İmam Bayıldı: When Europe and Anatolia Meets

İmam Bayıldı is a cold served dish consisting of a whole eggplant stuffed with onion, garlic and tomatoes, and braised with olive oil. This dish dates back to the 18th – 19th Century period, when foreign Chefs were hired for French-style banquets that were given in Ottoman Court for the representatives or statesmen of other countries. At this point, European cuisine began to be acknowledged in the Ottoman Court Cuisine, and this diffusion emerges new synthesis of foods. İmam Bayıldı is one of the examples of this synthesis. Within the framework of 'Turkish Cuisine' class at the Gastronomy and Culinary Arts Department, Yeditepe University, our students learn that the formation of our food culture is not limited to the effects of the Central Asian and Middle Eastern Cultures, but also how Europe affected Turkish cuisine.