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    • Turkish Cuisine Week

    Ancient and Sustainable Turkish Cuisine, Once Again on the World Stage!

    Shaped by more than a thousand years of cultures and traditions, social heritage and stories, Turkish cuisine presents its distinctive and diverse flavours to the world during Turkish Cuisine Week, 21-27 May. In its second year, Turkish Cuisine Week introduces Türkiye's rich gastronomic culture to a broad audience at home and abroad through the representations of the Republic of Türkiye. This important seven-day event features unique recipes from timeless Turkish cuisine while highlighting the sustainability of an age-old culinary tradition where pots have been boiling with the philosophy of zero waste for millennia.

    While the delicious, healthy, traditional and waste-free recipes of sustainable Turkish cuisine will be highlighted with various activities held within the scope of Turkish Cuisine Week, this year’s theme showcases the Aegean flavours, a delicious fusion of history, culture and nature. Events with an Aegean-style menus will be introduced internationally, and original recipes prepared with the geographically marked products of 81 provinces will be introduced domestically.

    Uniting History, Culture and Nature: Aegean Flavours

    A beautiful landscape of green and blue, Türkiye’s Aegean coast attracts attention with its magnificent scenery and deep-rooted history, as well as its healthy food culture. In 2010, UNESCO recognised the Mediterranean Diet as an Intangible Cultural Heritage of Humanity and these coastal regions are famed for vegetables such as artichokes and zucchini blossoms, as well as local herbs and an abundance of seafood. The Aegean region is also known for its centuries-old olive trees and olive oils, the secret of a long life.

    So much so that olive gardens stretch like a route from Çanakkale to Muğla, revealing the region's cultural heritage that expands with olives and olive cultivation. In the region, İzmir and Milas stand out as the two stops of the “The Routes of the Olive Tree”, which is registered by the Council of Europe. The findings in the ancient Klazomenai in Urla, home to the Anatolia’s oldest olive oil workshop, attest to the 2,600-year-old history of olive processing methods that are still used today.

    The Aegean region of Türkiye is an extraordinary destination celebrating the good life with delicious olive oils and surrounding vineyards. In recent years, restaurants opened in the region centre innovative chefs who create culinary miracles while bringing products grown in nearby fields directly to the tables with sustainable production methods.

    The Aegean menu presented at international events within the scope of Turkish Cuisine Week consists of recipes symbolising the abundance of the region, where the healthy, sustainable and Mediterranean-style diet has long been emphasized. Aegean olives and cheeses, tarhana soup, fava bean puree, mücver (zucchini fritters), green beans braised in olive oil, stuffed green bell peppers with olive oil, gözleme (flatbread with cheese) and other pastries with herbs, shrimp casserole, İzmir-style meatballs, incir uyutması (milk and dried fig pudding), somata (bitter almond sherbet) and sübye (melon seeds sherbet) are among the options on the menu.

    Turkish Cuisine with Geographical Indications

    The foundations of Türkiye’s sustainable heritage, a delectable combination of unique regional and provincial products and dishes, are the geographically marked, local and qualified foods from 81 provinces.

    In this context, within the framework of Turkish Cuisine Week, menus that include Türkiye’s products with geographical indications will also be offered at domestic events. The geographically marked products from different regions and provinces around Türkiye illustrate the ecologically sustainable flavour tradition through natural production methods and quality.

    Türkiye has a total of 1,555 products registered by the Turkish Patent Institute, of which 1,163 products have Mahreç (protected geographic indication) signs, 386 products have Origin signs, and six products are Traditional. The country also has 21 products registered by the European Union (EU) Commission, including the Gaziantep baklava, the Aydın Kestanesi (chestnut) and Aydın inciri (fig), the Bayramiç beyazı (a type of nectarine), the Malatya kayısısı (apricot), the Milas zeytinyağı (olive oil), the Taşköprü sarımsağı (garlic), the Giresun tombul fındığı (fat hazelnut), the Antakya künefesi, the Suruç narı (pomegranate), the Çağlayancerit cevizi (walnut), the Gemlik zeytini (olive), Edremit zeytinyağı (olive oil) and the Edremit Körfezi yeşil çizik zeytini (Edremit Gulf green (scratched olive), Milas zeytinyağı (olive oil), the Ayaş domatesi (tomato), the Maraş tarhanası (tarhana), Ezine peyniri (cheese), the Safranbolu safranı (saffron), the Aydın Memecik zeytinyağı (olive oil) and the Araban sarımsağı (garlic). Turkish cuisine, a wonderful gastronomic tradition embracing high quality, natural ingredients with different food preservation and cooking techniques, also offers numerous options for vegetarian and vegan diets.