Istanbul Michelin chef builds kitchen in quake-hit Turkish region to help people in need

ISTANBUL

Türkiye’s first Michelin 2-star chef has set up a kitchen in an area of the country hit hard by two major earthquakes early this week.

“Dear my chef friends, food lovers all around the world who are sporting gastronomy and chefs, Rene Redzepi, Jose Andres and David Chang, everyone, this is an emergency call,” Istanbul chef Fatih Tutak said in a video message on social media on Thursday.

“We are in the southern part of Turkey. And we are building a kitchen and calling many chefs around Turkey. We need your help. This is a very serious situation. It's like an apocalypse,” he added. “So I'm not sure if you are aware of how big and how terrible we are in the situation right now. So please share this with everyone.”

On Friday, Tutak posted a video of himself in front of the makeshift kitchen, holding up a Turkish flag.

Tutak temporarily closed his Istanbul restaurant and came to Iskenderun in Hatay, Türkiye’s southernmost province, to open a kitchen to help people in need following the quakes.

Last October, Tutak received the city’s first two Michelin stars for his restaurant, located in Istanbul’s historic Sisli district, “for its exceptional cuisine” and “typically Turkish flavors, which are cleverly reinterpreted by chef Fatih Tutak.”

The magnitude 7.7 and 7.6 earthquakes, centered in the Kahramanmaras province, affected more than 13 million people across 10 provinces, also including Adana, Adiyaman, Diyarbakir, Gaziantep, Hatay, Kilis, Malatya, Osmaniye and Sanliurfa.

Several countries in the region, including Syria and Lebanon, also felt the strong tremors that struck Türkiye in the space of fewer than 10 hours.