this reason, after graduation, I waited to participate in the internship mobility for a year. In 2021, I went to Portugal to do an internship at a Michelin-star restaurant called “Mesa de Lemos” in Viseu, Portugal. There, I found many opportunities to improve myself in the fields of fine dining and molecular gastronomy. My executive chef, Jose Diogo Rocha, included me, a willing foreign student who came from his country to learn his cuisine, in an intense and long training process in the field of fine dining and molecular gastronomy. I can say that I learned the job in the kitchen. After my internship ended, I gained experience in a fine-dining restaurant in the Netherlands for a short period and then returned to my country. After returning to my country, I worked in various restaurants in Istanbul. Later, my path crossed with “Madame Coco”. I received styling training at the brand's art studio and also took an active part in product shooting as a styling assistant. The basic art education, color knowledge, and presentation techniques courses I received at school were really helpful to me in this process. Here I had the opportunity to evaluate the aesthetic plate and product presentations I learned in the kitchen. After completing my training, I started styling food and cocktails for the kitchen products and glassware of the Madame Coco brand. Kitchen and glass products; I edited the styling of social media and packaging images; I took photos and videos. Thus, I discovered food styling and found many products and opportunities to improve myself in this field. After my experiences at Madame Coco, I started working with agencies that produce food content. I worked as a food stylist and content producer in product and advertising shoots for Kahve Dünyası, Komili, Kemal Kükrer, Bizim Mutfak, Mat For Home, and many other brands. Nowadays, I continue to shoot products, menus, and social media with chefs in the industry as well as brands.
Thank you very much for the interview, love
Simay Yilmaz
Food Stylist, Chef, and Food Content Producer
