Istanbul · Est. 2019
Cook Like a
Turkish Grandmother
Börek, mantı, pide, and more — made by hand, in a real kitchen, with people who care about the same flavours you do.
It starts at
the produce stall.
Before a single flame is lit, we walk the Beşiktaş market together. You learn to choose eggplants by their weight, to smell the difference between fresh and dried Aleppo pepper, to press a tomato and know exactly which dish it's meant for.
This is the part most cooking classes skip. We don't. Because a grandmother doesn't start at the stove — she starts at the market, and everything that follows is already decided.
Urfa Biber
Smoky, oily, and deeply dark — not the heat of cayenne but the warmth of a dying ember.
Fresh Eggplant
Kavurma, imam bayıldı, or charred whole over flame. Every dish starts here.
Clarified Butter
Tereyağı, clarified to a deep amber — the fat that carries every flavour in the pot.
Pomegranate Molasses
Thick, dark, and sour-sweet. Drizzled last, always.
Today's Haul
Beşiktaş Market, 8am
Flour on every surface.
Fire in every pan.
No recipe cards, no pre-measured bowls. You feel the dough until it tells you it's ready. You watch the butter until it turns the colour of autumn leaves. This is how it was always taught.
Su Böreği
Twelve paper-thin layers of yufka, each brushed with clarified butter. You'll make every layer yourself.
⏱ 2.5 hrs of your hands in the dough
Mantı
Thumb-nail-sized dumplings folded one by one, dressed in garlicky yogurt and Aleppo butter.
Lahmacun
Minced lamb spread razor-thin over a disc of fermented dough, blistered in a wood-fired oven.
Künefe
Shredded kadayıf cradling fresh cheese, fried until amber, hit with orange-blossom syrup at the table.
Every class includes
4–6 dishes cooked
by your own hands
Handwritten recipe booklet
to take home
Small groups only
max 8 students
Tea, coffee & mezze
throughout the day
Then everyone sits down
and eats together.
The dishes crowd every inch of the table. Tea glasses clink. Strangers become friends over food they made with their own hands. This part — the sitting, the eating, the talking — this is the class.
Every session ends with
A shared meal at the long table
2,400+
students since 2019
4.97
average rating
38
nationalities taught
94%
book a second class
“I finally made my grandmother's mantı — the exact recipe she took to her grave. I cried at the table. This class gave me something I thought was lost.”
Elif Yıldız
Bride-to-be, Ankara
Made: Mantı with yogurt & Aleppo butter
“We came chasing the flavours of our Istanbul trip three years ago. Sofra didn't just recreate them — it explained why they taste that way. We cook Turkish food every Sunday now.”
James & Priya Hartley
Expat couple, London
Made: Su böreği & lentil soup
“I own a pide stone. I've read every book. I still couldn't get the ferment right. One afternoon here and I understood what was wrong — the water temperature, not the yeast.”
Marcus Webb
Food writer, New York
Made: Pide & lahmacun
Reserve Your Seat
at the Table
Sessions run every Saturday and Sunday morning through the season. Groups of eight, never more. Choose your date below.