Istanbul

I forgot to thank Ahmet Buğdaycı and the reporter Selin Özvaci for making me feel like a food celebrity, giving me my 15 minutes of fame, with an unexpected article highlighting my visit cooking with Dilara. Glory added to the surprise and delight in the five day life...

Thank you to Turkey, a land of great food and equally great people! Thank you especially to Dilara and the friends and colleagues she generously shared with me. Most mornings, the staff meandered in between nine or ten, save for one exceptional lady named Kamile. An...

Most of the mornings visiting Dilara in Istanbul, I would enter her restaurant before any of the staff or customers. I'd sit there, lazily looking out on the Bosporus, taking in the passing tankers and small boats. I'm not sure if it was the heat, my vacation, or...

    Under the watchful gaze of Murat the Mezze chef! Excited by my first dinner cooked for Abracadabra, I wanted something with  more verve for the next chance "at bat." Besides, Dilara had my name plastered across the chalkboard stationed outside the entrance.  I...

  My first dinner at Abracadabra was kind of an impromptu sweaty dizzying affair. Fueled by jet lag,  thrown in to the arena with no language skills, I was even more determined to succeed. Being the guest in another chef’s kitchen made me uncomfortable, but my skills...