Cafe Ostro’s A.K. Demirhat prepares award-winning Mediterranean food in Dalton, Georgia

A.K. Demirhat fondly remembers growing up in Ankara, Turkey, surrounded by a loved ones of very good cooks.

“In Turkey, we commonly desire to eat sit-down foods,” he suggests. “It really is scarce for us to snack in the course of the working day or consume on the go, and it is really also strange to have potluck meals whereby just about every particular person invited to dinner brings their have dish to share.

“And a single of my mother’s guidelines was that we would consume with each other at the exact time as a family members every working day. My mother’s cooking is so scrumptious, we usually experienced site visitors — kinfolk, close friends and neighbors — be part of us at our foods. When my mom cooked the primary entrée foodstuff, my father was aiding her to make facet dishes.”

It truly is this exact same like of cooking that he provides to the table at his restaurant, Cafe Ostro, in Dalton, Georgia, serving foods from his Mediterranean homeland and close to the Middle East. The cafe opened in 2018 and was a short while ago honored by the Georgia Small business Journal as obtaining the ideal Mediterranean foodstuff in North Ga in its Most effective of Ga awards.

(Read A lot more: Cafe Ostro is Most effective of Georgia’s top rated Mediterranean restaurant)

Q: What’s your earliest cooking memory?

A: In the course of large university, my parents were being both equally doing work prolonged hours, so I began cooking for my brother and myself. The first matter I try to remember producing was a pasta dish.

Q: Who experienced the most significant influence on your selection to grow to be a chef?

A: My mom, for certain.

Q: Do you consider Mediterranean food stuff has grow to be much more mainstream in The united states?

A: As of now, certainly, due to the fact the Mediterranean diet is a mixture of critical food items. In the very last 5 a long time, the Mediterranean diet has been chosen as the ideal diet regime in all of the environment.

Q: Do you have men and women who occur in and have never tried using foodstuff from the Middle East prior to?

A: Shawarma is the product most individuals have by no means attempted ahead of. It is really a dish with rotisserie slow-cooked hen or beef and lamb mixed with reliable spices. There is certainly a person named Jeremy who, immediately after he experimented with it for the first time, explained it as “a wonderful mix of spices, and the chicken is incredibly flavorful.”

Q: What’s your favourite matter on the menu?

A: The Spicy Cheese Steak Sandwich. It has spicy beef served on bolillo bread (a crusty, soccer-shaped French bread) with refreshing jalapeno peppers, mushrooms, tomatoes, mozzarella and our spicy Ostro garlic sauce.

Q: Why did you come to a decision to open a cafe in Dalton?

A: As Dalton is increasing, it was terrific to increase something distinctive.

Q: What does “Ostro” imply?

A: Ostro is the identify of a wind on the Mediterranean Sea that blows from north to south.

Q: What was your reaction to obtaining out you experienced been voted as owning the greatest Mediterranean food in North Georgia?

A: I was very enthusiastic and joyful. My team and I operate incredibly tough, so to get the award was pretty significant.

Q: What’s a single matter persons may possibly not know about you?

A: For my past meal I would like to have Rooster Shawarma topped with gentle Ostro sauce.

Q: Who are the a few other men and women at your table for your aspiration supper?

A: Cristiano Ronaldo (experienced soccer participant), chef Gordon Ramsey and actor Morgan Freeman.

Q: Do you have a beloved cookbook or site you might be liking these days?

A: I have under no circumstances had a cookbook. I am a significant fan of Gordon Ramsay and stick to his reveals and recipes. Also I pay back interest to the Foodstuff Community and some websites about herbs and superfoods.

Q: If you hadn’t come to be a chef, what would you have carried out?

A: I might be a soccer player.

Q: What’s the one piece of kitchen area products that’s most vital to you?

A: My compact kitchen area knife.

Q: What food stuff is your responsible satisfaction?

A: A big slice of chocolate cake.

Q: What’s 1 of your favourite recipes to make at house?

A: Bulgar pilaf. I discovered how to prepare dinner this dish when I was a teenager and still prepare dinner and love it all the time. I really like its style and the health benefits of bulgar.

Bulgar Pilaf

5 tablespoons olive oil

1 yellow onion, chopped

1 medium eco-friendly bell pepper, chopped

1 pink bell pepper, chopped

1 medium tomato, diced

1 cup bulgar (not high-quality)

2 cups boiled water

1 teaspoon salt

Crushed purple pepper, to style

2 tablespoons butter

Incorporate the olive oil to a nonstick pot. Insert the chopped onion and chopped bell peppers, and prepare dinner 5-8 minutes on medium warmth.

Incorporate diced tomato and cook dinner 5-8 minutes right until the tomato juices are absorbed. Include bulgar and boiled drinking water, salt, crushed pink pepper and butter.

Mix all the components until finally perfectly merged, and simmer till drinking water is absorbed. If bulgar is not cooked ample, insert 2-3 tablespoons of boiling water and cook an additional moment.

Get hold of Anne Braly at [email protected] or annebraly.com.