Читать книгу Sultan's Kitchen - Ozcan Ozan - Страница 5

PREFACE

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AS A CHILD GROWING UP ON THE AEGEAN SEA, I was naturally more interested in the business of childhood than in appreciating my surroundings. Now, however, reflecting back as an adult living in another country, I am very appreciative of the myriad Aegean influences that shaped my early years and especially thankful for ones that fostered my passion for good food.

İzmir, the city where I was born and raised, is ancient Smyrna. Greek and Roman ruins that are mostly taken for granted by the residents are dotted throughout the city. Similarly, the grandeur of the Ottoman Empire left its mark on the city's art and architecture, on the lifestyle of its people, and on its cuisine.

Turkish cuisine ranks as one of the three great world cuisines (along with French and Chinese) and has a long and complex history. The result has been the development of a varied array of dishes with flavors that are both familiar and surprising to the Western palate. Despite its ancient roots, the Turkish diet is a very healthy one, even by today's standards, with its emphasis on eating a variety of foods and using fresh ingredients.

The typical Aegean arrangement of daily shopping at small specialty groceries and shops creates a lot of noisy, colorful, and aromatic hustle and bustle that is the fabric of day-to-day life. Sharing evening meals is at the core of Turkish family life. Countless seaside and outdoor cafes and restaurants provide backdrops for the enjoyment of food, drink and conversation. So, as I look back with some nostalgia, I think that the natural beauty of the region, the classical and Ottoman aesthetics, the panoramic presence of food, and food's critical role in family and society have all contributed to my becoming a chef by profession.

As is true for many professional chefs, my first teacher was my mother. I was raised modestly and traditionally, and we lived simply on my father's wages and my mother's domesticity. Having come to İzmir from a nearby village, my mother brought rural, traditional recipes to the city along with her incomparable standards for freshness and variety and respect for food. She often took me with her on shopping expeditions (sometimes lasting for hours) as she inspected and chose vegetables, fruits, cheeses, olives, grains, edible wild greens, herbs, spices, poultry, and fish. Returning home, my mother would get to work in the kitchen, spending long hours preparing family meals of stuffed vegetables cooked with olive oil, böreks (savory pastries), vegetable stews cooked with meat, hearty soups, pilafs, many different eggplant dishes (especially in summer), and puddings. Eventually, I was sent alone to do some shopping (flattered that she could trust my selections!), and my interest in cooking grew into summer jobs at resort hotels on the Aegean. I recall my teenage fascination with the inner workings of those large kitchens, taking great pleasure in the many facets of food preparation and the staff camaraderie.

Later I went to Europe and cooked for six years, then returned to İzmir and cooked for another four. When I arrived in Boston in the early 1980s, the city was becoming receptive to international cuisines, and health consciousness was becoming a major restaurant consideration. I acquired space in Boston's Financial District and opened Sultan's Kitchen, specializing in Turkish cuisine. Sultan's Kitchen was not only the first Turkish restaurant in Boston; it was also one of the first open-kitchen restaurants in the city, in keeping with typical Aegean restaurant design.

Sultan's Kitchen has been in operation for sixteen years, and my goals have not wavered over time. I enjoy introducing Turkish cuisine to new customers, exposing them to bits of Turkish culture through music and decor, and, most important, preserving the high standards and authenticity of Turkish cuisine that I experienced as a child. The recipes presented in this book have all appeared on my restaurant's menu at one time or another. I am always varying the menu according to what is plentiful in the market, but what I hope never varies is the quality and presentation I have worked to preserve and share in Boston.

By way of this cookbook, I invite people who have never tasted Turkish food to enjoy this unique and delicious cuisine. And I hope it will make you agree with me that eating is, after all, one of life's greatest pleasures.