Culinary repertoire is influenced by cultural values, religious structure, socio-economical levels as well as a country’s climate and geography. The Sephardim expelled from the Iberian Peninsula in 1492 settled down in the Ottoman Empire and brought with themselves their food culture formed by the Spanish heritage. As culinary influence flows two ways, the Sephardim were affected from the Turkish-Ottoman cuisine and they, in return, contributed to their local neighbours. They become part of the civilisation in the Turkish geography where histories intersect.
The Sephardim continue to keep alive their home-style cooking of simple, colourful plates under the common influence of natural and healthy Mediterranean geography and complying with the kashrut rules.
The purpose of this paper is to analyze the evolution of the Turkish Sephardic cuisine. After the terminology of Sephardic, Sephardim and kashrut, the history of the Sephardic Jews in Turkey will be discussed. The basis of the cuisine and the methods of how food is prepared will be explained. Different specialities of various regions of Turkey will be analysed. Then, we will see how holidays and special days, when symbolic food is always in honour, prove explicitly that food symbolizes tradition and what man eats is closely linked to what he thinks and feels. We will compare the Sephardic and Ottoman cuisines to describe the reciprocal influence and how both cuisines enthusiastically embraced each other’s culture.
We will conclude by analyzing how this community cuisine has survived for more than five centuries and suggest some directions for the study of how it can continue to live and prosper as an expression of an ethnic group identity in today’s world of globalisation.
The Sephardim continue to keep alive their home-style cooking of simple, colourful plates under the common influence of natural and healthy Mediterranean geography and complying with the kashrut rules.
The purpose of this paper is to analyze the evolution of the Turkish Sephardic cuisine. After the terminology of Sephardic, Sephardim and kashrut, the history of the Sephardic Jews in Turkey will be discussed. The basis of the cuisine and the methods of how food is prepared will be explained. Different specialities of various regions of Turkey will be analysed. Then, we will see how holidays and special days, when symbolic food is always in honour, prove explicitly that food symbolizes tradition and what man eats is closely linked to what he thinks and feels. We will compare the Sephardic and Ottoman cuisines to describe the reciprocal influence and how both cuisines enthusiastically embraced each other’s culture.
We will conclude by analyzing how this community cuisine has survived for more than five centuries and suggest some directions for the study of how it can continue to live and prosper as an expression of an ethnic group identity in today’s world of globalisation.
Sibel Cuniman Pinto
Istanbul, Turkey
now living in Paris, France
