Creating a Carrot Dish at Siena Farms and Oleana
We’re getting the full farm-to-table experience! Starting out at Siena Farms and harvesting carrots with owner/farmer Chris Kurth. Then bringing the carrots to award-winning restaurant, Oleana with chef and restaurateur, Ana Sortun to make a dish.
DINING PLAYBOOK
Take Your Taste Buds on a Trip to the Middle East
Oleana in Cambridge is widely known for the Turkish delights of James Beard award-winning chef Ana. Why such a foreign flavors from this Seattle native? I was cooking at a restaurant in Harvard Square called Casablanca and a woman from Turkey was having dinner with my boss. She said you should send your chef to Turkey to study with me and I will teach her everything about Turkish cuisine. That was the turning point.
CHRONICLE
James Beard Awards Season is Here
We could list all of the finalists for the James Beard Award for Outstanding Pastry Chef—or we could show you the cake. The proof's in the pudding! So to speak. If you want to know who's making the best cakes, cookies, and satsuma sorbets in the country, these are your chefs. Find out who the winner is on May 1 when the James Beard Awards take place in Chicago, then plan your road trip accordingly.
BON APPÉTIT
America’s Essential Restaurants 2016
In the age of Ottolenghi cookbooks and fusion fattoush, Ana Sortun’s translations of Turkish and Middle Eastern cuisines are more germane than ever. The kitchen’s unequaled savvy with intricate spicing makes it a national standard-bearer. Come here to savor differences in regional spice blends and how they interact with foods: herbal za’atar brightening lemon chicken; nut-rich dukkah (this one starring almonds) intensifying a carrot puree; and peppery, sweet-edged baharat animating quail kebabs with dried barberries and pistachio. Even when American trends like deviled eggs, burrata, and sweet potato fries pop up on the menu, the sun-baked flavors that surround them speak profoundly to the lands of Sortun’s inspiration.
THE NATIONAL 38 - EATER
Chef Ana Sortun’s Seared Chicken Breasts with Tahini Yogurt Sauce
Sixteen years ago, Ana Sortun went to Turkey on a lark, "knowing absolutely nothing," she recalled. Once there, she accepted a Turkish cook's invitation to a potluck lunch in a park, for which 30 women each made a special dish. "I had never seen or tasted anything like it," Ms. Sortun said.
THE WALL STREET JOURNAL
Bringing Turkish Flavors to Boston
The New York Times interview with Chef Ana Sortun.
THE NEW YORK TIMES
The Joy of Turkish Cooking
“I think the very first time I went to Turkey, I was invited to go study with a couple of women. One lived in the southeast of Turkey, and she organized a potluck that was put on by her friends where they all prepared a dish that was really special to them,” Sortun says. “I tasted 30 of these dishes that day and I didn’t know what any of them were. I had never tasted anything like them before, so I didn’t necessarily feel like I had come home. But what I did know was that I wanted to understand what was behind them, [that] this was a really interesting way of cooking and that I really needed to know more.”
CHRIS KIMBALL’S MILK STREET RADIO
Conde Nast
Best Places to Eat in the World
Conde Nast released their list of the Best Places to Eat in the World which included five New England restaurants.
CNTraveler correspondent Peter Jon Lindberg shouts out not only Sortun’s refined interpretations of North African, Middle Eastern, and Turkish ingredients and techniques, but also Oleana’s glorious backyard patio and garden.