NEVİN HALICI VE ÇALIŞMALARI(*)

CLAUDA RODEN Size çalışmaları ,Türk yemek yazarları ve şeflerinin ilk kaynağı ve İncil’i olmaya devam edecek bir kişiyi tanıtmak istiyorum.Ben Nevin Halıcı’yla 1984 yılında tanıştım. O Konya daki yemek yarışmalarıyla ilgili çalışmalar yapıyordu.Katılanlar civar yörelerden kendi yemeklerini getirerek yarışıyorlardı.Ben Konya’ya gittigimde bu yarışmalar bitmişti ve bana kendisini ancak İzmirde bulabilecegim söylenmişti . Nevin bu arada devasa kapsamlı yemek ve mutfak bilgisi arşivi yaratmıştı.Türkiyenin bölge bölge her yöresini dolaşarak yöresel kadınlarla bir araya gelerek onların yemek yapışlarını gözlemleyerek yemeklerin yapılışlarını,reçetelerini,hikayelerini kaydederek abisi olan tanınmış şair ve girişimci Feyzi Halıcı ile Türk yemeklerinin dünyaya tanıtılması için uluslararası kongre ve bienaller serisini organize ettiler.Bizi tüm ülkeyi dolaştırarak değişik yemekleri tatmamızı sağladılar.Bunların çoğu beraberce dolaştığımız Türk gastronomlar tarafından da bilinmiyordu. Büyük otellerin yetişkin şeflerine İstanbulda bilinmeyen bu reçetelerin ögretilmesi ve eğitilmesi için davet ediliyordu. Bütün dünyada Türk yemekleri hakkında yazı yazan yazarlar ve yayın yapımcılar Nevinden çok şeyler ögrendiler.Nevin yemek hakkında çok kitap yazmıştır ve buna Türk gastronomi ansiklopedisi de dahildir. Türk Mutfağı ve Sufi Mutfağı kitapları İngilizceye çevrilip yayımlanmıştır.13. yüzyıl mutasavvıf ve şairi,Mevlevi tarikatı kurucusu Mevlana Cellaleddin Rumi orta Anadolu şehri olan Konya’da yerleşmiştir,Nevin de Konya’lıdır... (*)İstanbul’da, Mart ayının başında gerçekleştirilen, Parabere Forum’un ‘Yiyeceğin Geleceği’ konulu programında ,3 Mart 2020 tarihinde Claudia Roden’in “Geçmiş’ in Geleceği Esinlemesi”konuşmasından alıntıdır. • At the Parabere Forum on The Future of Food in Istanbul on the 3rd of March 2020 Claudia Roden’s words about NevinHalicias part of her talk “The past as inspiration for the future” I want to introduce you to someone whose work I’m sure will continue to be the primary source and bible for chefs and food writers in Turkey. I met NevinHaliciin 1984. She was involved in a conference on Turkish food in Konya in Central Anatolia where a cooking competition was held and cooks from neighbouring villages brought their dishes. I arrived there too late when it was over and was told I could find her in Izmir. Nevin has created a huge comprehensive archive of dishes and culinary knowledge from every region of Turkey by going from village to village and attending women’s traditional get-togethers around a meal. She watched women cook and took down recipes andstories. With her brother the famous poet and cultural entrepreneur FeyziHalici she organized a series of biennial international congresses to make the food of Turkey known to the world. We travelled around the country and tasted all kinds of different foods, many of them unknown to Turkish gastronomes travelling with us. She has been asked by big hotels to teach their highly trained local cooks the regional cooking that was then unknown in Istanbul. People from all over the world who have written or broadcasted about Turkish food early on have visited her and learnt from her. She has written many books including an encyclopedia of Turkish gastronomy. Two have been translated into English - a general book on Turkish cooking, and a Sufi Cookbook inspired by the writings of the famous 13th century Sufi poet Jalal al-Din Rumi, founder of the Mevlana order which features dishes of Konya in Central Anatolia where Rumi spent most of his life, and where Nevin is from. In his ecstatic mystical poetry Rumi mentions many foods and dishes:"no sooner does the saucepan boil than the chickpeas start leaping up to the top, in hundreds of manifestations of ecstasy". "Just before daybreak I heard an excited voice: the lovely aroma of kalye [meat fried with vegetables] and borani [vegetables dressed with yogurt] is wafting toward us". At the Parabere Forum on The Future of Food in Istanbul on the 3rd of March 2020 Claudia Roden’s words about NevinHalicias part of her talk “The past as inspiration for the future” I want to introduce you to someone whose work I’m sure will continue to be the primary source and bible for chefs and food writers in Turkey. I met NevinHaliciin 1984. She was involved in a conference on Turkish food in Konya in Central Anatolia where a cooking competition was held and cooks from neighbouring villages brought their dishes. I arrived there too late when it was over and was told I could find her in Izmir. Nevin has created a huge comprehensive archive of dishes and culinary knowledge from every region of Turkey by going from village to village and attending women’s traditional get-togethers around a meal. She watched women cook and took down recipes andstories. With her brother the famous poet and cultural entrepreneur FeyziHalici she organized a series of biennial international congresses to make the food of Turkey known to the world. We travelled around the country and tasted all kinds of different foods, many of them unknown to Turkish gastronomes travelling with us. She has been asked by big hotels to teach their highly trained local cooks the regional cooking that was then unknown in Istanbul. People from all over the world who have written or broadcasted about Turkish food early on have visited her and learnt from her. She has written many books including an encyclopedia of Turkish gastronomy. Two have been translated into English - a general book on Turkish cooking, and a Sufi Cookbook inspired by the writings of the famous 13th century Sufi poet Jalal al-Din Rumi, founder of the Mevlana order which features dishes of Konya in Central Anatolia where Rumi spent most of his life, and where Nevin is from. In his ecstatic mystical poetry Rumi mentions many foods and dishes:"no sooner does the saucepan boil than the chickpeas start leaping up to the top, in hundreds of manifestations of ecstasy". "Just before daybreak I heard an excited voice: the lovely aroma of kalye [meat fried with vegetables] and borani [vegetables dressed with yogurt] is wafting toward us".