Kebap to Kunefe: These chefs are bringing Turkish flavours to India

Hindustan Times

27-06-2025

Turkish cuisine is delicious, calls for many familiar ingredients, and benefits from the precise cooking that Indian kitchens do exceptionally well. So why does a Google search for 'Turkish food in India' lead to crickets? Where are the home chefs making Jain and paneer versions of Adana kebabs? Why aren't there more döner kiosks at the mall? Why isn't pide, the stuffed flatbread, more popular? Indians are largely discovering the cuisine via one-off dishes in generic Middle-Eastern menus and weekend pop-ups. Adopting the seemingly simple cuisine isn't quite so easy, say chefs who are determined to turn the tide. Kebapci serves popular Turkish dishes like Beetroot Hummus, and Cihan Kebap.
On the cusp
In Hyderabad, six-month-old Kebapci Hills is merely the newest outpost of the 12-outlet Kebapci chain set up by Aasim Shah, 36, a onetime mechanical engineer and his brother Adeeb, 28, a former corporate lawyer. The menu features the familiar Shish Tavouk and Adana Kebap but also lesser-known delicacies such as the cheese-burst Cihan Kebap and pizza-like Lahmajoun. The brothers didn't go to culinary school, but they both loved Middle Eastern food and Turkish hospitality. And they knew meat.
'I've grown up around it,' Aasim Shah says. 'I understand cut, fat content, how different meats react to temperature.' That knowledge is critical for Turkey's precisely cooked kebabs ('Every five minutes matters,' says Aasim Shah) and for running kitchens as far apart as Chennai and the Maldives. In hot, humid regions — both India and the archipelago are 10°C to 15°C warmer than Turkey — meat spoils faster at room temperature. 'Most kitchens skip cold-storage. They assume the grill's heat will kill bacteria. That's not just short-sighted, it's dangerous.' Turkeyemek's menu includes Turkish delicacies like chicken abugannush.
Meat storage is expensive, which partly explains why Turkish and Levantine cuisines haven't yet gained widespread popularity in India. But that's only part of the story. There's also a lingering perception that the food is bland. In truth, the cuisines of Turkey, Armenia, Lebanon, and the broader Eastern Mediterranean are anything but. They're bold, spiced, richly textured.
Staying true to the recipes and techniques plays a big role in preserving that complexity. So, good kitchens import zaatar, sumac, nana pepper and thyme and grind them in-house to maintain their punch. They make engineering investments too. Meyhane Leg Rice, a dish of marinated mutton and rice slow-cooked underground for six hours, requires a custom four-and-a-half-foot oven dug into the ground, which restaurants such as Levant in Hyderabad have. Even desserts are tricky: Kunefe, the popular cheese, sugar-soaked, spun pastry is typically made in specialised aluminium trays that are not sold in India. All of it keeps prices up, and copycats at bay.
Making connections
In Kerala, Turkish national Tarik Hoça, 42, is head chef for the 15 outposts of Bab Arabia and Ali Baba & 41 Dishes. Sourcing is a challenge, he says. Local cinnamon and black pepper are perfect (they are after all exported to Turkey). But grape leaves? 'I've searched everywhere. Without them, dolma doesn't feel right.' And Indian chillies won't do for biber salçası, Turkish red chili paste. He just imports them.
But his big concern: How meat is cut. 'For Adana kebab, I need buffalo chest. It needs ribs, proper ribs, not just any bone,' he says. Indian butchers weren't used to these distinctions. 'I spent days with them, explaining which part goes where. Now, I only buy from butchers I've trained.' He also cooked the meat the way they do back home: Medium rare. 'But here, people often see red meat and panic.' So, he just cooks it through. 'You have to adapt.' Chef Tarik Hoça's specialties include the Istanbul kebab.
Bengaluru has managed to solve some of these problems. Turkeyemek is a two-year-old cloud kitchen run by Fayis Puzhakkal, 28, and Sameer Kuzhikkattil, 32. 'No one was doing everyday-accessible Turkish food,' says Puzhakkal. They started out from their home kitchen and cooked everything themselves until they could afford a chef. Their menu has grown from a humble four dishes (including ayran, a chaas-like beverage, and the no-bake biscuit cake bisküvi çek) to a solid 35, including their bestseller – Turkish pilaf.
They also made one critical decision early on: To use only fresh meat, bought daily. 'We don't freeze it, we don't store it. We cook it the same day,' Puzhakkal says. It means risking the stock running out. But it keeps costs low. 'We don't use processed ingredients. It's mostly butter, olive oil, vegetables, meat, and herbs,' he adds. So, customers associate it with healthy food and don't mind paying a little more. They clock 55 to 60 orders a day.
Taste test Chef Gokhan Eser Kesen's signature dishes include pide and Sultan Rice.
Gokhan Eser Kesen, 35, an eighth-generation chef, is the keeper of recipes that date back 750 years. He has cooked across 34 countries that were once under Ottoman rule or influence and was recently in Ahmedabad to cater a wedding. Turkish cuisine calls for a light hand with flavouring, he says. His signature dish, Sultan Rice, once served only to emperors, isn't laden with nuts, the way a Mughlai biryani is. 'The flavour comes from just butter and salt,' he says. It's both elegant and simple. It was his specialty at The Terrace, a multi-cuisine restaurant in Srinagar, where he consulted briefly.
He knows that the food of his people will have to fight a bit to stay. 'In India, street food is king,' he says. 'You can't make a proper Adana kebab if the meat has been in the sun for five hours.' But even he's serving onion and garlic-free Adana kebabs (made with veggies) at Gujarati weddings and Jain parties to adapt to regional Indian palates.
The cuisine has more in common with Indian food than most people realise, Kesen says. Turkish lavash and Kashmiri lavass are similar, right down to the leavening process. 'I even found Ottoman influences in Rajasthani food. We're like a brotherhood!' he says.
From HT Brunch, June 28, 2025
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