Merhaba dear All,
I hope you are all well. Apologies for a bit of silence from my end; it’s been a very busy few months with teaching Turkish cookery in England, Istanbul and in Amman – Jordan, as well as being a part of exciting events like the Taste of London, thanks to Turkish Tourism Board – UK’s kind invitation; it was great to share Turkish cuisine with everyone.
But the main event that kept me busy has been the preparation for my Turkish cookery book. It’s been very exciting and busy getting the content ready and the photo shoots excitement last week all of a sudden made this special project very real. Here I wanted to share a little glimpse of our very exciting and labor of love 5 day photo shoot for my Turkish cookery book. My very special thanks goes to the amazing food photographer dear Sian Irvine, who passionately shot each and every image with a huge expertise, I can’t thank her enough. Over 70 dishes have been lovingly prepared and photographed, with huge thanks to an army of dear friends who helped during the shoots and gave their plates and bowls to be used as props. A labor of love in making but so worth it, enjoyed every minute of it:
My dear publishers George and Brenda at GB Publishing, most kindly let us use their wonderful space for our photo shoot for 5 days and their living room became our “Prop Room” with a vast collection of plates, bowls, textile, boards and more, our huge thanks to them for their kindness – in return, we made sure they sampled each and every dish after the shoot !:)
I hope you enjoy having a little glimpse of our 5 day photo shoot with over 70 dishes lovely prepared and presented – a labor of love in making and so very special. My photos really don’t do enough justice, I can’t wait for you to see the real images, they are absolutely amazing.
This Turkish cookery book project is a tribute to my homeland and a very dear project to my heart, a dream come true! It will have a special focus on Southern Turkish cuisine though my favorite, classic Turkish recipes will also be featured. I have so longed to share my homeland’s bountiful, delicious, healthy cuisine, packed with culinary traditions and high on hospitality, generosity and warmth, along with my personal stories; I really can’t wait to share this special book with you all. Many of you so kindly filled in my Turkish cookery book Survey with your valuable feedback, my sincere thanks. If you haven’t had a chance to do yet and may be able to fill in, your feedback would be greatly appreciated it to help shape the book. As a thank you, if you leave your name and email address at the end of the survey, you will be entitled to a 10% discount when the book is published. I would be more than happy to send you a signed copy!
We plan to start the pre-orders for the book as of end October, with a worldwide publication as of March 2018, I so look forward to sharing this special book with you all!
My best wishes for a wonderful summer – I will be back home, Turkey and I can not wait – and I will be in touch on my return. In the meantime, I wanted to share one of my favorite salads, Antakya’s Cokelek Salatasi – crumbled feta cheese salad with spices; perfect for Turkish breakfast and brunch.
Afiyet Olsun,
Ozlem