Turkish cooking delights
Chef Musa Dağdeviren is on a mission to save culinary traditions
Musa Dağdeviren deftly wraps a mound of seasoned ground meat in a sheath of gossamer caul fat.
This is ferdali, the Turkish chef and restaurateur explains in an episode of Chef’s Table before offering the local name: Perdeli, which means “curtains.”
He pierces the centre of the now lacy parcel before spearing it with a long wooden pole and repeating, stacking one atop the other with whole onions placed at either end to hold the meat in place.
Finally, he rests the loaded pole over embers in a brick oven to cook.
Ferdali is the precursor to a dish now associated with Turkey the world over. One that takes many forms and proportions, and predates, by centuries, the establishment of the republic itself: the kebab.
By delving into its history and cultural context, Dağdeviren highlights the depth of a dish, which in its ubiquity can easily be taken for granted.
Whether a Halifax donair, smothered with its signature sweet sauce, doner kebab banh mi — the popular Hanoi version — or one of France’s favourite late-night snacks, a doner kebab stuffed with french fries, there’s much to learn about the origins of this classic dish that has spurred numerous spinoffs.
Born in Nizip, a city near the Turkish-Syrian border, Dağdeviren started cooking at his mother’s side as a young child and began working at his uncle’s bakery at age five.
For more than 30 years, he has revived vanishing culinary traditions at his Çiya family of restaurants in Istanbul. He publishes the quarterly magazine Yemek ve Kültür (Food and Culture) and runs a publishing house, Çiya Yayinlari, which reprinted the first Ottoman-Turkish cookbook.
Through his season 5 appearance on the Netflix docuseries, Dağdeviren’s unflagging efforts to document and preserve unsung Turkish dishes captured a wider audience. And with his extensively researched new tome, The Turkish Cookbook (Phaidon, 2019), he offers an even greater glimpse at local foodways.
Fieldwork, which laid the foundation for the book’s 550 recipes, is Dağdeviren’s “driving force.”
He has spent decades travelling to villages across Turkey, visiting home kitchens, observing techniques, tools and vessels, and gathering recipes and stories.
“A Turkish proverb goes, ‘The one in the know is not the one who reads, but the one who travels.’ Although I’m a big fan of reading, I really felt what our ancestors meant when I was doing the fieldwork,” he says.
“Immersion is the best way of learning; all your senses are involved and there is deep satisfaction in feeling part of traditions and cultures that have prevailed for centuries.”
Regionality is at the forefront of The Turkish Cookbook. Each recipe begins with its place of origin: In the Aegean Region of Western Turkey, Ekmek Dolmasi (stuffed bread) is a beloved dish during the Muslim holy month of Ramadan (which ends June 4); in the Southeastern Anatolia Region, Tikliye (meatball and chickpea stew) is “the star of iftar tables” (the evening meal that breaks the Ramadan fast); and Kazandibi (burned milk pudding), a popular Ramadan dessert throughout the country, was created in Istanbul kitchens.
“I love discovering that some obscure culinary technique or a lesser-known dish still survives in the home kitchen.
“This happens both in Turkey and in the traditional kitchens of the Turkish diaspora. I discover a dish thanks to it still being made somewhere and document it. I really appreciate this,” says Dağdeviren.
“I am also grateful that slowly but surely the seeds we sow for the revival of Turkish culinary traditions are growing.
“The future looks very bright indeed and this makes all the hard work worthwhile.”
Recipes adapted from The Turkish Cookbook by Musa Dağdeviren (Phaidon)