Istanbul, Turkey: A  Gastronomic Crossroads
From March 17 – 24, 2007, Oldways and Ana Sortun, the James Beard award-winning chef of Oleana restaurant in Cambridge, MA and author of Spice: Flavors of the Eastern Mediterranean will explore the culinary heart of Istanbul.  Ana will guide us through the spice markets, bustling bazaars and restaurants of this city where cumin, coriander and cardamom mingle with mint, roses and honey. We'll take cooking lessons with Turkish chefs, cruise down the Bosphorus and learn about Turkish coffee, yogurt and cheese. Join us as we visit this remarkable gastronomic crossroads.

When and Where: The trip runs from March 17 – 24, 2007. We will be based in Istanbul.

Cost: The program fee includes accommodation in double rooms, all breakfasts, group lunches and dinners, cooking classes, cruises and market tours.? The cost is $2,969.00. See the "Itinerary" and "Terms and Conditions" below for more information.

Registration: To sign-up, please fill out the registration form (PDF).

Questions? Call Lauren McGuire at 617.896.4811 or email lauren@oldwayspt.org

The Itinerary

Saturday, March 17, 2007 – Arrive in Istanbul

We'll land in Istanbul and meet up at the Hotel Seven Hills in the center of the old city. From its rooftop terrace our hotel offers sweeping views of the Topkapi palace, the Blue Mosque and the Marmara Sea.  We'll toast our time together during a welcome session with Ana Sortun and Oldways at the hotel. Then we'll walk over to Hamdi, a classic kebeb and mezze restaurant, for a gala dinner of traditional Turkish dishes where we will taste one of Ana's favorite Turkish desserts called kunefe.

Sunday, March 18, 2007 - Istanbul

After breakfast at the hotel, we’ll head across the Bosphorus to the “Asia side” of Istanbul to Çiya restaurant, where Chef Musa Dagdeviren prepares innovative “new Anatolian” cuisine. Musa focuses on authentic regional cooking with a splash of innovation. He’s been featured in Saveur magazine’s “Top 100” of 2006 and is launching a new magazine about regional gastronomy in Turkey. Musa is the perfect teacher for our introduction to Turkish cooking. Ana and Musa will guide us through the demonstration and we’ll then sit down in his restaurant to enjoy the fruits of their labors. After lunch, we’ll head back to the hotel to freshen up and change before our early evening sunset cruise down the Bosphorus to take in the lights of Istanbul. Dinner will be free to explore the city on your own.

Monday, March 19, 2007

In the morning we'll meet our tour guide at the hotel and walk from our hotel to see the Blue Mosque and Hagia Sophia, two of Istanbul's "must-see attractions." For lunch, we'll swing by a four-floor restaurant with a charcoal grill on each floor for preparing simple and delectable kebabs in a rustic style.  With Ana as our guide, we'll have an insider's peek at how the place works and the history behind the kebab before sitting down to enjoy it all. In the afternoon, you'll be free to relax, shop or explore more of the city. We'll meet in the evening for a dinner as a group.

Tuesday, March 20, 2007

In the morning we'll stay on the "European side" and start with a visit to the Taksim spice market. Ana will be our guide, teaching us how to recreate the Oleana kitchen and build our own eastern Mediterranean spice pantry of Urfa chiles, Aleppo chiles, za'atar, dried mint, sumac, roses and baharat. We'll snack on fried mussels served on a skewer with a garlic and almond sauce called tarator (a dish on the Oleana menu!) while we shop for spices to bring home. For lunch, we can recommend a little spot in the market that serves a dizzying array of mezze along with raki. In the early evening we'll meet up at a coffee shop where we'll have our coffee grounds read by a fortune-teller. To cap off this gastronomic extravaganza, we'll head to Hunkur restaurant where we'll enjoy an Ottoman-style feast

Wednesday, March 21, 2007

After breakfast, we’ll cross the Bosphorus to visit a bakery to learn about Turkish pastry. We’ll take a look (and taste) of whatever the bakers are working on. Whether it is savory borek (cheese or meat dumplings) or sweet Kadayif (cheese wrapped with shredded filo soaked in syrup with pistachios), it is sure to be a treat. After our visit to the bakery, we’ll begin our second cooking demonstration. This time, Ana will show us a few of her favorite recipes based on typical spices found in Istanbul. Ana’s new book, Spice: Flavors of the Eastern Mediterranean, is the inspiration behind this class. She’ll teach us how to cook and use spices to build a dish and a meal, as well as the fundamentals of Turkish and Eastern Mediterranean spices. We’ll have lunch all together after the demonstration.

After lunch and a little rest, we’ll have a guided tour of Topkapi Palace. Although we could spend hours in this Ottoman palace looking at the sultans’ jewelry collections and ornate miniatures of court life, we’ll focus our visit on the royal kitchens where hundreds of chefs would help prepare a single feast. The palace also houses the biggest emerald in the world (check out the classic 1960s movie Topkapi for a sneak peek). Dinner will be free to explore the city on your own.

Thursday, March 22, 2007
Our Istanbul itinerary features lots of classes, tours, market visits and meals scheduled at the beginning of the week. We've found it's best to leave a bit more free time towards the end of the trip when we are all more familiar with the city. Since there is so much to see and do in Istanbul, we thought it would be best to include a free day to give you time to go back and see the Topkapi Palace again, shop in the Grand Bazaar, or visit the Egyptian spice market. We can help arrange a private guided tour of any particular site. We'll meet back in the evening to share our final gala meal together as well as stories of the day's adventures.

