Monday, March 28, 2011

Author: Chris Drum Berkaya
Bodrum

World-renowned food critic, writer, and chef Byron Ayanoğlu winters in Bodrum Peninsula’s Bitez village, cooking, writing, and exploring ancient ruins.

Byron Ayanoğlu, food critic, writer, and chef, stays in Bitez, near the beach, in the southwestern Bodrum peninsula. He likes to swim all winter, “except when the air is too cold to come out of the water,” he said.

“I love the miraculous landscape and the history [of the peninsula], but I especially love the food. You know, you can’t get this abundance in Greece, not even in Crete; they don’t have the fertility, the space to grow their vegetables and salads. And the fish – the price of fish in Crete is triple what it is here!” he said, his distinctive eyebrows rising emphatically.

He has wintered in the Bodrum peninsula for the last five years. “Bodrum is not exactly a secret, is it?” he asked. “The road most traveled is often traveled for good reasons.”

British friends influenced his choice of Bitez and the historical sites he loves to explore with his photographer friend and collaborator, Algis Kemezys.

Asked where his home was, he waved a hand expansively. “It has been Toronto, New York, but I will go ‘home’ to Montreal,” he said. “That is where I will go next month.” His family, Greek Turks, moved to Montreal from Istanbul in 1958.

A moving passage in his blog, now the opening chapter of his new book, describes his leaving: “The last time I saw Istanbul was from the stern of a steaming ship in the summer of 1958. I was 12, and the city slowly pulled away, a shimmering mirage at the other end of a foam ribbon.” He changes the key to lighten the prose: “I quickly recovered: it took a week. I was 12, and I was living an adventure!”

His eyes glitter with the childhood memories of arriving in New York. The family settled in Montreal solely because his father spoke French, which was common among educated people of the Turkish Republic at that time. He agreed that it might have been somewhat fateful to come from a city where they had been a minority to Montreal, a country where the French are also a minority.

Ayanoğlu studied at McGill University, but his seemingly unabated ambition was to travel. He won his way into a writing course.

“I was always writing, but I got involved with food, which was part of my genes. Growing up in the Moda quarter of Istanbul was the best of times for food. We were Greek, but my mother’s food was 100 percent Turkish,” he said.

His agent sealed his future. “I knocked, and Jerry Hall opened the door!” He exclaimed. “That was my big break. I started working for Mick Jagger and the [Rolling Stones]. I cooked for them when they were playing at Woodstock, but I said no thanks when they wanted to go on tour.”

He worked for the Hollywood film industry for 12 years, catering in a mobile kitchen for big movies while they were on location.

“I never stopped writing: I would do a gig, then go home to write,” he said. He would work a contract wherever it was, then take a break to write. “It [food] was a way to pay for writing. I have always subsidized it with cooking.”

He became a food and restaurant critic who spoke his mind; “I didn’t mince words,” he said, pausing. “I got sued several times.”

Ayanoğlu’s published output is prodigious. He compiled his reviews into books and has written several cookbooks, many of which were in cooperation with noted chefs for Thai, curry, and Mediterranean dishes.

With the certainty of a master of his craft, he said: “It is not a problem for me to work in different cuisines. I can eat food and understand how it was prepared and what ingredients have been used.”

He has 14 plays to his name: “Anarchy,” an early one, was a thinly disguised criticism of Canadian political corruption. The novel “Love and Hate in an Age of Confusion” (2001) is a story of a modern relationship between a woman and a man with Greek connections. He continued to travel as a food critic and writer, heading to Thailand, China, France, England, Hong Kong, and Australia – as a guest at the Sydney Olympics.

Concerning restaurants, he confessed: “Once [a new restaurant of mine] is established, I am on the move again. If I had stayed with a restaurant, I might have made money, but you must stay put to do that!”

He seemed happier as a restaurant “doctor.” One of his recent creations is a menu for the Olive Restaurant in Sultanahmet’s Yaşmak Hotel. “The restaurant is fantastic now,” he said.

Ayanoğlu’s move to Crete realized a dream. Inevitably, he opened another restaurant, chronicling his experiences in “Crete on the Half Shell (2003 and 2004).” The launch of the Turkish version by İş Bank’s Publishing House finally brought him back to the city of his birth, Istanbul, 48 years later, in 2005. It was a poignant time, recreated in a semi-biographical novel “Istanbul to Montreal: The Story of an Immigrant.” The book is only available on Kindle, but there are plans for a Turkish translation.

Bitez is for writing, swimming, cooking, and eating, “…but I hate doing dishes,” he said. He marvels at being able to go to the local market and come home with bags full of vegetables for 20 Turkish Liras and being able to eat a lot of fish, “just simply BBQ’ed.” His parting gift will be a special menu for a local restaurant.

He is now writing a two-act play, “Walls’ Cry,” about a relationship between a woman and a much younger man. When he returns to Montreal, he will help produce it. Meanwhile, he is busy with other writing projects and selling his latest book.

Creating wonders as the guest chef of a local restaurant

Byron Ayanoğlu met with Bodrum peninsula this winter through an introduction to local restaurateur and cook Aslıhan Mutlu.

Mutlu has been running a series of regular “Guest Chef” nights over winter at her restaurant, Erenler Sofrası. After their introduction through a mutual friend, Ayanoğlu became the most prolific of her guest chefs. By demand, he is preparing to present his third cuisine-themed night on April 2 after presenting a Thai menu in early December and January based on his experience in Crete.

Most guests have been Turkish; “some very well-traveled Turks are gourmands,” he said.

During his visit to Erenler Sofrası last week, he discussed the proposed Greek cuisine menu and the availability of ingredients with Mutlu. They plan to make Chicken Stifato the main dish.

“Stifado being a true Greek dish, it may have even come from the ancients – they liked to cook in vinegar,” said Ayanoğlu.

The meal will include squid salad, fish pilaki, and mushroom and goat cheese pie, among other dishes. He is irrepressible in his enjoyment of food. In addition to the cheerful menu discussion, Mutlu offered an experimental dessert.

“Let’s call it an apricot mousse,” he said, then wondered where the banana cake was, hot out of the oven, to be served with Turkish tea.

Meal reservations and directions:

Tel: + 90 532 248 2479, Aslı Mutlu

www.erenler-sofrasi.com

Ayanoğlu’s recent books:

“Istanbul to Montreal: the story of an immigrant” (Kindle version), with the first chapter written on his blog http://open.salon.com/blog/byron_ayanoglu

“Crete on the Half Shell “(2003 and 2004), (also titled in different countries:

“The Taste of Honey: A Greek Island Odyssey”) (Paperback) is now in Turkish as “İstiridye Üstü Girit.”

PS:
Food writer Byron Ayanoglu: April 21, 1946-July 12, 2019 By Marian Scott, Montreal Gazette July 14, 2019, 3:47 PM| Bryon Ayanoglu became the Montreal Gazette’s fine-dining critic in September 1997, following the death of Helen Rochester, who died on May 7, 1997, after covering the restaurant scene for 33 years. He left in May 1999, followed by long-time food critic Lesley Chesterman. ALGIS KEMEZYS A creative bon vivant with an outsized appetite for food and life, Byron Ayanoglu, a former restaurant critic for the Montreal Gazette, died Friday of lung cancer in Ste-Agathe-des-Monts.

Read more at:
https://www.montrealgazette.com/news/article389960.html#storylink=cpy