Turkish cuisine, which is one of the few cuisines of the world, takes its rightful place in the history of gastronomy with the flavours synthesised in different taste stops throughout history. From Central Asia to Anatolia, from nomadism to settlement, from religious and political structure to contact with different cultures, a series of variables played a role in the formation of the Turkish-Islamic civilisation's unique nutrition and culinary culture. In this process, in parallel with the expansion of the borders of the Ottoman Empire, food and beverage services gradually became institutionalised. The Matbah-ı Âmire established in Topkapı Palace, which was built after the conquest of Istanbul, and the kitchen books of the period of Sultan Mehmet the Conqueror are historical witnesses of the palace kitchen. In this context, historian and academician Prof. Dr. Özlem Kumrular's historical novel The Sultan's Kitchen is about the series of events that took place in 1574, in the last year of Sultan Selim II's reign, around four head chefs who were in charge of the Ottoman kitchen as an institutional structure. These four chefs, each of whom are unique personalities from different backgrounds and hometowns, compete to win the five thousand gold promised by the Sultan in return for their skills while presenting the dishes they have carefully cooked to the Sultan. The novel, whose general framework is based on the historical events of Selim II's reign, tells the story of the structure and functioning of the 16th century Matbah-ı Âmire, the delicious recipes special to the Sultan's table, and the great fire that destroyed the kitchen. In this study, Sultan's Kitchen, which is evaluated from a historicist perspective, will be analysed as a novel that brings the institutional functioning of the Ottoman culinary culture and the tables of the palace into the literature, thus reflecting the history of Turkish cuisine in the mirror of literature.
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KeywordsÖzlem Kumrular, The Sultan’s Kitchen, Matbah-ı Âmire, kitchen, food