8 January 2009 | Turkey’s first museum dedicated to cuisine opened recently in a historical stone house in the south-eastern city of Gaziantep,
where the country’s former state minister Ali İhsan Göğüş was born.

A decade and a half after Ali Göğüş, Turkey’s first tourism minister, bought the house where he was born and donated it to the public on the condition it would be turned into a cuisine museum, his wish finally came true, the Hürriyet newspaper reported recently.

Named the Emine Göğüş Cuisine Museum, after the minister’s mother, the new establishment is housed in a stone building constructed in 1904 by Kethüdazade Göğüş İbrahim Efendi. According to the publication, Gaziantep Mayor Asım Güzelbey plans to turn an old building next to the museum into a cooking school complex, which will train chefs and at the same time serve as a restaurant.

The south-eastern Turkish city, considered to be among the oldest continually inhabited settlements in the world, is known for its culinary specialties – a mix created by Kurdish, Arabic, Assyrian and Turkish influences. Some of the area’s gastronomic highlights include yuvalama – rice and meat rolled into pea-sized balls and lahmacun (in the picture above) – also known as Turkish pizza and consisting of a round , thin piece of dough topped with minced meat, usually beef or lamb, sprinkled with lemon juice, and served rolled up with pickles or other vegetables.

Read more about the culinary specialties of the neighbouring city of Urfa on BalkanTravellers.com
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