Population Exchange and their Culinary Cultures

To commemorate the 93rd anniversary of the Turkish and Greek population exchange, TCF-Culinary Arts Center and NAR Restaurant hosted a seminar and dinner event that featured the culinary cultures of the immigrants from Crete and Balkans. Mr. Nedim Atilla, the speaker for the evening, started the seminar explaining the brief history of the population exchange and the forced migration. All the Orthodox community who lives within the borders of Turkey (except for the islands of Gökçeada and Bozcaada) and all the Muslims who live within the borders of Greece (except for the small area located at the east of the Karaçay  river) were forced to move out of their homelands. This is one of the saddest events of the history that caused misery and hardship for masses.

 Mr. Atilla continued to talk about the culinary culture and shared interesting stories related to food and the traditions. One of the interesting stories was about the cracker that was served to the guests before the seminar:

“A cracker made out of rye and barley, gets a coating of a soft spreadable cheese and olive oil, topped with fresh red peppers or red pepper flakes. This simple dish is very important to Cretans and represents their fondness for their freedom and homelands.  The famous saying -rather that eating sugar and getting orders in foreing lands, we’d rather stay at home and eat simple cracker with olive oil- of the Cretans represent the importance they give to their freedom.”

After the seminar the guests enjoyed a special feast prepared by chefs of NAR Restaurant and listened to the wonderful Turkish and Greek melodies performed by the famous band Cafe Aman.  

23 January 2016 

The lecture video is in Turkish.