Lucca creates its own style in Bodrum

EBRU ERKE

Lucca has been in Bodrum for the last four years. While it serves as Lucca Beach during daytime hours on one of the two beaches of Mandarin Oriental, it serves as Lucca by the Sea on the pier as of 7 pm.

Bodrum is on its way to becoming a world brand. It is important for global brands to invest in Bodrum, but it is just as valuable for our top Turkish brands to be on the ground and meet foreign visitors. Lucca by the Sea, which serves as a high-end fish restaurant, is the best example of this.

Not a day goes by that we do not come across news about restaurant bills in Bodrum. I do not understand why they are trying to create such a bad perception. They are literally throwing the baby out with the bathwater. Actually, this does not affect robust restaurants much. I witnessed this on my last visit to Bodrum. Everyone who keeps their pricing balanced in "Bodrum conditions" is prospering in their business. For example, that fish restaurant I love so much in Gölköy is full every night without exception. Because it has been serving the same quality for years, people know that they will have a good meal when they go there, and they more or less predict the prices they will pay. The real surprises are encountered in the volatile venues that think they will make a quick killing in one season.

On the other hand, take a look at the accounts on social media which are there to attract attention. Do you want to see a 20-person bill as if it is paid just for two people, or do you want to see someone who knows the price of enjoying their meal at the box at the most hectic period of the season and works the oracle to have their meal there and then shares the bill they paid on social media? I am against this agitation and find it malicious, just like I am against those who provide bad service and inflate the bill unnecessarily.

We need to look at the other side of the coin. Are we not the ones who boast that Bodrum is a world-class destination, that it will rival Ibiza or Sardinia? Well, then we have to offer alternatives that will appeal to different audiences. If we are going to boast that Jeff Bezos or an Indian billionaire is spending his vacation in a Turkish riviera, we need to have alternatives with standards accordingly. And these standards will have a corresponding pricing naturally. Just like everything has a price. It is best for everyone to make their choice accordingly and not to regret it.

We know that it is important for world brands to invest in Bodrum. Maybe it is not a world brand at the moment, its fame is known only to us and tourists looking for quality, but Lucca, one of the few venues I would mention if we were to ask who represents us best in terms of service and quality abroad, has been in Bodrum for the last four years. While it serves as Lucca Beach during daytime hours on one of the two beaches of Mandarin Oriental, it serves as Lucca by the Sea on the pier as of 7.00 p.m.

You know how I said at the beginning of this article that we do not always throw the baby out with the bathwater? Well, Lucca is one of those venues. Even though it is the beginning of the week, there is not a single empty table, which shows how well they are doing their job. You come across not only Lucca’s audience in Istanbul, but also a chic group of foreign tourists. If there were someone in the shoes of Cem Mirap (the owner of Lucca), he would be thinking "My customers will pay whatever price I set.” But here is the difference between Cem and Lucca. There is also originality in Lucca’s DNA. They don't want to be anyone, they don't copy anyone, they don't take inspiration from anyone. The fact that they have created their own style from the very beginning is their most important feature.

When they created Lucca by the Sea, the whole story came out of the answer to the question "What happens when the Lucca brand meets the sea?" In other words, they aimed to reflect the Lucca spirit from the food to the ambiance. They moved their Mediterranean-style cuisine to the south according to their understanding of energetic food and restaurant management. On the other hand, the fact that the kitchen here is much broader than the one in Istanbul encouraged them to create a deeper cuisine. They put a poissonnier, a fish master chef, in the kitchen just for fish, added a stone oven, and installed a mostra to prove the freshness of the seafood.

While Ralph Sason, who joined the kitchen in Istanbul this year, continues his role as Lucca‘s Gastronomy Director and Executive Chef, two Italian chefs have joined the Bodrum kitchen this year; Francesco Capuzzo Dolcetta and Guglielmo Chiarapini. Francesco and Guglielmo create delightful food with their kitchens that change according to where they travel in their traveling kitchen project with the "kitchen they carry with them" they call FEG, which stands for the initials of their names.

Grilled, steamed, fried, fried and especially raw... You can find fish in every form here. With the addition of delicacies by Italian chefs, Ralph Sason's tuna carpaccio, langoustine crudo and scallops have turned the menu into a classy fish feast. This is also evident from the fish mostra at the entrance of the restaurant, in front of the kitchen. There, you can see not only Aegean and Mediterranean fish but also Spanish red jumbo prawns such as Carabinero.

Some of the additions to the menu by the Italian chefs are as follows: Stuffed crab wrapped in leaf-like red shrimp, red shrimp carpaccio with fennel sauce underneath, spaghetti served cold with seafood in citrus sauce, which chefs remember from their own children, paccheri pasta with lobster and octopus escabeche with pine nuts and smoked paprika oil. It goes without saying that they have a very good cellar of wines, some of which have been carefully selected to go well with the fish and some of which are even from Cem Mirap's private cellar.