Two women, two centuries, 200 recipes

In Türkiye, we seldom get cookery books that are based on family recipes and never that goes back to almost two centuries. Now we have a cookbook that tells the story of a Levantine family from İzmir that gathers recipes from the recipe notebooks of two incredible women who were born, lived, and died in their beloved city, Marguerite Marie Josephine Aliotti Pagy (1875-1919) and her daughter Wanda Marguerite Pagy Arcas (1910-1993). The book “From Mother to Daughter” is compiled from their recipes written originally in French, with informative reminder kitchen notes, intended to pass recipes to the next generations. The book is also translated into English and recently was awarded the first prize in the “The Best Family Cookbook” category and the second prize in the “The Best Women Cookbook” category at the Gourmand World Cookbook Awards 2023, where thousands of books from 71 countries competed.

The book takes you on a gastronomic journey into the history of İzmir, witnessing the recent cosmopolitan past of the city. In the 1800s, Izmir was one of the most important port cities of the period, where people from many different cultures and nationalities lived together. The recipes and notes of these two ladies showcase the merging of Turkish, French, Italian and Greek cuisines into a single culinary tradition unique to İzmir reflecting the true essence of the city. The book captures the social fabric of the city that was formed in the past two centuries, witnesses the dissolution of the Ottoman Empire, the Independence War, the establishment of the Turkish Republic, and reflects the multicultural life of the Bornova neighborhood, reflecting the happy times lived there. The family story also tells a migration story from the West to the East, Aliotti’s from Arezzo in Tuscany, Italy, and Pagy’s from Marseille, France.

Converting the recipe notebooks to a book was not an easy task. Berna Kumaş Sipahi, the coordinator of the project tells how it all began, and how the book was compiled: “The book began when Lucien Arkas’ son Bernard Arkas learned that his paternal aunt Aurette Arcas had kept the family recipe books to this day. The book came to life after three years of hard work, it is not just a cookbook and a memoir but an insider's view of the history and culture of Levantine families in Izmir over a period of two centuries. Many of the values that make Izmir what it is today, such as respect for other cultures, the culture of coexistence, tolerance and freedom, are the essence of this book. The book is written in a narrative style as a result of the intensive preliminary work of the first project group with gastronomy expert and author Sırma Güven and chef Aylin Yazıcıoğlu, who are both well-versed in French cuisine and language as well as Levantine cuisine. The background information embedded in between recipes is based on gastronomy research, history books, articles, and interviews with Arkas Family members and Levantine families from Izmir. The recipes selected by chef Aylin Yazıcıoğlu from recipe books have been adapted to today’s measurements, remaining as faithful as possible to their original form, food stylist Candan Varnalı took care of the plating the dishes and table design, photograph artist Derya Turgut photographed the dishes and Melih Döğer designed the book. It was meticulous team work, and it all goes back to the discovery of these notebooks by Bernard Arkas who came up with the brilliant idea of making such a book!”

Bernad Arkas tells his own story on how he initiated the book with the intention of bringing to light the legacy of the women of his family: “The reason I wanted to have this book written is that the men of our family live with their pictures and names in our offices because they exist in commercial life. The reason for that is the period in which they lived in commercial and social life required such a sharing. I wanted the women of my family not to be lost and forgotten, but to be remembered for all their experiences and efforts. Thanks to this book, the Arkas family will have a written trace of the women of our family for our children, beyond our memories. We can see the photos of the men who created our work everywhere, we read about their lives and information about them, but with this book, we state that now the Arkas women also have a name in history!”

His paternal adds to Bernard’s statement. “The notebooks of Arkes women play a big role in the fact that these dishes are still made today and not forgotten. Even though we lived in different places geographically, our family ties were always very strong. They still are today. That's why I wanted to contribute to Bernard's project with great enthusiasm and excitement.”

The author of the book, Sırma Güven, explains her own approach in the project: “From Mother to Daughter” was a very long journey from Tuscany in Italy to the Alliotti’s, from Marseille to the Pagy’s and from the Adriatic coast to the Arkas family’s paths that converged in İzmir, where we witnessed a story of İzmir cuisine developing in the Bornova Pagy mansion. In the beginning, two years ago, all we had was a single recipe book written in very elegant French. When we had just started working, through Ms. Aurette Arcas, we found the second recipe book, a recipe book written by Wanda Arcas in her own perfect handwriting. With the inclusion of the second recipe book in the project, the pages multiplied, the recipes increased and even layered, and thus began telling a 100-year culinary story. All the information I knew and heard about Izmir, all the information I told to my students in the 15 years of my academic life, and all the traditions we shared with our Levantine friends in Francophone schools were revived with the recipes in this book. I rediscovered the lives of two women hidden among more than 200 recipes, the streets of İzmir, Italian cuisine, French cuisine, Levantine cuisine, Izmir Greek, the tradesmen of the period, the neighbors and friends of Marguerite Pagy and Wanda Arkas, and the social life of the time as I followed the clues in the notebooks. Over the course of two years, I have tried to convey in a narrative fiction what I have accumulated from the memories of family members and Levantine families, as well as history books, research and articles about the period, and today I can see more clearly that the book has received a lot of information from İzmir’s past, a lot of background from the Mediterranean history. Let this book be a reference for young people working on İzmir's culinary culture and a small gift from us to the happy tables to come. I wish that the memories and recipes will live forever on the tables of future generations of the family.”

The book is surely a gift to İzmir and will make an ideal gift to whoever is interested in Levantine heritage and history of İzmir, let alone anyone interested in trying a cornucopia of recipes from multicultural cuisine.

Note: Translated into three different languages, Turkish, English and French, From Mother to Daughter is available for sale at Arkas Art Center in Izmir, Arkas Art Bornova Mattheys Mansion, Arkas Art Urla and on the website www.kristalyaglari.com.