When I walk into Tulum, Coskun greets me with a kiss on each cheek, “Turkish style”. Softly spoken, and welcoming, this is a man with a story to tell, and there is nothing I like more than a good story. As with all good stories (as far as I am concerned) this one involves childhood memories, food, turning his back on a career in soccer, then a love story, and success in a new country.
Oh these are the chocolate marble bench tops! I read about your renovations and saw some photos of the old dining room. It was a lot more white before.
Yes. There was a white wall and a green wall. I’m a chef. I was always a chef, so I didn’t have any money to put into the business when I started, but I wanted to try, but when I wanted to try, I didn’t know whether it would work, so I just painted the walls, kept the tables, kept everything here and made a few small changes in the kitchen and then I started it. After three years I saw a good reaction from people. I love what I do and people see that so they keep coming in, so I thought that it looked as though it was going to work, so I could put some money into it and made some quite big changes to get it to the way I wanted it.
It’s beautiful. I love those green light shades.
I love them too. You should see it at night when it’s dark. You can only see the green, I love it. It reminds me of…have you been to Turkey?
No I haven’t.
We have a place called Cappadocia. It has many caves.
I’ve seen pictures of that and I saw it in Joanna Lumley’s Silk Road.
It reminds me of that, the caves.
I also read that you wanted to recreate more of a vibe of the Grand Bazaar in Istanbul and move away from the fine dining look.
I have a business partner who is a Turkish guy who was born in Melbourne and he has Lezzett, another Turkish restaurant in Brighton Road. He has owned that business for 15 years and is very smart and knows the business. He also owns a construction business, so it was a big help for me. The next step is to change the kitchen and make it into a big open kitchen and then that will all be the Istanbul Grand Bazaar style, but that will be in the next couple of months.
I did a cooking class at Lezzett a few years ago. I moved to Melbourne from New Zealand seven years ago and was living in Elwood and so Lezzett was just down the road. We spent the whole morning making a Turkish style baklava.
You moved here seven years ago and I moved here three years ago. Straight from Istanbul.
Wow. And opened a restaurant straightaway?
Yes. That’s why, coming from Istanbul and knowing nothing about this place, I wanted to cook Turkish food. I went to all the Turkish restaurants around and thought that what I wanted wouldn’t work. That’s why I was very quiet initially and didn’t spend the money until I could see what would work.
Have you been able to do what you wanted to do?
Yes. My dream…I’m a Turk and a chef, but I studied food and wine in London. Even when I was in London, when I was in London and said I was Turkish, everyone said, oh we love kebabs and we love dips. Coming here, I saw all the menus in the Turkish restaurants had kebabs and dips. As a Turk and a chef, I was embarrassed that we were only known for kebabs and dips, and actually that is more Middle Eastern than Turkish, so I just wanted to show everyone here in Australia, and if I’m lucky, all over the world, that Turkish food is not just kebabs and dips.
Over the last three years I’ve been doing what my mum used to cook for me, but we are in the 21st century and things are changing so I made them a bit more modern. The flavour is still there but it looks a bit different. That was my dream.
I think Melbourne is the best city in the world to try these things. I also think I’m lucky, although there is no connection, that George Calombaris was trying what he was trying with Greek food at The Press Club. I think that has changed people’s minds and people are already educated, people already know that traditional ideas of a certain food can be changed.
I think that’s an interesting idea. I think it’s good timing as well. A lot of those places, from any culture, until maybe quite recently, had to adapt their traditional food to the Australian palate and what was available at the time. You arrived at a good time, and if people like George Calombaris have paved the way, it all helps.
I think also, not knowing the city has helped me with what I wanted to do because it didn’t shape me. I had my own idea about what I wanted to do. Of course, before I opened the restaurant, I talked to taxi drivers, owners of coffee shops, to waitresses, to the person sitting next to me what they knew about Turkish food. It was always kebabs and dips. But because I didn’t know the food and wine culture here, even although people had that idea about Turkish food, it didn’t change the way I wanted to cook.
I ended up in the kitchen and I thought, I love this. Every day different vegetables would come in, every day there was different excitement, something always goes wrong but there is always a solution. It’s up and down. The kitchen was positive and active. There was energy everywhere. I knew it was for me and I knew I wanted to be a chef.
What made you come to Melbourne?
It’s a love story actually. I met my partner. He was working in London when I was doing a stage there. We met, and I only had two months in London, so we had a very good time and then it became serious. I had to go back to Turkey and after a while, he had to come back to Melbourne. So I was coming to Melbourne and he was going to Istanbul for 15 years and we tried to keep the relationship going long distance.
Wow.
I know. It’s stupid.
It’s impressive.
It was hard. Whenever I wanted him to be around, he wasn’t there. So three years ago when he was in Istanbul, I said to him, look, we can’t keep doing this, our lives are moving on, we are both getting older, we have to do something; are we going to do something together, or not? He said, of course, but he can’t speak Turkish, so there is no questions, the decision is already made. I was the one who had to leave my life, my career, my friends, and everything, because of him. That’s why I’m here. It’s not for Tulum. It’s mainly because of him.
It’s handy, though, that he lived in a food-centred city, though…as well as love. What does Tulum mean?
