Turkey's Gaziantep excited over Hollywood star’s baklava comments

GAZİANTEP

Baklava makers in the southeastern province of Gaziantep were thrilled to watch actress Charlize Theron praise the city’s world-famous dessert in a scene in the movie “The Old Guard” while she eats it.

Netflix Turkey shared some scenes from the action movie, directed by Gina Prince and released a few days ago, on its Twitter account, and tagged Theron’s handle, with “bon appetite” written in Turkish in the caption.

In the shared scenes, the character Andy, played by Theron, takes the baklava extended to her, rightly guessing its name, enjoying its taste and saying that it belongs to the “east of the country.”

The 44-year-old South African actress then replied to Netflix Turkey’s post, saying, “Best thing I’ve ever tasted. Heard they have the best at Gaziantep…”

Gaziantep’s baklava masters were excited by Theron’s praises.

“Almost all [baklava] masters from Gaziantep do their job with love and affection. We felt pride by the scene in the movie. We expect the entire [film] crew to have baklava in Gaziantep,” said Ufuk Sağluge, one of the baklava masters in the city.

Gaziantep Mayor Fatma Şahin also invited the world-famous actress to eat baklava.

“When we watched the scene in the movie, we thought that the taste of Antep baklava would not be understood properly with just a slice and we decided to send her baklava and invite her here,” Şahin said.

Turkey’s Gaziantep baklava is the first Turkish product registered in the EU Commission list of protected designations.

Baklava is a rich, sweet pastry featured in many cuisines of the former Ottoman countries.

It is made of layers of filo dough filled with chopped walnuts or pistachios and sweetened with syrup or honey.