Gonul grew up in Turkey. Her family is in the spice business and
is our source for many of the spices used in our restaurant.
Although we consider our cuisine typical fresh and eclectic California,
the soul of our food is Turkish
Turkish
cuisine ranks as one of the three great world cuisines (along with
French and Chinese) and has a long and complex history. The result has
been the development of a varied array of dishes with flavors that are
both familiar and surprising to the Western palate. Despite its ancient
roots, the Turkish diet is a very healthy one, even by today's
standards, with its emphasis on eating a variety of foods and using
fresh ingredients.
We
are blessed in California with easy access to wonderful, fresh,
flavorful foods. Some of the spices used in good Mediterranean foods are
also easily accessible, but Gonul is also able to get some wonderful red
pepper blends from her home in Maras and nearby Gaziantep. We also
import Saffron from central Turkey. With these
she
can make some very special sauces and add subtle flavors to even common
foods
Although
Gonul brings many of her recipes from her native Turkey, she has trained
at Napa's Culinary Institute of America where she has added recipes from around the
world with an emphasis on natural foods and California Cuisine.
All
of Gonul's food is freshly prepared from natural ingredients, even the
salsas, sauces, and dressings used with her recipes. She believes
that hand chopping and manual crushing of condiments is preferable to
using the food processor. Can foods are almost never used.
