After settling into your new home in Istanbul for the week, the elegant Bank Hotel, we’ll meet up for a welcome dinner at a contemporary Turkish restaurant, Serenita. Run by chef Aylin Yazicioglu, the restaurant embodies Turkish tradition with a modern perspective: the perfect first meal for a week all about Istanbul’s role as a historical and modern crossroads. In Aylin’s cozy dining room, we’ll get to know each other and get ready for what the week has in store.

Photo by: Culinary Backstreets

Enjoy a restful morning or take a walk on your own. In the late morning, we’ll meet up with our resident chef, Özlem Warren. She’ll guide you through the Beşiktas market, where fishmongers, greengrocers and specialty food shops fill narrow pedestrian streets. We’ll have a quick bite of one of the city’s favorite döner kebab spots as we shop for the ingredients that will inspire an afternoon of cooking at a private home. The recipes that we make will be drawn from Özlem’s multicultural home region of Antakya, an area recently devastated by earthquakes. We’ll sit down to share a meal of what we make as well as stories around the dinner table.

Photo by: Ozlem Warren

We’ll begin a crash course in the diversity of Turkish culinary tradition with a breakfast composed of ingredients from across Türkiye, from Balkan-influenced böreks to kebabs dusted in Aleppo pepper. Then, we’ll set out for a walking tour of the bustling quarter surrounding the Grand Bazaar, a shopping district that’s a hive of tiny workshops and storefronts. One of the oldest and most expansive market areas in the world, it can be a bewildering maze for the uninitiated, but your guide will give you the tools you need to appreciate it. We’ll get an exclusive visit to the shop of Emir Ali Enç, craftsman of copper cookware used in restaurants and home kitchens around the world. Then, you’ll have time to explore on your own before a hands-on workshop about pide, Türkiye’s famous flatbread. Your teachers are two experts with two different regional approaches to pide: one originating from Central Anatolia and the other from the Black Sea region.

Photo by:  Culinary Backstreets

Somehow, in this megalopolis of 18 million people, a slice of rural life has managed to survive in the most unique historical setting. Between the Byzantine-era walls of the old city—literally in the moats—small farms have existed since Ottoman times. Together with Özlem, we’ll spend the morning with Dursun Bey and Kezban Hanim, farmers who will prepare us a breakfast starring their own produce. Then, we’ll get a taste of history as we tour an off-the-beaten-path Byzantine church now transformed into a mosque. You’ll have free time to visit area monuments that interest you, like the Cisterns, Aya Sofia or Topkapi Palace, or find a cozy spot at a tea garden to relax. In the evening, we’ll be welcomed by the extended family who run the ultimate Istanbul kebab house, Zubeyir Ocakbasi. Expect char-grilled vegetables, tangy yogurt, herby salads and spicy Adana kebab.

Photo by:  Culinary Backstreets

We’ll start our second day of cooking with Özlem at the Beyoğlu district market, where old-time specialty shops abound. Between visits to a spice shop and a tahini producer, we’ll stop by a second-generation vendor Mustafa Bey, who makes içli köfte, or kibbeh, in the style of his southern hometown of Maraş in the Kahramanmaraş region. We’ll head to the kitchen to see how içli köfte are made and sample a fresh one. Then, we return to our cooking headquarters for our second hands-on session with Özlem, featuring recipes from her celebrated cookbook.

Photo by: Ozlem Warren

On this day, we focus on the culinary traditions of Istanbul’s minority communities: the Greek Orthodox population, Armenians with historic roots across Türkiye and Sephardic Jews who arrived here during the Spanish Inquisition. On a tour in Kurtuluş, historically one of Istanbul’s most diverse neighborhoods, we’ll stop into heritage shops that represent each of these communities. We’ll sample Easter bread in a Greek neighborhood club. You’ll try stuffed mussels and topik, an unusual meze with Armenian roots, at a small charcuterie shop that locals frequent. And we’ll have a private, hands-on cooking session with Lian Penso Benbasat, learning about the Sephardic Jewish community’s 500-year history in Türkiye.

Photo by:  Culinary Backstreets

By day, treat yourself to a Turkish hammam experience, shop for a Turkish coffee pot, or join a tour of our favorite mosques and monuments. In the early evening, we will gather for a private cruise of the Bosphorus during aperitif hour; we’ve earned it! With a glass of wine in hand, we’ll cruise past the waterfront summer palaces and historic neighborhoods of the Asian and European sides of the city. On the city’s Asian side, we’ll make our way through the Kadiköy food market, stopping in for a taste of pickles at a 3rd-generation shop and a tasting of pistachios from different regions of Türkiye. Then, we’ll settle in for our farewell dinner at Çiya, the headquarters of chef Musa Deviren’s lifelong quest to document and preserve rural culinary traditions nearly lost due to internal migration. This meal will draw together the lessons you’ve learned over the week about Türkiye’s regions, influences and history.

Photo by:  Culinary Backstreets