Layers of History, Layers of Taste: Exploring Gaziantep | Cities at the Table

Description

Today, we're heading to the southeastern corner of Türkiye, to Gaziantep, where every street whispers a recipe, and every dish tells a centuries-old tale.

In this episode, Ece Akdemir, Foreign Affairs Expert at Gaziantep Metropolitan Municipality will share about the traditions, the ingredients, and the passionate people who make up this city’s gastronomic heritage.

Whether you're a city leader or a food lover, join us at the table🍴

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About the Food Capitals by Délice Network

The Food Capitals is the international network of cities committed to using food and gastronomy as powerful tools for economic and sustainable urban development, cultural identity, urban well-being, and city attractiveness.

Founded by Lyon in 2007, this non-profit organisation gathers cities, working together on food culture, food sector, food policies, and food scene development. Through annual gatherings, study tours, collaborative projects and year-round dialogue, the network fosters a global community dedicated to learning, sharing, and connecting through food.

www.thefoodcapitals.com

About Gaziantep :
Gaziantep is one of Türkiye's most historic yet fastest-growing cities, home to over two million people and a vibrant metropolitan life. Positioned at the crossroads of ancient trade routes, the city blends deep cultural heritage with modern innovation and industry. Recognized by UNESCO for its exceptional cuisine, and a member of The Food Capitals, Gaziantep stands as Türkiye's culinary capital, celebrated worldwide for its rich flavors and strong local food culture. With its commitment to sustainability, creative development, and resilient urban growth, Gaziantep is a dynamic green city where tradition and forward-looking progress thrive together.

