Silvena Rowe - Purple Citrus and Sweet Perfume: Cuisine of the Eastern Mediterranean

I can see your face, she replied. These plain and simple words serve to underline what I hope to achieve with this book. To open your eyes to the cuisines of the Eastern Mediterranean, to allow you to see and taste for yourself the wonderful panorama of fruits, vegetables, meat and rice dishes that this region has to offer; to wander through the kitchens of Turkey, Syria, Jordan and Lebanon, the cuisines of Europeans and Arabs, of Muslims, Christians and Jews, discovering as we go the old world of the Ottoman Empire. For 500 years the Ottomans ruled what is modern-day Bulgariawhere I grew upleaving only in the latter part of the nineteenth century. What followed was, in culinary terms, a black hole. At the very zenith of their power the Ottomans controlled not just the Eastern Mediterranean, but most of the Balkans, much of the Caucasus, the Crimea and the Middle East.

The cities of Athens, Budapest, Belgrade, Sarajevo, Bucharest, Sofia, Beirut, Damascus, Baghdad, Jerusalem, Mecca, Cairo, Alexandria, Tunis, everything to the very gates of Vienna, fell under the Sultans power. The Ottomans were no stick-in-the-mudsas their armies rolled through the neighboring countries they embraced the local cultures and, more important for this book, the local cuisines. The vast tracts of land over which they held sway offered unmatched fertility, and, just as the sun never set on the British Empire, so it is said that the fruits and vegetables of all seasons could be found in the markets of Constantinople (the Ottoman capital and now modern-day Istanbul), such was their all-encompassing power. The entire region became a melting pot of cuisines, bringing a mlange of tastes, colors and smells. Chefs were invited (or enslaved) from across the Empire and beyond, and Armenian, Greek, Persian, Egyptian, Serbian, Hungarian and even French chefs came to Constantinople, first to the Sultans Topkapi Palace, then to the homes of the fabulously wealthy. Even the Spice Road, the most important factor in culinary history, was under the Sultans control.

So only the best ingredients were allowed to be traded under the strict standards established by the courts, which meant recipes of unparalleled flavor could be produced. Consequently, a grand gastronomic tradition was developed by the aristocratic elite of the city, a culture that covered everythingthe ingredients, the methods of cooking, the kinds of food, the kitchens and even the table mannersand spread to the farthest regions of the Empire. In its heyday the wealth and splendor of the Topkapi Palace were renowned across the world. The gardens, courtyards and vistas, the glittering domes and minarets, the baths and marble fountains, the carpets, textiles and ceramics, the paintings, the jewels, the objets dart. The swords, the hair plucked from the beard of the Prophet, the Holy Mantle and other relics of Muhammad brought from Mecca, the Meissen and Limoges porcelain presented by European royalty, the great fireplaces, the thrones, the Iznik tiles in all their brilliant colors. The sea-view windows encased with mother-of-pearl shutters.

The Ottomans, open to all the sensory delights, were absolutely crazy about haute cuisine, and the vastness of their kitchens almost defies comprehension. Housed under ten domes, at their height the Topkapi kitchens employed 1,300 staff. Hundreds of cooks, specializing in different categories of dishessoups, pilafs, kebabs, vegetables, fish, breads, pastries, sweets, helva, syrups, jams and beveragesfed, on feast days and special celebrations, as many as 10,000 people a day. The Sultan had his own personal staff of seventeen specialty chefs and still more for his family. His food was prepared with great ceremony, and never consisted of fewer than twenty separate dishes. Each dish was brought in one at a time, covered and sealed with a ribbon to prevent it from being poisoned.

Following the example of the Palace, all the grand Ottoman houses boasted elaborate kitchens and competed in preparing feasts for each other as well as for the general public. In fact, in each neighborhood at least one household would open its doors to anyone who happened to stop by for dinner during the holy month of Ramadan, or during other festive occasions. So it was that the cuisine evolved and spread, even to the most modest corners of the Eastern Mediterranean. It would be impossible to cover every cuisine deriving from the Ottoman Empire, so I have stuck, with the odd sidetrack, to the eastern end of the Mediterranean. Here you will find a modern twist on the classic recipes of this rich culinary tradition, following in the footsteps of the great Ottoman chefs who combined the sweet and the sour, the fresh and the dried, honey and cinnamon, saffron and sumac, scented rose and orange flower waters with the most magical of spices.