Tastes of 500 Years; Sephardic Cuisine

The special dinner organization hosted by NAR Restaurant and the Culinary Arts Center featuring “Tastes of 500 Years; Sephardic Cuisine” took place on the evening of April 18th.  Food culture researcher Nedim Atilla, presented the history of Sephardic Jewish community who have emigrated to the Ottoman lands in 15th Century along with their culinary culture.

 “The culinary culture of Turkish Jewish community has been shaped and prospered based on the lands they have settled. In the Medieval Ages, when they were living on the Iberian peninsula; in the northern part, the culinary culture carried overtones of Roman cuisine, whereas in the southern part it was more Islamic.  For example culinary vocabulary such as; Albondiga (meatballs), Alcachofas (artichokes), Arroz (rice pilaf), Almendres (almonds), Azafran (saffron), Naranjas (citrus) and egg based two sauces such as Agristada (egg and lemon mixture) and Aioli (garlicky mayonnaise) show influences of the Arabic culture on Sephardic cuisine of Turkey.

There are also religious factors that have affected their eating habits. At an initial glance, one can see the differences in the food.  Eating “kosher” is one of the best examples of this difference. The kosher rules stated in the Torah is all based on health regulations, the daily and celebratory meals are all prepared in the light of these regulations. One of the important regulation is not to mix meat and dairy products as stated in the Torah, “do not cook a young goat in its mother’s milk.”

After the seminar the guests enjoyed a feast of Sephardic cuisine prepared for them, and listened to the wonderful guitar tunes of Mr. İshak Eli at NAR Restaurant.

18 April 2015

Lecture video is in Turkish.