"It takes patience, knowledge, and love for a seed to grow. The same is true for a culture."

From the Table of a Culture

A Woman Opening Up to the World: Engin Akin

Engin Akin, who personally often thinks about cultural interactions and food, believing that food is a tool that brings cultures closer together and even blurs the boundaries between them at times, argues that Turkish cuisine should be introduced to the world not only in terms of taste but also as a historical and cultural asset. Growing up as a child of a family from Ula, Engin Akin has deeply observed the rich culinary culture of Turkiye through the dishes she tasted, the tables she shared and the people she met in every region of Anatolia since her childhood.

She has always relived the tastes of his childhood and youth, both at the tables she set with his family and at the tables she prepared for her guests; she has blended this experience with the deep-rooted values of Ula culture.
Akin, who has made it a principle to keep Ula's local culture alive, from its unique spoken language to its food rituals, works as a defender and representative of not only her hometown's but also Turkiye's unique gastronomic heritage.

Journalist, Author, Educator and Cultural Ambassador

For many years, Engin Akin wrote columns on gastronomy in the Vatan, Yeni Yuzyil, and Yeni Binyil newspapers, and prepared and presented the program "Taste Chats" on Acik Radyo.

In 1998, she prepared the food section of the "Gunden Gune" program on TRT 1 and hosted Istanbul's leading chefs and gourmets. In 1999, she presented the Taste Talks column on the TRT 1 program "Before Noon" and in 2002, she prepared food-related segments on the TRT 2 arts and culture program "Kent Yasam". Representing Turkish cuisine on national and international platforms over the years, Akin was featured in "Food and Wine" magazine, a respected US gastronomy publication, with her interviews and Turkish recipes.

In 2003, she gave a lecture on Turkish cuisine at the Culinary Institute of America, and in 2004, the same magazine named her warm bulgur salad one of the "10 Healthiest Foods in the World." In 2007, she was selected as "One of the Year's Top 7 Cooking Instructors" by Saveur magazine, and Bon Appétit magazine devoted extensive coverage to her recipes.

Ula Garlic Association and Social Gastronomy Approach

Today, Engin Akin continues her work as the founder and president of the Ula Garlic Association.

The association aims to revive Ula Garlic, a geographically indicated product of Mugla, in the field of production and promotion, to contribute to local development and to show that food can be a tool for social change.

With this initiative, Akin advocates for the sustainability of not just a product but a culture; she brings together the fertility of the soil and the unifying power of the table.