Why Fatih Tutak’s Turk is Istanbul’s trendiest restaurant

At Istanbul restaurant Turk, Turkey’s first and only to have been awarded two Michelin stars, diners are introduced to the breadth and depth of Turkish cuisine. The country’s rich culinary heritage, diverse landscapes and cornucopia of ingredients inform creative dishes, which interpret this cultural and geographic influence through a modern lens.

The restaurant’s opening was something of a homecoming for chef Fatih Tutak. After a stint cooking in Bangkok, he returned to Turkey in 2019, embarking on a fresh discovery of his country and its cuisine, before launching his own establishment, Turk. “I had to find my own way of expressing myself and my home country’s food,” Tutak says.

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The chef’s earliest influence was his mother’s cooking, which inspired him to attend culinary college in the town of Mengen before honing his skills via apprenticeships at hotels and restaurants across Turkey. Over the following years, Tutak worked his way around the kitchens of renowned restaurants — including three-Michelin-starred Nihonryori RyuGin in Tokyo and Noma in Copenhagen, as well as other establishments in Beijing, Singapore and Hong Kong.

In 2015, he moved to Bangkok to open The Dining Room of The House on Sathorn. It was here, for a private client, that he first created his now signature dish, ‘From My Mom’ — a reinterpretation of traditional Turkish manti dumplings. The response of the client (who was also from Turkey) sparked a realisation of how important it was for Tutak to further explore his homeland’s food. “I finally realised that I needed to stay true to my own roots while also drawing on my experience from restaurants across the world to create new flavour profiles,” he says.

To deepen his knowledge of Turkey’s local ingredients and regional cuisines, Tutak travelled across more than 2,500 miles of the country. “To create something meaningful, something from the heart, I had to go back where I come from, because that’s me, and that’s why Turk has been successful,” he explains. “I had to travel and learn even more about my roots, the food culture and history.”

Turkish gastronomy has been shaped by influences from the Ottoman and Seljak empires, as well as from the Mediterranean, Balkans, Middle East, Central Asia and Eastern Europe. “Turkish cuisine is very multicultural, with so many different people living across the country’s many regions. When we create the menu, we try to take something from each culture, to represent their recipes along with the ingredients found in each area,” Tutak says. He describes how Anatolia brings in Ottoman influence through spice and specialities like dolma (stuffed vine leaves), while the Black Sea region incorporates an abundance of fish, and the southern part of the country is celebrated for using meat such as lamb in kebabs and meze dishes. He enthuses about olive trees growing in Turkey’s west, while seafood, along with a vibrancy of fresh vegetables, flourishes along the Aegean and Mediterranean coastlines.

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Every element of Turk reflects Tutak’s values and experience. Drawing inspiration from his time in Scandinavia and Japan, he injected a ‘Japandi’ design aesthetic into the interiors through clean lines, wood and stone. Yet, its Turkish identity shines through in details such as a marble floor featuring Ottoman stars, decorative use of the original Turkish alphabet and works by Turkish artists.

The chef has brought what he calls “three acts” into the dining experience. Upon arriving in the restaurant courtyard, diners are presented with a series of small bites, cocktails and Turkish wines before moving to the dining room, where savoury dishes from the micro-seasonal tasting menu are served. For act three, they move into the kitchen, where the team offers insight into the restaurant’s culinary philosophy, with a pit stop at the pastry section for a series of dessert plates. Back in the dining room, guests are shown the menu for the first time so they can see what they’ve just eaten.

Meals at Turk change with the seasons, but typically begin with acidic flavours before transitioning to bolder, stronger smokiness, fermentation and umami-based flavour profiles, says Tutak. Together, dishes fuse the old and new, bringing in food memories, street-food elements and even references to arts and crafts — the colourful presentation of a fish dish, for example, is inspired by Japanese artist Yayoi Kusama.

The menu has also included squid shish kebab, featuring squid from the northwestern port city of Çannakale, with a porcini sauce and fermented caper leaf and suçuk butter. Another dish features dry-aged lamb chop from Trakya, the region in which Istanbul is located, with matsutake mushroom tempura and a kokoreç sauce made with sweetbreads, cumin, kil biber peppers and crispy Denizli pepper. A butter-honey course, meanwhile, features wood-fired sourdough and three kinds of butter from the Trabzon region, including one made from buffalo milk, along with organic honey from Erzincan and olive oil produced in Ayvalık from the pollen of flowers grown at high altitudes.

However, the restaurant’s “most iconic dish”, according to Tutak, is the mussel dolma. It’s “an expression of Turkish street food”: rice-stuffed mussels, spiced with cinnamon, allspice, cumin and black pepper and served with a beer mayonnaise. Even the ‘shells’ are edible, as they’re crafted from a fruit-leather-like substance made of squid ink, tamarind, currants and caramelised onion. “It’s a playful version of something very traditional,” he says.

The chef’s ultimate aim is to show how diverse Turkish gastronomy can be. “The image of Turkish cuisine is very limited across the world,” he says. “We want to educate guests to show them our vibrancy and unique ingredients. They’re always surprised by the diversity. It’s the first time they’ve seen Turkish cuisine presented in this way.”

In the future, Tutak hopes to become a mentor to the new generation of Turkish chefs and, potentially, create a foundation to inspire creativity and teach them about the country’s culinary history. “I’m a good student, always learning from those I meet as I travel around the country,” he says. “You need to first be a good student before becoming a good teacher.”