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Transcription

Speaker #0
Bon appétit! Smakli kaiten!
Speaker #1
Afiyet olsun! Smakli mol fit! Enjoy your meal! Smach negaw!
Speaker #0
Bon appétit!
Speaker #1
Saar wakahalwa! Bon appétit!
Speaker #0
Salmo krestimna!
Speaker #1
Hello and welcome to Cities at the Table, the podcast that dives into the heart of urban food systems around the world. I'm Jessica Ferre, Executive Director of the Food Capitals by Dailies Network.
Speaker #0
I am Felipe Garcia. President of the Board and CEO of BC Tucson. In each episode, we explore how cities are tackling food challenges and reinventing astronomy.
Speaker #1
From vibrant culinary scenes to cutting-edge food policies, we bring you stories from global food capitals and their inspiring leaders driving change.
Speaker #0
Whether you're a city leader or a food lover, join us at the table.
Speaker #1
Today, we're heading to the southeastern corner of Turkey to Gaziantep, where every street whispers a recipe and every dish tells a centuries-old tale. In this episode, Ece Akdemir, foreign affairs expert in the metropolitan municipality of Gaziantep, will share about the traditions, the ingredients, and the passionate people who make up the city's gastronomic heritage.
Speaker #2
My name is Ece and I live in Gaziantep, Turkey. And I work as a foreign affairs expert in Gaziantep Metropolitan Municipality. And my role is to just keep up with the foreign relations and bring new ideas what we can do all together to promote what we're doing internationally and to exchange practical information in different countries. What makes me so into gastronomy is to just, you know, I was grown in Gaziantep, which is my hometown, and I know how they do all the recipes and I mostly know every region of food. And when I was a child, I used to eat this traditional meal, which we called "yuvarlama". And I remember that it is special to the city because it's been only cooked in the Aid time, actually they started to do this before one month earlier than the "Aid" actually because you need to prepare these meatballs with rice and you mix it and you need to do them as small small balls shaped and you freeze them when it's "Aid" time in the morning as even as a breakfast you eat it and I remember that I always wait for the "Aid" time each year to just eat that special dish But now in the city you can find it everywhere. But when I was a child I had no idea that we can eat it in every time of the year. I thought that we need to wait for the "Aid" time so that I can have the special meal. Gaziantep is really one of the biggest cities of Turkey and In there we are now more than 2.5 million people are living together. And maybe you know, of course you know, it's on the Syria border. It's close to the border of Syria. And we had a lot of refugees previously of the years. And now, thank God, they are going back to their safe homes. And we're really happy about it because we know that we host them pretty well. And we know that they're healthy, they're better. and there in the safe place now and most of the other people are used to scare that because it's too close to the border and when there was a war which was just is a big problem for the city but i should say that please do not scare to come into the city and when you come to the city you will see a really green city when you go there you will see each layers of the history because we have One of the biggest, I think third biggest mosaic museum of the world. And you can see ancient eras in different parts, in different districts of our city. And Gaziantep is on the secret, so it was like a passageway. So there's a lot of inns in the city. Now the inns are turned into really luxurious good restaurants which are serving really good delicious foods. In the city, in Gaziantep, you will see each corner a restaurant, a place in every street to eat kebabs especially. You will just find the way by just smelling. For real, you can find it. Gaziantep is local products. It's just pistachio everywhere. In kebabs, in desserts, in almost every dish we use pistachio. Even we have a special coffee called pistachio coffee. In Turkish it's "menengiç kahvesi". And it's just everywhere and we are so proud of it. Because we know that it is delicious. And we have different kinds of pistachios. For example, the first harvest of the pistachio is used for dish. The other harvest part is used for other things like kebabs or etc. For to just eat as a nut, maybe. And pistachio is like a really, really the most important product that we have in the city. We also put pistachios in kebabs. But it's delicious, for real. You need to taste it. It really gives a really slight difference, and it really tastes good. And you will say, how can a pistachio go with a kebab? It's just, you should taste it. Come and taste it, that's all. So Gaziantep is also a really good place for the vegetarians as well, because the sun feeds the city, so we dry our vegetables under the sun and we believe the taste of the food comes from the sun. And when we have these dried vegetables, especially in winter times, we make rice stuffed vegetables. It's called dolma in Turkish and it is actually one of the other famous foods that we have. It's so vegetarian and you can eat it almost in every place in the city. And it's really delicious food to be eaten. And also in summer times, you can find the cold version of this dolmas. And it's easy, easy, easy to eat and easy to go with. So people, as I said, should come and taste this food and be really okay with being vegetarian as well. Because there's a lot of options that they can choose. In the city, in Gaziantep, it's like a tradition passing down to the youngest. And when a restaurant owner, a chef, is just too old, it is passed down to the son. And son teaches it to the son of itself. And it just goes this every time. For example, it is really hard to find a Katmar chef. Katmar is a special dessert. in the city and it is really hard to do the dough of this dessert because you need to make it so thin that someone can read a newspaper behind it. It takes years to learn how to do it that tiny, that thin and it's also a work that passed down from father to son.
Speaker #1
Gaziantep's culinary heritage is delicious and also central to the city's identity and traditions. Not only is Gaziantep part of the Food Capitals Network, but the city is also included on UNESCO's Creative Cities of Gastronomy list. It's enhancing its initiatives in this area, including the Culinary Arts Center and an agricultural school.
Speaker #2
2017. We received the UNESCO designation as a creative city and the designation of Gaziantep by UNESCO was a really big thing in the city because now we are pretty sure that we are the gastronomy city and now the whole world gets the chance to know about the city. And we have a art center. It's a really special academy which has been established after we received the UNESCO designation and the reason why we established this center is to promote and preserve the originals, the authentic recipes itself actually and now we are giving some trainings mainly focusing on the original recipes and how to cook them to pass it down to the generations In the city we also have an agricultural school and it is run by the agricultural department of the municipality. And the main goal of this agricultural school is to provide education on farming, especially for the women and for the refugee women as well, so that they can learn how to harvest, they can learn how to plant and they get the chance to sell their own products.
Speaker #1
Beyond its global positioning and educational aspects, Gaziantep is committed to promoting its unique culinary traditions through a food festival, which is an important topic here at the food capitals. Gastron Antep in the city is an annual festival that showcases unique Turkish cuisine.
Speaker #2
Gaziantep Gastronomy Festival is actually really short to say Gastro Antep and it is the festival that we do each year on September. First or second week of September we usually do that. When you enter the festival park you will see all the Locals have their own spaces to sell and show their own products. And you could just simply find whatever you want in Gaziantep, actually. If you are looking for pistachio, yeah, there will be pistachio. If you're looking for a special spice to our city, like pepper, red pepper, you will find it in there. And if you're looking for kebabs, of course you're going to find it in there, too. If you are looking for other dishes like You know baklava, the best. You can find it in everywhere. It's like a food show while you're walking. Not just only Gaziantep food. It depends if there's Izmir food, Hatay food. You can taste almost every different cities of Turkey. And you will have concerts. You will have the best chefs of the city to show you in really huge, big pots. how to cook something yeah that's just what you're gonna have and and experience in there not only the locals or not only the national people but also for the foreign tourists as well because in city especially in municipality we are trying to to bring foreign people to see and and When they come and visit the city and what they see is important because they will be promoting us in their own cities, in other cities as well. So I think that's one of the important parts. Food as the superpower to promote creativity.
Speaker #1
Goodbye, everyone. I await you in the city in Gaziantep.