Stuffing vine leaves at Turkish cooking lesson

Gourmet Istanbul

19 - 23 November 2012

With the recent rapid interest in the cuisine of Turkey, the huge improvement in the wines and the many lures of Istanbul, this is another A&C wine and gourmet first. We stay in a traditional boutique hotel in the heart of the Sultanahmet, the Kensington of Istanbul. Sitting on their roof terrace you can see the nearby Bosphorus, St Sophia, and the Blue Mosque, which are all a very short stroll away. Over the five-day tour we have planned a unique insight into the country, as we always do, via its food culture and its wine.

Istanbul, being partly in the European continent and partly in Asia, is a fascinating city of contrasts. It has a rich and compelling history, and was once the capital of successive Christian and Islamic empires, bequeathing the city with a staggering number of attractions. Sultanahmet, where we stay, is home to Istanbul’s main sightseeing attractions and is a charming area with its beautiful architecture, attractive parks and gardens, and street side cafes. The streets are also mainly traffic free thanks to a new tramline, which makes seeing the city on foot all the more enjoyable. We shall be concentrating on Turkish culinary culture, which at its finest is ranked among the best in the world alongside French and Chinese, with many dishes descended from Ottoman palace cuisine. To introduce this aspect of Turkish cuisine, we dine together on the first evening at one of the best fish restaurants in the city accompanied by some modern style Turkish white wines.

Next morning we’ll stroll to the cookery school nearby, which is where our food exploration really begins. Our host is Dutch, but has lived in Istanbul for many years, and therefore is in the prefect position to help you understand the eastern cooking philosophy in a way that will easily translate into your home entertaining on your return. We have another interesting lesson here on our penultimate afternoon for a second cookery session and our final dinner together.

We spend our morning cooking, learning and chatting together, and then enjoy our dishes over lunch. Dishes may include:

• Yoghurt Soup with Dried Mint
• Lamb stew in tomato sauce on smoky eggplant puree
• Walnut stuffed figs stewed in clove syrup
• Classic stuffed vine leaves in olive oil
• Oven baked hummus with cured beef
• Syrupy sponge cakes with Hazelnuts
• Zucchini pancakes with white cheese and herbs, served with Garlic and Yoghurt

Next morning, we’ll set off for a walking culinary exploration of the city, which will take us from the tourist trail to the lesser-explored market streets. The morning starts with a light traditional Turkish breakfast accompanied by what we are assured is the definitive Turkish coffee – bound to wake us up! Continuing into the Faith district we’ll visit one of the locally most highly rated Turkish Delight confectioners, where this exotic rose scented sweet has been made by the same family for the past four generations. The gourmet trail continues with a shop where traditional desserts are made. We also visit a secret tea garden. We are rewarded at the end of our morning’s hard work with a lunch of pit-roasted lamb prepared in a proudly run family restaurant next to the Byzantine aqueducts.

With time for you to rest, we then meet up early evening with our hosts from the Turkish Wine Bureau, who are eager to show us the best wines that they are now producing, in what vies with our friends in Georgia to lay claim to the world’s oldest wine producing country.

Next morning, a local guide will take those who would like to go to the souk, or you have plenty of time to explore your own personal interests. If you would like us to pre-arrange a guide for you to any of the sites that are of particularly interest to you, we will be pleased to do this in advance (additional cost applicable).

We will, in any case, steer you in the direction of the Museum of Turkish and Islamic Art (which is immediately next door to our hotel and so a good one to leave until the last morning) and the Mosaic Museum to see many early examples of tiles and carpets whose designs still look so fresh now.