A lifestyle _ culinary quest
The artist in the kitchen By Venetia Rainey
Kemal Demirasal, the eccentric chef behind a quiet revolution happening on the Turkish food scene, has a confession to make: he hates chopping. “It will sound weird, but the thing I least enjoy is the cooking,” he says with a shrug. “The reason why I wanted to be a chef is because I like design... the process of creating something new.” This is just one of a number of quirks that characterize Demirasal’s story. An energetic man who wears orangeA 246
rimmed glasses that accentuate the ginger in his beard and hair and make him look more like a Scandinavian hipster than a Turkish chef, his route into the industry is utterly unique. After 15 years as a professional surfer, he decided to study economics. It wasn’t his first choice; he wanted to study design, but it didn’t work out. So instead he looked to the world of food to provide the creative outlet he was searching for, putting himself through the grueling training that all wannabe master chefs must undergo. “But it was not my vision to be a proper chef,” he says, adjusting his distinctive glasses. “I was always thinking, ‘Are you going to be chopping onions for the rest of your life?’” He was not. Instead, he started traveling, making it his
© Seren Dal
In Turkey, chef Kemal Demirasal opens Alancha