MEHMET AKSEL
It has been very very very busy and tiring for me recently.
Since I was a kid, I’ve always said that I love those busy, tiring days, but I guess it has been a bit too much this time.
For the past two months, each week has been split between two different countries, and the thoughts that keep me busy, the projects I’ve been working on, and the time difference combined have drained me both mentally and physically.
To be honest, last week, I woke up one morning, and I hadn’t opened my eyes yet, and for a split second I couldn’t remember which country I was in.
Being separated from one’s family, albeit intermittently, is another challenge.
It is such a nice thing to have a home to come back to in the evening, a family to see, a wife and children to hug, once the busy daytime routine is finished (since one’s mind doesn’t suddenly stop when one goes home).
Am I tired? Yes.
Am I complaining? No.
Should I get some rest? Possibly, yes.
I can’t even rest on the plane. The plane takes off, and on these 3-4 hour flights, I first eat and then start writing my article.
It’s been a while now and I’ve gotten used to writing on the plane; perhaps it’s even safe to say that inspiration hits on flights and I quite like that.
But I couldn’t write last week, or rather I didn’t. Because I wanted to watch the highly recommended and much talked about Netflix series titled, Club.
I’ll admit, I’ve never watched a Turkish series in my life (honestly, Turkish or foreign, I don’t have much time these days to watch any TV). There are a few films by Cem Yılmaz, Ata Demirer and Yılmaz Erdoğan that I watched in the past, and am fond of, and there is Aile Arasında (Among the Family), amongst those that have made an impression on me.
I watched Club with a special interest because my wife is Jewish.
I can shortly say that the series has a softer flow than the productions that I am used to watching (to clear my head) on the television. The acting was generally quite good (as far as I understand) but I especially found Gökçe Bahadır very realistic – congratulations.
As someone who pays attention to Jewish traditions (since I am already living among them) even in foreign TV series, I found the series to be very accurate. In fact, I was elated to see the traditions that I was so accustomed to and respected reach wider masses (and of course today’s younger generation) with such grace.
I really loved the series because it wasn’t interested in showing the ‘extreme lives’ (for both sides) in terms of the Jewish community, which I encounter a lot, especially in foreign productions, and also because it portrayed the story with truth, clarity and freshness that I have never seen before in Turkish productions (and unfortunately in daily life).
I am writing these thoughts without touching on the issues of taxes, Aşkale and September. I neither have the knowledge nor the audacity for that. But I have an Istanbul Telephone Directory from the 1940s in my collection, and it honestly hurts to see that more than half of the people there are non-Muslims.
I hope we get smarter.
In the midst of my busy schedule, I had wonderful chats over the past couple of weeks, some with friends, and some with colleagues.
Let me share a few…
Hülya Ekşigil stopped by. She already had an errand to run which brought her to MSA, so we had the opportunity to have a nice meal and a lovely chat…
When the topic came to the culinary profession, we talked about the success of passionate and curious students, and those who want to become cooks because it is fashionable (she said that no one wants to be a ‘cook’ anyway, they all want to be ‘chefs’), because the grass is greener on the other side.
Then we gossiped about our graduates.
We talked about Tuğhan Serbuğ; he is from the MSA class of 2011, and is now head of Novikov Istanbul. He first worked at Zuma New York, as an executive sous chef, and then at Bistro Moderne, the restaurant of world-renowned chef Daniel Boulud. I said, “He was working in New York for the past 10 years, and now he deservedly became the head chef of Novikov Istanbul.”
We talked about Bora Korkmaz, another 2011 MSA graduate. We talked about how he went to London after school, worked at the Michelin-starred Jason Atherton restaurant there before moving to Doha to work at Jean Georges’ Spice Market. Bora, who worked at Ristorante Italia di Massimo Bottura in Istanbul for a period after Doha, is now the second head of the kitchen at Nobu Istanbul. Well done.
And what about our 2013 graduate, Mehmet Kabayuka? Mehmet stayed in house after his education, and worked at MSA’s Restaurant at the Sakıp Sabancı Museum. Afterwards, he worked at Yeni Lokanta and Konsolos Istanbul. He then moved to New York to head a new modern Turkish restaurant, and has been managing the kitchen of Leyla restaurant in New York for the past four years. Isn’t it great?
There are dozens more, but we talked about these three that day; their efforts, their blood, sweat and tears, their dreams, their passions, and their successes.
Hülya Ekşigil is a woman whose knowledge and stance I respect very much.
My friend Orhan Göksal stopped by. He does surprise visits like that, and makes my day better, plants new ideas in my head and takes off.
I don’t know how the topic came up but our conversation started with Elon Musk and SpaceX, and ended up on visits to Mars. Let me write a few sentences on that, in case it might interest you to think about it…
We talked about how the sapiens (or should I say the ‘pioneers’) first went to Egypt, and then to Anatolia, from Anatolia to Europe, from Europe to America, from America’s east to its west, and when that was full, how they set their sights finally on Mars.
Imagine the various conditions of the various periods, and how the respective dreams and promises of each departure differed.
We talked about the unknowns that lied before the pioneers.
Then the subject came to money.
We talked about the rich and the poor.
We talked at length about the fact that the most valuable things are to produce, to give, to miss, and to fall down and to rise up.
We talked about health, and how life is getting longer and longer. We talked about how maybe one of the promises to be made to pioneers who will go to Mars would be to live for 200-250 years.
I’m glad he stopped by.
Last week, Sitare and I were in Moscow; we sat down and talked with Zeynep Dündar, our partner in Russia.
A bit of work, and a bit of fun – she took us to great restaurants, and I can say that life in Moscow is 95 percent back to normal. Even the number of vaccine spots on every street has decreased.
Every time we go, Zeynep shows us a different Moscow life than we would see as tourists, and thanks to her, we spend our days just like locals.
We observe the food and drink habits of the city as well as the standards of the service sector, we are also working on these.
In Moscow, there is a ‘very very good restaurants’ category, and in my opinion these can be categorized in two separate segments.
First one of them is the segment of extra expensive restaurants that offer added ambiance value such as decoration, shows, demos in addition to offering good food (I guess we would prefer these only once every three or five months or for special occasions).
The other segment is the restaurants that one can go to even a few times a month, and come back again and again because they offer the comfort, the food standard and the warmth that one is accustomed to.
My aim is not to share what I ate, drank or talked about, but instead to emphasize that life goes on and that we should not miss out.
Yes, both Turkey and the world are going through difficult times, and yes, economies and countries are faltering after the pandemic (perhaps us, somewhat more).
But no matter what, life goes on. That’s why we should all mind our own business, remember that our lives go on, and we should embrace and continue whatever work we do with passion and enthusiasm.
I believe that those who do not lose hope and do not shut themselves off will get through these days more quickly and with greater ease. And I work hard. So should you.
Author’s advice
Let’s me tell you about a fantastic restaurant from Turkey.
November 20th is my birthday.
The other day, my partner Sitare and our lawyer – our dear friend – Kerim Pelister invited me to a wonderful restaurant.
It was my first time at ‘Alaf’. It is in Kuruçeşme. I liked it very very very very much. The chef is Murat Deniz Temel.
As soon as I got home, I scanned their website, and it says, ‘a nomadic restaurant that feeds from its roots,’ and, ‘We invite you to the table of nomads, to the flavors fresh out of the wood oven, and to rekindle your childhood memories’.
Did it rekindle my memories? Yes, indeed.
And it was rightfully jam-packed.
