When Aylin Yazıcıoğlu was in her 30s, she was a researcher at Cambridge University in Social History, having recently finished an MA in Gender Studies. But there was something missing, and Yazıcıoğlu began looking for a more rewarding career. “I always enjoyed spending time in the kitchen. It’s always been part of the big picture. But when I decided to look for something besides academia, cooking was not a profession in my mind. Turkish women cook. It’s part of daily routine,” she laughs. “Having studied gender studies, how was I still in such gender specific definitions? But I didn’t know where to start. So I went to the Mecca of old cuisine to study.”

To her, this meant Paris, where she attended Le Cordon Bleu and then began working at renowned Michelin starred restaurants around Europe. Today, she heads up her own restaurant, Nicole. In a single, rotating set menu, she showcases Turkish ingredients treated to elegant French techniques, flavours elevated and melded in a delicate fusion. But Yazıcıoğlu doesn’t feel like her former career and current one are too far apart. “There’s always research, there’s always hard work in what you do,” says Yazıcıoğlu. “Writing a paper, you choose your words. Writing a menu, you choose your ingredients. You try to present your ideas into the plate, to communicate what you’re saying. People look at food as just food, but I have a message to give.”

Text source: the Guide Istanbul