Few would
disagree that Ciya Sofrasi is one of the most celebrated restaurants in Turkey,
especially in international food circles. Most recently, the restaurant and its
chef, Musa Dagdeviren, were covered very favorably in The New Yorker and the Financial
Times. The restaurant is located in Kadikoy district in Istanbul and one needs
to take a 20 minute ferry ride from Eminonu, in Old City, to get there.
Chef
Dagdeviren travels around the country researching regional peasant home cooking
and recreating some of those dishes in his restaurant. He’s also a regular
attendee to many Culinary Institute of America (CIA) events in the States,
highlighting Turkish and Anatolian cuisine. With his wife, Zeynep, they publish
a quarterly magazine called Food and Culture which includes essays regarding
the history and culture about the region’s rich and less documented cuisine. In
each issue, chef Dagdeviren brings to life seven unforgotten dishes from the
region by providing their recipes in the magazine.
