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The Cuisine of Sultans
Istanbul, Cappadocia, Izmir, Kusadasi
About the location: Your cooking vacation begins in Istanbul, Turkey’s largest city and the economic and cultural mecca of Turkey. Immediately delight your senses with a trip to the famous Spice Bazaar, one of the oldest bazaars in the city. Next, journey to Izmir and Kusadasi, on the Aegean coast. In Kusadasi, visit Ephesus, one of Turkey’s largest ancient cities. From there, you will fly to Cappadocia, a city filled with natural wonders, in particular the fairy chimneys in the Goreme Valley. Finally, return to Istanbul where you will explore the village of Avanos, and the Basilica Cistern, which is the largest surviving Byzantium Cistern.
Accommodations will be at charming boutique hotels offering all the modern comforts.
About the cooking lessons: Your culinary tour of Turkey will include four hands-on Turkish cooking lessons. Each class features local Turkish cuisine made with incredible fresh ingredients that are indigenous to each region.
- Arrival in Istanbul.
- Meet and greet at the airport and transfer to your hotel.
- Enjoy a welcome dinner in a restaurant famous for their delicious Turkish Kebabs.
- After breakfast, spend the morning touring the Spice Bazaar where the scent of hundreds of spices permeate the air.
- Visit the Istanbul Culinary Institute for your first hands-on cooking class, which will focus on contemporary Turkish cuisine.
- Lunch to follow based on your efforts.
- In the afternoon, visit the magnificent Topkapi Palace, once home to many great Sultans and the unique Blue Mosque built in 1609 by Sultan Ahmet, where the interior walls are covered with twenty thousand blue Iznik tiles.
- Dinner on your own this evening.
- After breakfast, transfer to the airport for a morning fight to Izmir.
- Drive to Selcuk where you will explore a colorful local market and participate in your second hands-on cooking class with Ms. Hatice Mercan, who will share her experiences with traditional Aegean cuisine using ingredients grown in her garden. Aegean cuisine’s essential ingredient is olive oil, consumed by the locals even at breakfast.
- Lunch to follow based on your efforts.
- In the afternoon explore Sirince, a Greek Orthodox Christian Village well known for their wines.
- Dinner tonight is in the hotel restaurant, beverages not included.
- Following breakfast, visit Ephesus, one of Turkey’s largest ancient cities. Once populated with 300,000 people, it has an enormous amphitheater that can still hold 24,000 spectators. Explore the enormous amphitheatre, walk down the marble covered streets, the library of Celsus and the Temple of Artemis.
- Lunch at a local Turkish establishment.
- Next, we visit the House of the Virgin Mary, where it is believed she spent her final days.
- Dinner tonight is in the hotel’s restaurant, beverages not included.
- After breakfast, drive North to the Urlice Winery where the Ogunlu family will share their expertise on the production of biodynamic wines. Local wine tasting to follow.
- Lunch this afternoon on your own.
- Transfer to Izmir airport and fly to Cappadocia, famous for its unforgettable natural scenery and rich history.
- Dinner tonight is in the hotel restaurant, beverages not included.
- After breakfast, the day begins with a visit to the fascinating Goreme Valley, where for over thousands of years the rain has eroded the landscape to give rise to strange lunar-like formations known as “Fairy Chimneys.”
- Lunch in a local restaurant.
- In the afternoon, enjoy a visit to local municipality carpet cooperation, a type of carpet farm where you will explore the district from a cultural perspective.
- In the afternoon, another hands-on cooking class covering Central Anatolian cuisine, which is well known for their pasta specialties such as keskek, manti (especially from Kayseri) and gozleme. Sample local wines of the region and enjoy dinner to follow based on your efforts.
- After breakfast, the day begins in Pasabagi, where there are varieties of carved rock houses and churches.
- Next, travel to Zelve, one of the most important religious centers for the Christian community between the ninth and thirteenth centures. This monastery complex, carved into rock, was the refuge of Christians during the Persian and Arab invasions.
- Following lunch in a local restaurant, discover the Underground City of Kaymakli. Around the 6th century the Christian inhabitants of this region began to tunnel into the soft volcanic rock. As deep as 275 feet with eight different levels, several thousand people lived in this subterranean city.
- In the afternoon participate in an interactive cooking workship with the international award-winning chef of the Lil’a Restaurant, Mustafa Buyukhan, and learn about Anatolian and Cappadocian flavors.
- Dinner to follow based on your efforts.
- Following breakfast, today’s sightseeing tour will begin in Avanos, a typical Turkish village, where you will observe ancient ceramic art techniques dating from the 12th to the 3rd century B.C.
- Transfer to the airport for a noon flight to Istanbul.
- Lunch at a local kebab restaurant.
- Next, visit the Basilica Cistern, which is the largest surviving Byzantium Cistern.
- Dinner this evening on your own.
- After breakfast, visit the Hippodrome and the Basilica of St. Sophia, which has inspired religious leaders for over fifteen hundred years.
- Lunch on the roof of a restaurant overlooking the Blue Mosque, Hagia Sophia and the Marmara Sea.
- Afternoon is free to explore on your own.
- Dinner this evening on your own.
- After breakfast, transfer to the airport for your departure flight.
