What a Private Chef Actually Costs
Most private chefs quote a price per head and will not say what is in it. Here is the arithmetic, in full.
Entries by İnan Dogru
Stone Crab Season, and How to Buy It
October to May, claws only, and the crab goes back in the water. What to look for and how to serve it.
Thanksgiving Without the Panic
Twenty pounds of bird, eight dishes, one oven. Here is what a chef actually does differently.
Six Countries, One Kitchen: What Travels and What Stays Behind
I started working in a kitchen in 1998, at sixteen. Since then I have cooked professionally in Turkey, Scotland, Australia, Greece, the United Arab Emirates, Oman and the United States. People assume that adds up to a collection — a bit of this cuisine, a bit of that one. It does not work like that. […]
Turkish Winter Food in a Place With No Winter
In January in Florida it is seventy-five degrees and the sun is out. This is, objectively, very good weather. It is also the time of year I most want boza. Turkish winter food is built around cold — around coming in from it, around needing something dense and warm, around the specific pleasure of a […]
What Florida Humidity Does to Your Kitchen
I spent five years cooking in Muscat, where the summer humidity sits above ninety percent for months. I thought that had prepared me for Florida. It had not. Oman is humid and hot. Florida is humid, hot, and everything in your kitchen is quietly absorbing water from the air all day long. If you have […]
Gulf Grouper, Cooked the Turkish Way
Grouper is the fish that convinced me Florida was going to work out. When I moved here I expected to spend a year learning an unfamiliar market. Instead I found a fish that behaves almost exactly like the levrek I cooked for twenty years in Turkey — firm, clean, enough fat to take heat without […]
Tarator: Ottoman Walnut Sauce for Fish
There is a sauce in Turkish cooking that almost nobody outside the region knows, and it does something no other sauce does with fish. It is called tarator, and it is four ingredients: walnuts, stale bread, garlic and vinegar. I have been cooking in Florida since 2022, and tarator is one of the few things […]
Roast Turkey with Herb Butter
The centerpiece of the holiday table — deep golden outside, juicy inside. If you have never roasted a turkey before and the idea makes you nervous, follow the notes in this recipe and you will do just fine. Ingredients 1 whole turkey, 12–14 lb (fresh or fully thawed) 1 cup unsalted butter, softened — adds […]
How to Keep Fresh Herbs Alive for Weeks
Parsley, basil and dill wilt fast — but they do not have to. Treat them the way you would treat cut flowers and they will hold for weeks instead of days. Trim the ends of the stems and stand the bunch upright in a glass or jar, leaves facing up. Add just enough water to […]