A daring viewpoint
EBRU ERKE
At Lokanta İst, Chef İsmet Saz sets out on a deeply personal and ambitious culinary journey alongside Nicholas Gill to redefine local flavors for a global audience.
Chef İsmet Saz has teamed up with culinary consultant Nicholas Gill at his new restaurant, Lokanta İst. This time, Saz is looking beyond Edirne, aiming to share his journey on an international level. To achieve this, he embraces tradition and local flavors with a daring approach. Clearly, he seeks to strengthen his ties to his homeland.
An external viewpoint is always valuable. Someone from a different gastronomic background can more easily identify the elements we often take for granted and overlook in our own cuisine. This perspective also helps us find ways to express our culinary traditions in a universally understandable way. Additionally, an outsider can provide a more objective take on aspects like the balance between presentation and flavor, as well as alignment with global trends. That’s why I was glad to hear that İsmet Saz was collaborating with a foreign culinary consultant — it made perfect sense to me.
Nicholas Gill, who is currently collaborating with İsmet Saz, is actually a gastronomy writer. Based in New York, he explores the boundaries of cuisine through biodiversity. Together with Peruvian chef Virgilio Martínez — one of South America’s most renowned culinary figures — Gill co-authored Central (2016) and The Latin American Cookbook (2021). In those years, the entire culinary world was fascinated by Virgilio’s explorations of Peru’s unspoiled regions and how they are reflected in his cuisine.
Of course, this level of effort may not be necessary if you’re catering solely to a local audience. However, if the goal is to elevate standards and make a broader impact, looking beyond Edirne becomes essential. This is precisely what İsmet set out to do by establishing Lokanta İst, and now he aspires to take his story to an international stage. To me, this represents the transformation of a chef. Not long ago, all his professional ambitions were focused abroad. However, after the birth of his son a year and a half ago, his emotions and worldview shifted completely. His sense of belonging deepened in ways that even he hadn’t anticipated. Now, he is more determined than ever to strengthen his roots in his homeland.
Lokanta İst is located in Kuruçeşme, where Toi once stood, followed by The Steeve and Stefano. Although İsmet closed Toi and experimented with different concepts due to the circumstances over time, I always felt that a part of his heart remained with Toi. So, when I visited Lokanta İst, I was curious to see how much it might resemble his former restaurant, Toi. What I discovered was that his emotional transformation had also influenced his culinary approach. While traces of Toi can still be found in some dishes, the overall focus of the cuisine has shifted to a more traditional and locally rooted direction.
Lokanta İst offers a warm and inviting dining atmosphere, complemented by a well-curated menu. Guests can choose between a seven-course tasting menu and an à la carte selection featuring 14 dishes. If one person at the table opts for the tasting menu, they encourage the entire group to do the same, emphasizing that this ensures a smoother and more harmonious dining experience — a sentiment I completely agree with.
The bread served at Lokanta İst is made using a 12-year-old yeast from Toi, arriving at the table warm and crispy. Yedikule lettuce, recommended to be eaten by hand, topped with a thick, well-puréed sauce of quince jam and pistachios. İsmet’s own big bonito lakerda was exceptional, boasting the perfect pink hue and firm texture as it should be. It was accompanied by a salad featuring pickled purple onions from Kapıdağ. Additionally, the leftover trimmings from the lakerda were used to create a garum sauce, which was then paired with grilled anchovies wrapped in vine leaves. Another notable seafood option on the menu is marinated lionfish — an invasive species — offering both a culinary delight and a nod to ecological balance.
Urla artichoke leaves are filled with hummus made from İspir beans and double-roasted tahini. The artichoke stems and base are dehydrated and sprinkled over the dish for added texture. The dish called “Dedem” (Grandpa) is İsmet’s take on cheburek, created in honor of his grandfather, who would grow impatient if the cheburek wasn’t served promptly on Sundays at home. One of the undeniable highlights of the menu is the shrimp baklava. Layers of baklava phyllo dough are brushed with clarified butter infused with the essence of shrimp head and body, with shrimp pieces nestled between them. This crispy delicacy is best enjoyed by hand.
Another dish features rice crackers atop pomegranate syrup-soaked sweetbread, served alongside bulgur salad beneath. These rice crackers are crafted from the leftover emulsion of their rice pudding. Lokanta İst is a courageous restaurant that truly embodies the concept of “sustainability.” I visited just a few days after they began serving, and while some dishes were so delicious that their flavors still linger in my memory, others were less appealing and I would have preferred not to see them on the menu. However, as I mentioned, there’s a bold perspective here. It’s easy to please the crowd and take the safe route, but the real challenge is telling your own story, guided by your emotions and the philosophy you believe in. After all, isn’t that the key to lasting success?
