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From The Times
March 8, 2008
Foodie at large
Meet the two young Turks who are forging their own culinary empire
Tony Turnbull

When I say I’ve discovered the joys of Turkish food recently, it’s not something I boast of lightly. My wife is of Greek Cypriot descent, and ever since the partitioning of Cyprus in 1974, Turkey – its people, its culture, its food – has been off limits. You don’t marry into a Greek family to start extolling the virtues of a well-made shish kebab, I can tell you.

Then, what do you know, one day her father turns up looking suspiciously tanned and relaxed and announces he’s just had a week in Bodrum. Such nice people, he says. “And the food?” Well, if it’s OK for him, it’s a green card for me.

Turkish food seems to offer a promised land of variety. It’s that old clich� of the country being at the crossroads of the world, I guess, and the different flavours come tumbling on top of one another, from the spices of Asia to the fresh herbs and sweetmeats of the Middle East; the fresh vegetables and olive oils of the Mediterranean to the rich stews and pickles of the Balkans.

The reason Turkey has been able to assimilate such a range of cuisines was the supremacy of the Ottoman Empire, which by the 17th century spanned three continents, all ruled over from the magnificent Topkapi Palace in Istanbul. The palace kitchens consisted of ten domed buildings, and by the 18th century they were said to need nearly 1,400 chefs. Every dish, from imam bayaldi to halva, was assigned to a separate master chef, who in turn would have up to 100 apprentices working under him, spending a lifetime perfecting their single task.

That’s not a luxury brothers Levent and Bulent Hassan have at Kazan, their Ottoman restaurant in the rather more prosaic surroundings of London’s Victoria, yet for the past six years they have been quietly garnering rave reviews from diners. Bloggers on www.london-eating.co.uk give it an unrivalled 9.6 for food. That’s higher than they rate Gordon Ramsay at Royal Hospital Road.

The cooking is nothing like so fancy, of course. Turkish food is at its heart the food of the home, but it is certainly very good. The menu takes in seared tuna rolled in sesame seeds, baby chicken dressed with yoghurt, lemon and chilli, and Sultan’s Delight, a spicy lamb stew served with smoked aubergines. Mezes include everything from b�rek (parcels of filo pastry stuffed with feta cheese and spinach) to kadinbudu k�fte (ladies’ thighs), made of rolled ground lamb and spices.

Levent and Bulent’s grandfather, a potato farmer, came over from Cyprus to earn enough to buy a tractor, and ended up owning a chain of Wimpy bars. When he died in the late Nineties, the brothers knew a change was needed. The Victoria branch was taking just £300 a day. “Back then the only thing people knew about Turkish food was kebab shops,” says Levent, “and it’s much more than that. Done properly it’s fresh, light and healthy – just right for the way people eat nowadays.”

He hopes to put Turkish food on the map in the way Momo has done for Moroccan cuisine. A second Kazan opens later this month in the City, and now he has his sights on the humble kebab. “I want to rekindle the love for the old-style kebab shop, only with wood-burning grills, organic lamb and free-range chicken. We’re going to really upgrade it, because deep down I think everyone loves that food too.

“After all,” he reasons, “ten years ago we didn’t want to know about burgers. Now they’ve gone gourmet. So why not kebabs, too?”

Kazan, 93-94 Wilton Road, London SW1 (020-7233 7100), and 34-36 Houndsditch, EC3 (www.kazan-restaurant.com)

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