Friday, March 23, 2007
On our last day we will visit one last market in the Besiktas neighborhood, one of Ana's favorite markets. We'll stop by a tiny little Kaymak cheese shop, another of Ana's special spots in Istanbul. The afternoon will be free to pack, do last minute shopping or just relax. We'll meet back at the hotel for an early evening wine, cheese and bread tasting. Although about 50% of Turkey's grape varietals are French (from Merlot to Cabernet), there are also some incredible local types including Oküzgözü and Bogazkere from producers like Doluca, Buzbay and Serafin. Afterwards, we can get together informally for a dinner or return to our rooms to pack and relax before traveling home.

Saturday, March 24, 2007
After breakfast, we'll say our goodbyes (or Hosçakal) before heading home.

Note: The details of the itinerary are subject to change.

About Ana Sortun
In her memoir, Eating My Words, food writer Mimi Sheraton included Ana Sortun as one of the country's "best creative fusion practitioners," describing the chef's food as "inspired and inspiring." With a degree from La Varenne Ecole de Cuisine in Paris, the Seattle-born Sortun opened Moncef Medeb's Aigo Bistro in Concord, Massachusetts, in the early 1990s. Stints at 8 Holyoke in Harvard Square and Casablanca in Cambridge soon followed. When Sortun opened Oleana in 2001, she quickly drew raves for her creative combination of farm-fresh ingredients and unusual, mouthwatering spice blends. Sortun's food, explained Catherine Reynolds in the New York Times, "is at once rustic-traditional and deeply inventive." After a visit to Boston, Tom Sietsema of the Washington Post wrote of Oleana, "Should you have time for only one place to eat, make it this space." The judges of the Beard Foundation awards certainly agreed: they awarded Sortun our Best Chef: Northeast honor in 2005.

About Oldways
Oldways is the nonprofit food issues think tank that developed the Mediterranean Diet Pyramid in 1993, and is responsible for olive oil having boomed into America's consciousness. Oldways has also changed the way many chefs, food writers, scientists and journalists think about the many connections between food, health and eating pleasures. K. Dun Gifford is Founder and President, and Sara Baer-Sinnott is Executive Vice President.

Oldways' current projects include persuading Americans to purchase and eat more whole grains, encouraging individuals to manage their hard-wired survival instinct for sweetness, teaching Americans to learn to love good traditional cheeses, and finishing a book celebrating the "old ways" of enjoying food and drink.

Program Fee Inclusions
All breakfasts, group lunches and dinners, tours and bus transport for tours as well as accommodations in double rooms are included in the program fee.

What is not included in the Program Fee?
Non-refundable passport fees, excess baggage charges, optional excursions, extensions, meals not detailed in itinerary, tips to tour escort and long-distance bus driver, expenses incurred during free time periods, airport taxes that are collected on the spot in foreign airports, departures taxes, airport fees, airline and federal security fees and ticket handling fees, surcharges due to changes in currency, any mandatory new or increased fees/taxes/fuel surcharge (if any) levied on airline tickets, hotels, transportation, land services or at ports of entry/exit after January 1, 2007.

Land-only package
Travel program begins after you arrive at the first hotel accommodation. Travelers must make their own round-trip travel arrangements and join the program at the Hotel Seven Hills. Oldways is not responsible for the participant in any way when the participant is not part of the main group.

Land and air package
Please contact Oldways about individual rates to Istanbul.

Changes in Itineraries and Program Assignment
Oldways reserves the right to make changes in fees, departure cities, itinerary sequence, trip direction, hotels, optional excursions, and activities. Oldways may cancel a program due to insufficient enrollment, unforeseen operational difficulties, lack of projected availability or any other reason.

Luggage
Due to airline restrictions, the luggage the limit is 44 lbs per person, which includes one suitcase and one small carry-on item. Luggage travels at the risk of the participant, and Oldways is not responsible for any delay of, loss or damage to it or its contents. Airlines are strictly adhering to their policy of one carry-on bag. Please check with the air carrier directly for their specific baggage liability limitation. Airlines are not responsible for any act or event during the time the participants are not on board their planes or conveyances. The participant's contract in use by the airline, when issued, shall constitute the sole contract between the airline and the participant. Any and all transportation companies mentioned herein shall have or incur no responsibility for liability to any traveler aside from their liability as common carriers.

Cancellations
The $250 deposit is non-refundable.  Between 16-30 days prior to departure, 75% of the total tour price is forfeited, plus the deposit.  Within 15 days of departure, no refund is available.

Waiver
Participants waive and release Ana Sortun and Oldways, its affiliates, agents, directors, officers, and employees and including any person or entity employed or utilized by Oldways in any foreign country, from all claims arising from any injury, loss, damage, accident, delay, or expense resulting from events beyond its control, including without limitation, acts of God, war, terrorism, strikes, incidents of politically-motivated violence, sickness or quarantine, government restrictions or regulations, and, in the absence of its own gross negligence, arising from the use of any vehicle or from Oldways selection of, or from any act or omission by any bus or car rental agency, steamship, airline, railroad, taxi or tour service, hotel service, hotel, restaurant, school, university, or other firm, agency, company or individual.

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