‘Food is a tool for change’: that is an opinion, as well as a concept that frames the life experience of Turkish chef Ebru Baybara Demir.
Demir grew up in Eastern Turkish City of Mardin, a visual feast of ancient architecture and a world heritage site. The city was a link in the ancient Silk Road Between Europe and China, welcoming an endless parade of many different peoples who travelled upon it.
Was Mardin also a community dominated by patriarchy bound to crush the aspirations of a modern woman? So her father believed. He begged Demir not to return from studying tourism in Istanbul. Fortunately for both Demir, as well as Mardin, she paid attention to her father’s worries by moving back.
Today, she is the chef of an unusual restaurant with an international flavour, both culinary and human. We are talking more than a successful local business here. In 2023, Demir who won a global gastronomy prize in 2023. And her achievements extend considerably beyond providing happy local tummies. Among other significant interests, Demir:
“oversees humanitarian initiatives, building ties between locals and Syrian refugees, a community displaced by a war just across the border, 20 miles away, who now form approximately a tenth of Mardin’s population.”
Read her fascinating culinary and humanitarian story in The Guardian: ‘Food is a tool for change’: the Turkish chef who empowers women, helps refugees – and serves a mean dobo
