Cooking Schools in Istanbul

For a chef, a trip to any country is never complete without meeting fellow chefs, foodies and gourmets.  I had the privilege of meeting three interesting women in Istanbul and I enjoyed the meals, the conversations and the cooking tips they shared with me.  All these three ladies conduct cooking classes regularly and have full attendance for all their classes throughout the year.

Cooking Alaturka

Dutch chef Eveline Zoutedijk was one of the first persons to establish a cooking school in Istanbul!!  Besides running a cooking school and restaurant, she is also the author of “The Painting or the Boy”and “Tales from the Expat Harem”.  Chef Eveline was trained at the Cordon Bleu in Paris is also a graduate of a hotel management school in Switzerland and has one year of working experience in the kitchen of a Michelin-star restaurant.

Apparently Eveline used to run a boutique hotel in Istanbul and the guests were always asking her for cooking classes and eventually she offered Turkish cooking classes in the hotel’s kitchen. When the classes became very popular she chose to close the hotel and opened Cooking Alaturka in the popular Sultanahmet area.  The cooking school cum restaurant offers many hands-on cooking classes usually focusing on Anatolian cuisine.  The majority of her students are tourists and her assistant is Chef Feyzi Usta.  Recipes are given and students stand around the work table helping out with the cutting, shaping and preparation of the mis en place.  Chef Feyzi will do the actual cooking and Chef Eveline will explain the ins and outs of Turkish cooking.  Lunch is food that is prepared during the cooking class.  The restaurant is opened to the public but the menu will be the same as the cooking class’s menu for the day.  There is a different menu every day.  I learnt and tasted Yaprak Dolmas, Pureed Eggplant, Spicy Red Lentil Balls, Circassian Chicken with Walnuts, Oven Baked Chickpea puree with Cured Beef and a dessert Kunefe,

Cooking Alaturka

Akbiyik Caddesi 72A

Sultanahmet, Istanbul

Tel:  (+90) 2124585919

Email:  info@cookingalaturka.com

Website:  www.cookingalaturka.com

Turkish Flavours

Selin Rozanes, owner of Turkish Flavours Culinary Experience company was born and bred in Istanbul and is the right person to ask about Istanbul!!  She is not a chef by profession but an experienced tour guide who is passionate and highly knowledgeable about the place she was born in.  However, her cooking classes were memorable as she taught very traditional Turkish dishes that the local people may cook at home.  Her home is in the building where she was born!!  It is one of those nice Turkish homes built in the 1930s and is located in the very up market Nisantisi area.  I found Selin interesting with a wealth of knowledge.  She conducts walking tours of the spice markets in Istanbul and knows just the perfect places for purchasing spices or to eat out.  At her cooking class, participants are welcomed into a beautiful, almost like an art museum living room for a refreshing traditional iced sour cherry drink before we were asked to go to the kitchen.  Every participant gets a knife and chopping board.  On the day when I attended the cooking class, there were nine of us from different countries.  It was cozy atmosphere and the cooking class was very informal.  We got the recipes only after the cooking class.  Lunch was the same food that we learnt in class and she served a beautiful local wine to go with it.

I would recommend you to attend one of Selin’s cooking classes on the first or second day you are in Istanbul – you can get all your information about Turkey from her and you get a good knowledge about Turkish cuisine too!!  I learnt and tasted Vegetables and Lamb cooked in Earthen pot, Spinach Borek, Carrot in Yoghurt and Tahini Dressing, Zucchini and Cheese Pie and Stuffed Apricots.

Turkish FlavoursApartment 14/3, Vali Konağı.

Caddesi 14, Nişantaşı

Tel:  +90 532 218 06 53

Email:  turkishflavours@gmail.com

Website:  www.turkishflavours.com

Istanbul Culinary Institute

My next port of call was the Istanbul Culinary Institute which is the he first cooking school in Turkey to be run along the lines of the French Culinary Institute in New York or the Culinary Institute of America. The school is spread out over four floors.  One must enter the practice training restaurant Enstitü  and the Enstitü shop before taking the lift up to the school.  This culinary institute is dedicated to promoting Turkish and Mediterranean cuisine locally as well as internationally.  It trains professional chefs for the industry and offers a range of certificate cooking classes as well as hobby cooking classes.  Students in the professional programs get hands on experience at the highly acclaimed practice restaurant Enstitü. 

This place also holds seminars, exhibitions and cooking workshops for amateurs. The school’s cooking classes for amateurs are equally popular especially for the tourists.  These cooking classes last for about 3-4 hours and are taught by various guest instructors.  I attended one such class themed as “Mediterranean”and it was taught by Chef Pamela de Andria. Chef Pamela had finished her Tourism and Hospitality Management degree in Ankara and later had her professional chef training at the Johnson & Wales University.  She has working experience as a chef in a number of five-star hotels and also the celebrated Zuma Restaurant.  Chef Pamela taught us Marjoram Scented Roasted Red Pepper Soup, Seabass Fillet with Orange and Parsley Sauce, Lebanese Style Fattoush Salad, Carrot and Walnut Baked Halva,

Istanbul Culinary Institute

Meşrutiyet Caddesi 59

Tepebaşı, 34437, Istanbul

Tel:  + 212 251 22 14
Email: info@istanbulculinary.com
Website:  www.istanbulculinary.com