What I do here, is all the Turkish food my mum used to cook, so it is an old connection between me and my mother. Traditionally, and I’m talking in the eighties, not the younger generation, but my mum’s generation, the culture is that the fathers go to coffee shops all day and do nothing and the mothers go to jobs, either farming or to offices and they have to do lots of things; looking after the children, cooking, there was lots to do. So, when I was growing up, my mum had to work. I had to wait for her to come home and feed me. That would be all day. When you’re a boy, you’re out playing, and you are always hungry, so when she came home I was crying for food. She would give me Tulum cheese, olive oil and pita bread and I thought that was heaven. That’s why I wanted to call it Tulum. Tulum is a cheese, a semi-matured sheep’s milk cheese. It comes from the East part of Turkey and is kept in sheepskin in the caves. It’s salty and creamy and when you mix it with warm pita and olive oil, it is incredible.
It’s amazing how there are certain foods that unlock all those memories and many of our childhood memories are associated with food. That’s a good story.
Everything is connected. I love my mother. I don’t get to see her often. Now I am living here and she is living in Gallipoli, that’s where I’m from, actually. That’s also a great connection, with the ANZACs….I talk to her from time to time on the phone, but I grew up with her and she was in the kitchen all the time.
It’s a funny story, actually, she had to cook a minimum of three of four dishes every night. The next day it had to be a different four dishes. It had to be different, there was no question. For us, that was normal. If there was one thing from the previous night, we would all be like, oh no, there’s not enough food, you are lazy…Think about how much food she had to come up with!
What kind of dishes would she prepare?
Mainly all one pot dishes. Turkish cuisine is based on one pot dishes. It always starts with vegetables, like celeriac…she would chop the celeriac and the carrot and add lots of olive oil, orange juice, then 25 minutes later it would be on the table. There wold always be rice with it and then some tomato salad with lots of olive oil and pomegranate molasses and sumac on top with red onion and we would finish with a dessert. They were mainly milky-based, quick to make, like a rice pudding, or Muhallebi, which is like an Italian panna cotta. There was always something and it was always different. The next day it would be baked beans with vegetables and rice and yoghurt and salads. There was always a big variety.
When did you know you wanted to be a chef?
I was probably around 16 or 17. My original plan was actually to be a football player. In Turkey, football is like a religion and everyone wants to be a footballer. I was playing football semi-professionally and I realised that I wasn’t going to be the greatest footballer and the career span is short, maybe from 20 to 30 years old. I followed my brain, rather than my heart and thought to myself, I’m not that good, so I won’t make a large enough amount of money to last for the rest of my life and then after 30, what will I do? Nothing. So I’d better stop now and do something else.
I went to University in Turkey and did Tourism Management. Before you finish school, you have to do a stage and I did mine in the University’s hotel. I was in the bar, worked a s a waiter, I was in the kitchen, cleaning the rooms, all those things but I ended up in the kitchen and I thought, I love this. Every day different vegetables would come in, every day there was different excitement, something always goes wrong but there is always a solution. It’s up and down. It’s not like cleaning a room, which is always the same, or being a waiter, which is always the same, but the kitchen was positive and active. There was energy everywhere. I told the manager of the hotel that I wanted to stay there for another couple of months in the kitchen. Then while I was doing that, I realised I loved it and thought if I was going to do it as a job, I wanted to go to school. So, I went to London and then I knew it was for me and I knew I wanted to be a chef.
Then you worked in Turkey?
After school in London, I went back to Istanbul. There’s a place called the House Café. We actually opened the doors there with the owners and I worked there for 12 years. In 12 years, we opened 12 restaurants, and three hotels and I became the Executive chef of that group.
So you see it was difficult. I had a great lifestyle, a solid job that paid me well and living my own life and then suddenly someone says, you have to make a decision and I moved here and started again.
That’s right and it’s your business, so you’re not just thinking about cooking, you have to think about the money and all that. And here, the marketing side is important as well and getting people in. But you’ve done so well. You’ve got a hat and you’ve won awards and you’ve been nominated for the Gault & Millau POP Restaurant of the Year.
For me, as a chef in Melbourne, having the chef’s hat is the biggest dream. I had been coming here for years because of my partner and I read the Good Food guide and I would dream of one hat, two hats, three hats, it’s great recognition. I couldn’t see a Turkish restaurant in the book. I kept dreaming and then when I came here, I thought, I will do my best. But I wasn’t really looking in that direction, I just wanted people to come here and to be able to give them my honest message. I’m very proud of Turkish food and I just want to show them that it’s not the seventies in Turkey, Istanbul is a big modern city, like Melbourne and Sydney. We are not still sitting on the floor and having kebabs or whatever. I was aiming to share my food with the locals. It has been a good reaction.
It’s a great reaction.
I’m pleased. I love it. I love the recognition. It’s not just for me, personally, but for Turkish food. That’s what I really like pushing every day.
I start at 9.30am every day and finish around 11 at night. It’s long hours, but at the end of the day, it’s my business and I love what I do, and no one has said, no don’t do this. I make mistakes and then I solve them and then you finish and then you make other mistakes and fix them. Every day has mistakes, and then changes and I am always learning. It’s great.
Obviously, you’ve inspired other people. I spoke to Murat who worked for you and then opened Yagiz. It feels as though the Turkish message is getting out there.
It’s great. If I do something for that message, it’s like a million dollars for me. If I can see people taking Turkish food to another level, that’s great.
217 Carlisle Street, Balaclava