Food History of Istanbul

Key eras

Byzantine Constantinople, 4th to 15th century

As capital of the eastern Roman empire, the city ate spice-traded Mediterranean cooking: olive oil, garum fish sauce, wheat porridge, walnuts and the long pickling traditions that survived into Ottoman cooking. Trade with Genoa and Venice brought new vegetables and the early sugar economy.

Ottoman palace kitchens, 1453 to 1922

After the Ottoman conquest, Topkapı Palace ran one of the largest professional kitchens in Europe, with dedicated cooks for each dish category. Imperial recipes for dolma, hünkar beğendi, courgette-flower fritters and dozens of Anatolian regional dishes are still cooked at Matbah in Sultanahmet and Pandeli above the Spice Bazaar today, drawn from Topkapı archive sources.

Republican Istanbul, 1923 onwards

After 1923 the city lost its Greek, Armenian and Jewish food entrepreneurs to emigration; the meyhane and muhallebici survived but the Greek-owned wine houses thinned. Tarihi Sultanahmet Köftecisi (1920) and Karaköy Güllüoğlu (1949) became the new Republican-era benchmarks.

New Anatolian Kitchen, 2010s to today

From around 2010 a chef-led movement reshaped fine dining in Istanbul. Mehmet Gürs at Mikla, Maksut Aşkar at Neolokal and Civan Er at Yeni Lokanta led the New Anatolian Kitchen, sourcing forgotten ingredients from local producers and putting Turkey on the World's 50 Best and Michelin maps.

Immigrant influences

• Greek (Rum) Istanbulites: The meyhane culture itself, ouzo-and-rakı tradition, lakerda cured bonito, and the Greek-owned wine houses like Pano on Hamalbaşı Caddesi.
• Armenian Istanbulites: Topik, the Armenian chickpea-and-onion mezze; tarama paste; the pastırma-and-egg breakfast tradition; and many of Beyoğlu's pre-Republic bakeries and patisseries.
• Sephardic Jewish community: Boyoz pastry from Smyrna, pichelo flatbread, kosher patisseries like Kurtuluş Pastanesi, and the long-running pickle-and-preserve tradition centred on Kurtuluş, the old Tatavla.
• Gaziantep and southeastern Anatolian arrivals: The 1960s-onwards kebab houses, with Develi (1966) the canonical example; the pistachio baklava and lahmacun tradition; içli köfte and katmer.
• Black Sea (Karadeniz) arrivals: Hamsi pilav and anchovy bread, muhlama cheese fondue, smoky bean stews, and corn-bread; Hayvore in Beyoğlu is the canonical city-side outpost.
• Antakya (Hatay) southerners: Spiced kebabs, hummus, muhammara, kunefe; Antiochia in Beyoğlu translates the regional menu into a single Asmalımescit dining room.

Signature innovations

• The meyhane: a tavern of meze, rakı and slow nights as a public institution
• Turkish coffee as a method, brewed slow in copper cezve over ash
• Lokum (Turkish delight) and the modern Hacı Bekir confectionery, dating to 1777
• Pistachio baklava layered in 40 sheets of hand-rolled phyllo
• Karaköy Güllüoğlu's single-counter baklava model since 1949
• Çiya Sofrası and culinary anthropology, since 1998 reviving regional Anatolian recipes
• The New Anatolian Kitchen, restoring Mikla, Neolokal and Turk Fatih Tutak to the Michelin Guide